The 5 Most Common Challenges to Going Green At Work
There are many reasons to go green at work, including: strengthening business operations, growing sales and your organization’s customer base, staying ahead of - or complying with - regulations, enhancing employee well-being, generating additional cash flow, spurring innovation and growing brand reputation.
You may be aware of all of these, and excited about implementing a going green project at work, but still wondering how to address one or more of the obstacles below. These are the most common obstacles that smaller and medium sized businesses face when considering going green. If you work for, or own, a small business, one or more of these likely need to be addressed in order to ensure that a green project is successfully implemented. Some of these are interconnected, and so addressing one will help address others:
1. Position in the company
If you’re not in charge of making project go/no-go decisions, then you may feel like you are unable to implement a going green project. The reality is that you do have the ability to implement a project if you approach it strategically. In past articles, I’ve addressed how to successfully position yourself to do this, including strengthening your reputation at work, aligning with your organization’s and direct manager’s goals, and effectively pitching your project. At the end of the day, it is also a mindset shift – just because you are not the decision maker does not mean that you cannot help influence or implement projects for your organization.
2. Lack of time
If you are like most working individuals, you have a long list of tasks that need to be accomplished. Add to that meetings and urgent last-minute requests, and it is understandable that it seems like there is no time in the day to even think about a going green project – however enticing the thought of it might be. That being said, there are always ways to find –and make- time at work to focus on projects that are important but not urgent. Here are 10 ways to find additional time – specifically, about three to five hours per week – to devote to your going green project.
3. No budget
It’s tough to think about implementing a project when there are no funds available. This is the case with many projects, so do not get discouraged or write off the project. If you are just starting out with going green (aka environmental sustainability), you will likely start with a small project that will not require much time or money. To get some green project ideas, you can download our free Beginner’s Guide to Going Green, which has 50+ low-cost or no-cost projects to get started. You can choose a project that does not cost anything to implement other than your time to start with. Remember, going green is a long game. Sustainability and going green is a not a ‘one and done’ type of approach, but rather an evolving mindset and culture change for the organization. Successfully implementing and communicating that first project could mean that some funds are allocated in the future to other green projects.
4. Not sure how to make the business case
There is still the common misperception that going green and environmental sustainability is for tree huggers and that it does not offer tangible benefits to organizations implementing green projects. While this has been debunked and the larger companies have begun seeing going green and environmental sustainability as a competitive advantage, many smaller organizations still have not been exposed to the many benefits. While I listed some of these at the beginning of this article, it is important to not only include general benefits, but to focus on the benefits that are specific to the project you are thinking of implementing. If you have not yet identified a project, brainstorm some potential projects – and be sure to use the list of 50+ projects in our Beginner’s Guide as a starting point if you need ideas. Once you have a list of two to five projects (at most), do a quick review of the potential return on investment of each of these projects to determine which is most likely to be have a quantifiable benefit that you can share with your colleagues and direct manager. If you’re not sure how to do this, be sure to check out the article on 5 steps to calculating your sustainability ROI.
5. Resistance to change
While the reality is that change is the only constant in life, most of us resist change at different times in our work and/or personal lives. That being said, you will likely encounter resistance to your project from one or more individuals within your organization. You may have identified the perfect project that does not cost additional money, that can be done on your own time, without taking away from your day-to-day responsibilities, and you will still find that there are some individuals who do not think it is worth implementing said project. One thing to keep in mind is that this is typically the case with the majority of projects – whether they are related to going green or not. A second thing to keep in mind is that you do not need to bring everyone on board – at least not at the beginning. Identify a few individuals who are supportive of the project, and work with them to build momentum and communicate the project successes – and how the project will benefit the organization.
While the above are the most common obstacles that I have come across when working with organizations, there are others that you may come across that are specific to your organization and industry. Don’t be discouraged – obstacles are part of business, and figuring out how to address them can be fun and rewarding.
If you are still wondering about the type of project to begin with, and haven’t taken a look at our free Beginner’s Guide to Going Green, be sure to download it today and pick a project. The guide also addresses the benefits of going green, which can help you make the case for implementing a green project with your direct manager and colleagues.