Employee Engagement continues to be #1 stumbling block for environmental sustainability programs of companies. Much of the efforts/programs by Sustainability officers are termed as "Greenwashing" due to lack of employee engagement in these programs. So how to increase employee engagement in Environmental Sustainability Programs? How to promote a Culture of Environmental Sustainability within your organization? This whitepaper highlights our approach as an answer to some of your questions.

1.
Jagan Nemani
SpeakEnergy LLC
Employee Engagement
Key Success Factor for Environmental Sustainability Initiatives

2. Introduction
For organizations with mature, environmental sustainability programs, employee engagement
is the number one stumbling block. Though sustainability officers have done a good job of
convincing the management of the environmental sustainability programs’ benefits, they have
not succeeded in convincing the majority of employees to join the bandwagon. This has
resulted in lower ROI (return on investment) for the programs.
One of the questions sustainability officers often ask is, “what should companies do to drive
employee engagement?” The answer is simple: offer enough personal/professional benefits to
the employees, for engaging them in sustainability
programs over a long period of time. Though the answer
is simple, it is often difficult to figure out what the
personal/professional benefits are and how to offer
them.
There are many different approaches that have been
taken by companies; some offer cash bonuses for
showing the right behavior, like $5000 cash towards a
purchase of a qualified hybrid vehicle. This is a great
program and it encourages employees‐‐who are already
considering buying a hybrid vehicle‐‐to make that
purchase. However, it fails to engage employees who are
not motivated to buy a hybrid car, or those who do not
want to buy a car at all. What’s more, this program leads
to short term engagement with the employee.
Some companies try to engage employees by tying a portion of their annual bonus to the
company’s carbon footprint goals. Unfortunately, such programs create a free rider problem.
Since all employees are not required to contribute to the program to meet the company goals,
they leave the task for reducing their carbon footprint to other green‐thinkers and demand
their share of the bonus during annual appraisals.
Other companies recruit strong leaders to motivate their employees, in order to become part of
sustainability initiatives. This approach works well, for small and medium sized businesses; but
as companies get bigger, only the most inspired employees are motivated by such leaders. And
such employees are usually 10 ‐ 12 % of the company.
Hence, the companies should focus on engaging employees at a personal level over a longer
period of time, because such an engagement will create a sustainability culture and lead to
extraordinary results for the company.
Offer enough
personal/professional
benefits to the
employees for engaging
them in sustainability
programs over a long
period of time

3. Benefits of Employee Engagement
Engaging employees through sustainability initiatives has quite the impact on the triple bottom line for
the company.
1. Planet: Companies are working hard to cut down their greenhouse gas emissions, but they are
not able to succeed, since the end users (i.e. employees) of most technologies are overriding the
technological features, as it conflicts with their energy usage behavior. Therefore, companies
are unable to realize the full potential of the changes they are making. A recent report by
Carbon Disclosure Project, called “The Carbon Chasm”1
, highlights that big companies are not
doing enough to meet the 2050 CO2e reduction goals. IPCC2
set a goal to reduce Greenhouse
Gas (GHG) emissions by 80% ‐ 95% by 2050, to avoid drastic climate changes. At the current
pace, we will reduce 80% of our greenhouse gas emissions by 2089; unfortunately, this is 39
years late. Our analysis shows that big companies can double their CO2e reductions by involving
25% of their employees, which means that we will be able to meet 2050 CO2e reduction goals
and manage the environmental impacts.
2. People: Surveys across the world have shown that environmental sustainability initiatives
increase the overall satisfaction of employees with the company, which leads to higher
retention rates and higher advocacy from the employees. This in turn also leads to higher
success rates in hiring talented employees.
3. Profit: Engaged and motivated employees have a clear understanding of the organizations’ goals
and feel the need to put in their best efforts to meet those goals. This leads to a boost in top line
revenue. Employees engaged in sustainability initiatives also change their energy usage
behaviors, resulting in a decrease in energy usage and strengthening of the bottom line.
New Approach for Engaging Employees
Though the benefits to the triple bottom line are pretty evident, to completely realize these
benefits companies have to use strategies that engage employees over a long period of time.
We recommend a 3E approach of Envision, Engage and Enhance, for engaging employees over a
long period of time.
Envision
Having the right vision is most critical for exciting and engaging employees; without this, the
employees feel lost and are unable to connect well with the initiatives. Hence, the most
important step in employee engagement is to envision. As part of this step, companies need to
do the following:
1
The Carbon Chasm: By Carbon Disclosure Project; Based on Carbon Disclosure Project 2008 responses from the
world’s 100 largest companies
2
IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

