Businesses in the North East need to make greater use of their staff to help improve environmental performance and unlock valuable cost savings – according to sustainable business experts Envirowise.

 

The call to action comes as Envirowise launches a free online training tool offering practical advice to help businesses do this. Available at www.envirowise.gov.uk/change, the tool covers a range of topics including how to gain support from employees and work with senior management. It allows local companies to pick and choose which elements of the training they make use of, according to their needs and available time. In addition, short video case studies give an insight to ‘culture change’ steps that other companies have implemented with positive results.

 

The release of the UK Climate Projections highlighted the need for the behaviour of individuals to change to help combat climate change – yet companies in the region may not be aware that collective staff action has the potential to drive through environmental improvements which can lead to significant savings for businesses – and perhaps as much as £1,000 per employee.

 

Guy Bashford, Envirowise Regional Manager for the North East, commented: “A company’s staff is one of its biggest assets when it comes to taking environmental action – without everyone pulling in the same direction, a business can never capitalise on the potential for cost savings that lie in making often simple and low cost steps towards sustainability. That’s where the interactive tool can help – by helping managers understand the changes they need to make within their own business.

 

“At the end of the day, a company’s environmental impact stems from all elements that make up that company – and that includes the actions of individual staff themselves. By ensuring that company culture has environmental issues at its heart, our region’s companies can realise substantial cost savings – something that is more important than ever in the current business climate.”