Better Business: How to go greener with staff to improve performance

Why get involved in low carbon activity?

"The simple answer is: it's good for business."

The simple answer is: it's good for business in all kinds of ways. Employers told us that low carbon activity can cut costs and add value through:

Efficiency win-wins

Looking for ways to reduce resources (e.g. energy for heating and lighting, fuel or associated costs for travel) can minimise environmental impacts and cut costs significantly.

Strengthening customer relationships

Customers increasingly want to develop relationships with brands showing commitment to environmental action and a sustainable philosophy.

Maximising competitiveness

A focus on environmental dimensions can actually increase business competitiveness. Such a focus helps business look at what it does in a new way, identifying new working practices that might otherwise have been missed.

Ensuring compliance with regulations

Organisations in all sectors are subject to environmental regulations which require some level of low carbon management. Taking early action to get ahead of future regulation often means easier transitions, turning challenges into opportunities.

Showing leadership and innovation to build reputation

Our research suggests that, although there's good work going on already, most workplaces could, relatively easily, do more. In other words, there's a gap in the market for genuinely cutting-edge practice: it just needs an organisation to have a coherent and ambitious plan and then start carrying it out.