4. 1. Articulate Employee Benefits: The majority of employees
do not have sustainability initiatives as part of their job
profiles, so why should these employees engage with
sustainability initiatives? What is in it for them to connect
and dedicate time to these initiatives? Is there a
professional or a personal benefit? It is important to
answer these questions in a succinct way and articulate it
well to engage employees. Many executives think that an
employee should support the initiatives, as it is a corporate
initiative. Unfortunately, this is true only for the most
motivated employees, and these employees constitute 10 –
12% of the work force for large organizations. To engage
the remaining employees, you need to think of a long term
benefit for the employee.
2. Leverage Company Brand: Employees of a company are
most influenced by the company’s brand, yet the
sustainability officers do not leverage brand to engage
employees. You should think of ways to involve employees
in tasks around the brand and clearly articulate the benefits
of their actions to the brand. Once they see a direct linkage
between their actions and the brand, they are more willing
to comply and support the initiatives.
3. Set and Communicate Goals: Engaging employees without
clearly defined goals, or an overview of a path to achieve
those goals, is a waste of effort. Employees might get
excited by marketing efforts, but without clearly defined
goals, they will be lost and eventually lose motivation to
support the initiatives.
Engage
Engaging employees on a one‐on‐one basis is time consuming and not feasible. Instead, you
should look to engage employees in communities across the organization. These communities
should be initially seeded by the sustainability officers and allowed to grow freely. There should
be minimal restrictions or guidance for joining/creating communities and members should be
able to interact freely within the communities. With these types of loosely structured
communities, you will find that there is increased bonding amongst employees, leading to
higher engagements on the core issue in the community (i.e. sustainability). Follow these steps
to create communities and engage employees in those communities:
3E Approach for Engaging
Employees
 Envision: Clearly articulate
your environmental
sustainability program goals
and the benefits to the
employees
 Engage: Motivate employees
to build small communities
with a specific sustainability
goal, provide tools and
support to these
communities, and have
conversations with these
communities
 Enhance: Measure the
performance of the
communities, communicate
progress, keep raising the
bar and motivate
communities to achieve
higher goals

5. 1. Motivate Leaders to start communities: Though you seed the initial communities, you should find
motivated leaders/change agents within the organization and encourage them to create
communities of their own. This ensures that the communities are growing at a rapid rate within the
organization and more employees are joining those communities
2. Provide the right set of tools and platforms: Now‐a‐days, people want to interact with others at
their convenience; face‐to‐face meetings and interactions are considered a hassle. Provide online
tools and platforms for the community members to interact, share knowledge and work towards
achieving the goals.
3. Apply Social Influence: Once you have communities working toward meeting a goal, you have the
opportunity to apply social pressure. This is required to motivate people to change behaviors and
align themselves to the sustainability initiatives. One way to apply social pressure is to arrange
competitions and give prizes to communities that meet or exceed the goals.
4. Have Conversations: Once you have employees engaged in communities, it is the best time to have
conversations with them. This can be done by asking questions through a simple poll, or discussions
on online forums. Make sure to use two‐way methods when you are having conversations with the
employees. This increases their brand loyalty and alignment to the sustainability initiatives.
Enhance
Stagnant communities‐‐without ever increasing challenges‐‐leads to boredom, and employees
start disengaging when this happens. Therefore, it is important to constantly enhance the user
experience of the members and it can be done by:
1. Measuring and Communicating progress: This is the time to publicly acknowledge the achievements
of community members and motivate them to achieve more results. Public acknowledgement
boosts the morale of the employees and they easily sign on to do more for the community, as well
as the brand.
2. Keep raising the bar: One of the influences that you have on the communities is the goal that you
set for them to reach. When more and more members start meeting the goal, it is time to raise it
further, in order to motivate them to reach the advanced goals.
3. Stay focused on your Vision: Everyone likes to be part of something that is bigger than themselves.
By articulating your vision and the progress towards it, you are actually involving the employees in
that greater vision. This will motivate them more and keep them engaged in the communities.
By following the 3E approach, companies can build communities that have a high level of
employee engagement around sustainability initiatives. Companies could also keep this going
for a longer period of time to ensure that the company and its employees lead the sustainability
initiatives together.

6.
Contact US
For further information and details on the 3E
approach, please contact:
Jagan Nemani
Co Founder & CEO, SpeakEnergy LLC
+1 (847)224‐1978
jnemani@speakenergy.com
SpeakEnergy LLC is a company focused on
improving employee engagement with companies’
sustainability initiatives. Our solution provides
tools and platforms required for building goal
oriented communities, along with the tools
necessary for delivering social nudges and
influence for behavioral changes. We are also
focused on encouraging energy conversation and
improving efficiency amongst employees.