The Green Team

The green business movement is hampered by an inability to define sustainability goals. While companies have great freedom to publicize their own ideas, relatively few have the in-house expertise to forecast legitimate environmental risks and opportunities and act accordingly. The absence of shared goals also reflects a much deeper and less tangible challenge: our ambivalence about responding to these risks at all.

Managers who undertake sustainability planning are often overcome with conflicting priorities, driven more by personal aspirations, fears and values than by practical measures. Fortunately, we can help managers resolve much of this confusion by establishing objectives with reliable metrics, and by structuring teamwork in ways that address the psychological factors that tend to get in the way.

Surprisingly few sustainability plans are goals driven. This is especially true among small and medium-size companies that can’t afford to forecast future market changes and regulatory costs. Not wanting to take controversial stands, trade publications often urge these companies to choose their own “shades of green” and take whatever steps feel comfortable.

Meanwhile, there’s little doubt that global warming, ballooning population and rapid economic growth in Asia are changing basic market conditions. Near-term risks are serious and potentially costly. Even though governments have balked at capping carbon emissions or resource consumption, scientists offer increasingly specific recommendations that businesses can use to prioritize green initiatives.

While hard numbers are still a matter of debate, many climate experts recommend carbon emissions reductions on the order of 80 to 90 percent over the next few decades. As daunting as this goal seems, taking it seriously provides an organizing framework for green initiatives, motivating managers to think beyond their own personal passions and leading to more effective plans.

Setting goals is one challenge; human psychology is another. Environmental writer Bill McKibben observed in 1989 that, with global warming and the ozone hole, humans have altered the entire atmosphere, leaving no point on Earth untouched by human hands. The ideal of “unspoiled nature” as an aesthetic, spiritual and economic resource no longer exists. For the first time in history, humanity faces the prospect of managing the natural environment. This disturbing realization has profound implications because it threatens our assumptions about our place in the world and our freedom to live the lives we choose without consequences.

Our lifestyles, it turns out, are driven more by cultural ideals and social norms than by our ideas about environmental stewardship. Most of these norms encourage us to consume large amounts of energy through bigger homes, cars and vacations. Bucking these norms alone is never easy, and desire for peer support is one of the reasons so many companies establish green teams.

Altering social norms and workplace behavior is an inherently social endeavor and no individual is likely to succeed by working alone. But merely establishing green a team is not enough. This work conveys powerful emotional and moral content, challenging a person’s identity and role in the business hierarchy. To the extent the workplace disregards these psychological considerations, green teams are unlikely to be effective. Instead, green team members face hostility from their co-workers, people who also feel uncomfortable about changing their habits and confronting disturbing news about environmental threats. It’s important to create a social dynamic in the workplace that rewards broad participation and respects how hard the work really is.

Specific Recommendations

This boils down to a few pointers that can be the basis for a successful sustainability program.

1. Set specific goals. Green programs based on personal aspirations are unlikely to achieve much, because few have the inclination or corporate mandate to tackle tough challenges. The more likely results will be small steps, such as implementing recycling programs or replacing disposable coffee cups with mugs. A more effective strategy is to set an overall goal, such as reducing carbon emissions by a specific amount over a certain number of years. Green teams can then develop a series of incremental objectives that can be achieved along the way.

2. Make the goals extremely ambitious. Society faces daunting environmental challenges, so set goals that convey the appropriate sense of scale. Anything less makes giving up old habits seem ineffective and pointless. Besides, a small step can be taken tomorrow as easily as today, so we procrastinate by focusing on more urgent needs instead. Conversely, goals that seem impossible at first, demand real attention and force us to start thinking in unexpected and surprisingly productive ways.

3. Establish the right green teams. While a commitment to sustainability must come from the top, solutions must come from within. Changing social norms and establishing a new corporate identity are social challenges. This is why effective green teams should be staffed with employees from all across a company, from every level of management and labor. If solutions are to take effect throughout and if opportunities to eliminate waste are to be found in every corner of operations, then everyone must participate. And, workers need to trust their green representatives, so diverse teams provide better pathways for communicating a new mission to all the stakeholders.

4. Communicate with groups, not individuals. Environmental messages aimed at individuals are not very effective. Instead of inspiring, they generally make people feel powerless in the face of overwhelming peer pressure. Therefore, communications with employees about sustainability initiatives should target them as members of working groups. This helps build a sense of common purpose and group identity.

5. Make green work pay. One of the key reasons green programs are so difficult to implement is that they’re often additional or voluntary assignments. As a result, paying work always trumps green work on a day-to-day basis. People attend to the work for which they are rewarded, so it’s critically important to task those who are responsible for green initiatives with appropriate mandates and performance rewards, releasing them from other responsibilities so they can devote meaningful time and energy to the task.

6. Acknowledge and reward progress. Environmental communicators often plead for any small step rather than embrace tougher solutions. On its own, a small step can seem unimportant. A more effective approach is to proclaim the goal clearly and consistently, while rewarding incremental actions as steps along the way. Measuring each step according to its quantitative contribution keeps people honest and focused on the larger mission, while also rewarding success.

7. Acknowledge that it’s tough work. Confronting environmental challenges head on is emotionally unpleasant. Changing behavioral norms in organizations is also threatening, especially when new performance standards are unfamiliar and not embraced by other sectors of society. Acknowledging that the company is undertaking a challenging identity makeover that involves some discomfort makes the transition easier, as does rewarding sustainable behavior in specific, public ways. After all, declaring a commitment out loud is the most effective way to make its meaning tangible.

Mid-level managers frequently complain that good information about green priorities is hard to find. But finding good information is actually a fairly small challenge. Practical problems are often just covers for our inhibitions about confronting our habits and fears. These are the real obstacles. Addressing them head on and helping employees grapple with their discomfort is an effective way to establish a new, more sustainable and self-supporting corporate identity.

Consider how difficult it is to talk about global warming in social situations. But talking openly will liberate us from bad habits and alter the norms that make us feel so ill at ease. Recognizing this is a crucial step toward new norms that support genuinely sustainable business initiatives.

*Footnotes