7 Questions to Ask To Effectively Communicate Going Green Internally

If you have implemented a going green project at your organization, you may now be thinking about how to communicate the results to your colleagues. Sharing the details, success and lessons learned of your project with your colleagues will not only inform them about the project and its benefits, but it can lay the groundwork for support of future green projects. 

To that end, and to ensure that your efforts are effective, you will want to take a strategic approach to your messaging. Instead of putting together a quick description of the project, metrics, and results, and sending it out via email to everyone, take some time and think through what you want to communicate, how you want to communicate it, when and why. 

Below are some questions to help you begin crafting your message and to determine how to best disseminate it. There may be additional questions that come up and that you may want to answer as you go through these.  

1. How does this project benefit the organization as a whole? 

When you are thinking about your going green project, think about it in the context of your organization’s strategy, goals, mission and vision. If you work for a smaller organization, these may not be spelled out but you may be able to glean what they are from what is being emphasized in executive messaging (if you’re not part of the management team).  Is it… Growing sales? Acquiring new customers? Being the leader in your sector? Promoting a certain product or service? 

Whatever the goals may be, think about how your green project fits in with your organization’s overall goals and how it can directly or indirectly benefit your organization. For example, if your project was focused on increasing the recycling rate via a recycling challenge, and this resulted in a 10% increase in recycling, this may (over the long run) translate to potential savings on the waste bill. If this is the case, the money saved could be redirected to support an organization-wide goal. 

2. What’s in it for them?  

After thinking about the organization overall, think about your colleagues. Some may have supported you in achieving your green project goals, in which case you will want to celebrate and recognize them. Be sure to name them and share the specific actions they have taken to support the success of the project.  This is assuming, of course, that they feel comfortable being recognized – be sure to check with them first, just in case. 

Aside from the colleagues that have supported you, your project may directly or indirectly benefit others in the organization. For example, a ‘going paperless’ campaign may result in increased efficiency, easier access to data, enhanced data security, less time wasted looking for files, and much more, across the entire organization. This can free up time for your colleagues to focus on other projects and tasks at hand. If your colleagues see that this green project has benefited them, they are more likely to support future green projects. 

3. What is my organization’s culture? 

The type of organization that you work in will also dictate your messaging. You would communicate different information and in a different manner if you were speaking to an engineer than to a social worker; to a doctor versus a construction worker. While there is always a mix of individuals in each organization, think about what the majority would be most interested in. 

Given your organization’s culture, you may want to share different aspects of the project with your colleagues. For example, if you are speaking with engineers, you may want to share the metrics and other data-driven results of the project. If you work in a non-profit that is focused on social justice, you may want to focus more on the qualitative benefits, and the people aspects of the project. You may also choose for your messaging to be detail-oriented or paint a bigger picture, depending on your main audience. 

4. How can I inspire action and interaction? 

Getting your colleagues to interact and provide feedback on your project is a great way to have them become more involved in going green. One way to do this is with story telling. Think about some inspiring stories that came out of your project, or some ‘aha’ moments that you may have had, or discoveries that you made about the organization along the way. These can be woven throughout your messaging so your message does not turn into just another bland announcement.  

5. How can I simplify? 

Once you have thought through the questions above, and have a better idea of how to approach your message, you will want to think about delivering the message so that it does not overload your audience. Assume that less is more, and figure out how to keep your message simple and to the point. 

Along these lines, you will also want to think about the timing of the messaging. If you decide you will be sending out multiple messages, be sure to send them at a time when our colleagues are likely to be most receptive. For example, if it is the end of the budget year, and everyone is scrambling to close the year, you may want to wait a couple of weeks to share your news. It may not seem as exciting to put this off, but it is likely to be better received when your colleagues are not overly busy or stressed. 

6. What’s the most effective communication channel in my organization? 

There are different ways to identify the most effective communication channel – or channels – within your organization. Your organization size and whether it is brick and mortar, or virtual, or a combination of both, are a couple of things to consider. You may work in an organization that prefers face-to-face communication, in which case an All Hands meeting or Town Hall may be the best channel for sharing information about your green project. Alternatively, if you work in a virtual organization, you may depend on weekly or monthly video conference calls, intranet posts, or a periodic e-newsletter. If you are unsure of which mode of communication is most used, be sure to ask some of your colleagues what they prefer.

7. How can I make this fun? 

Once you have focused your message and determined your main communication channel(s), you may also want to think about what else you can include that supports your main message, to serves as small reminders for your colleagues of the project that was just completed. 

For example, if you just completed a recycling challenge, you may want to post a little note near the common recycling bins saying ‘Thanks everyone for participating in the recycling challenge! We increased our recycling rate by 10% Let’s keep it up!’ Or if your project was to reduce printer paper by printing double-sided, you might make a sculpture of boxes of printer paper to represent the amount of paper saved in a year, and post a picture of that sculpture in a common area – or display the sculpture itself. 

Once you have gone through these questions, you should have a good idea of what your message will be, when and how to send it so that you celebrate your project’s success and the people who have helped you achieve it, as well as lay the ground work of support for future green projects. 

If you’re still wondering what project to implement, and don’t have much time or funds for a larger project, be sure to download our free Beginner’s Guide to Going Green, which lists over 50 low-cost and no-cost projects to start with.