I was meeting with executives at an electronics company to discuss their environmental roadmap. When we broke for lunch, I went to wash my hands. An employee next to me started talking about the water being wasted by the automated spout. (It did run too long.) “Doesn’t the company care about wasting water?” she asked me. To her, I was a total stranger with a visitor’s badge.

In my consulting experience, most employees are like this woman: Conscious of environmental waste. And they’re willing to point it out, when asked by sincere managers who realize that reducing environmental waste is not only everybody’s responsibility, but also good for corporate cost reductions. When I conduct workshops on environmental and corporate-social responsibility we invite employees from various departments. The executives who organize the events are always surprised at the good ideas and passion their employees have for this matter.

I’m not surprised. I’ve seen it for a decade. Years ago I began to warn executives that their employees would be a wellspring of ideas – but they’re still surprised at the quantity and rapidity of ideas from employees who are asked how the company can be more socially or environmentally responsible.

Maybe the executives are surprised because they don’t think these are issues employees notice or care about. That’s proven not to be true in every case I’ve witnessed. Maybe executives think they’re doing employees a favor if they don’t impose outside issues on them. But, employees want to be proud of what their companies are doing for environmental and social responsibility.

A May 2007 Harvard Business Review article, “Why Employees Are Afraid to Speak,” may shed some light. The researchers concluded that employees are reticent to share creative ideas because they believe — often without justification — that they’ll be reprimanded if they speak up. The short article is part of HBR’s free content and worth reading.

In my experience, employees are bursting with ideas on the environment and just waiting to be asked – or given permission. TFI Environment can help you to harvest employee’s and other stakeholders’ profitable ideas.

Posted by Pamela Gordon, December 6th, 2007

Filed to Environment

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