In order to raise the profile of environmental issues and improvements in your business, you should be able to highlight the key benefits to both senior management and staff.

Advantages of environmental improvements for your business

There are a number of reasons why improving your environmental performance makes good business sense, such as:

• Complying with legislation - rules are becoming increasingly tight as governments try to reduce the negative impact business operations have on the environment.
• Cutting costs - using less energy, water and raw materials will reduce your purchasing and waste disposal costs.
• Business opportunities - you may be able to create new products and market them as environmentally friendly, or work with organisations that require their partners to have good environmental credentials.
• Marketing opportunities - being able to demonstrate how your business is improving its environmental performance enables you to highlight this in the local media, enter award programmes and use relevant labelling schemes - see how to market your environmental credentials.
• Attracting and retaining staff - employees may be more willing to work for your business if you can demonstrate good environmental credentials.
• Improving stakeholder relations - in addition to your employees, other stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, investors and regulators are increasingly focusing on how a business manages its environmental performance.
• Future proofing - by understanding your business' environmental impact, you can better appreciate how future changes, such as new legislation, will affect you.

For further information, see how to improve your environmental performance.

When you put together your business case for environmental improvements, you may find it useful to consider both financial and non-financial factors. See how to make the financial case for environmental improvements and make the non-financial case for environmental improvements.

To give your plans the greatest chance of success, managers must show that they are committed to making the changes work. This means showing that they are setting aside time, money and other resources where they are needed.

You can demonstrate commitment to change by involving and motivating your staff - see how to motivate staff to make environmental improvements.

Long-term commitment to environmental change

It is important that everyone affected by the environmental improvements knows that the commitment to change is:

• sustainable - not part of a fashion or fad
• well-planned - part of a properly developed strategy with all the right back-up available
• inclusive - valuing the input of everyone in the organisation
• measurable - so you can demonstrate what you have achieved

Investing in environmental change

Not all improvements require capital investment such as buying new equipment, but they will need resources in terms of people's time. Make sure that everyone involved knows that the project has a realistic budget and is aware of:

• what the budget is
• exactly what the budget covers
• how long the budget will sustain the plans made
• any restrictions on how the budget can be spent
• what - if any - contingency plans there are

Time given to environmental change

Make sure that everyone knows how time will be managed across the project, including:

• how much management time will be put aside
• how the needs of the project will be integrated with the other needs of the business
• what timescale is envisaged
• how project time will be apportioned day to day

Environmental change and personnel

Depending on the nature of the project or programme, you may need to consider how the work will be:

• included in work plans and appraisals
• included in relevant team plans at all levels
• planned so as to continue even if personnel changes
• planned to a timescale that everyone concerned feels they can work to

There are a number of non-financial factors that you may need to make clear to persuade senior management that you should be allowed to proceed with your project or initiative.

Resources and implementation

Senior management will be particularly interested in how much time and human effort is required for your project to be successful. You should be able to demonstrate how the outcomes of your project will add value to the business.

You should also be able to provide information on how easy it will be to implement your improvements, and how much ongoing time and effort will be required.

Legal and other requirements

If your environmental improvement is based on a legal requirement, you should get the go-ahead. However, you may need to assess the pros and cons of a number of options - for example different types of monitoring equipment or how to recycle packaging most effectively.

You may also find that there are other industry standards or requirements that are recommended as good practice by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency or your trade association. If you can demonstrate that respected organisations suggest you make the changes, and your competitors have also acted, this can be a powerful motivator.

Policy and strategy

If your business has an environmental policy or environmental management system (EMS), you should demonstrate how your project can help to meet the aims and objectives of that policy or system.

If your business doesn't have an environmental policy or EMS, you could demonstrate how your project will help to meet the objectives of the core business strategy.

Marketing and business opportunities

You may be able to sell the idea of your project as a marketing opportunity for the business - see how to market your environmental credentials.

You may be able to demonstrate how your business can grow by becoming more sustainable.

Some projects require money in order to achieve their objectives. If everyone can see that financial decisions have been made carefully, and that there is enough money for the project, they will take your plans more seriously. You should then find it easier to get people to commit their time and expertise.

Have a clear budget for environmental improvements

Make sure everyone who will be responsible for any part of the budget knows:

• exactly how much they have to spend
• what they can spend it on
• how they are expected to report back on their investment

Carry out an investment appraisal

If you are not the budget holder, you will probably need to make the financial case for why management should invest in your project. You should show how the time and resources you need will offer good value for money.

You could carry out an investment appraisal to demonstrate how long it will take your project to pay off the costs involved, and any possible profits that it could generate.

There are a number of different investment appraisal methods you could use, including:

• payback period - takes financial returns and costs over the project period, and calculates how long the project woud take to pay for itself
• average rate of return - looks at the average returns over the years of the project, and divides by cost to give a percentage return
• discounted cashflow - takes into account that a return of £100, for example, in several years is worth less than a return of £100 now, so discounts the estimate of returns

Each method has pros and cons, so it's worthwhile using two or more different methods - see investment appraisal techniques.

Not just the bottom line

Make sure that you consider all the financial benefits of your project. Many of the benefits that can flow from making environmental changes will not be immediate and may not show up directly in your bottom line. For example, you may find that employees are happier working in a 'green' company and that staff turnover is reduced. This could significantly cut recruitment costs.

The amount that you need to involve and motivate staff will vary depending on what form of environmental improvement you are making. For example, the amount of effort required will be significantly more for a waste-minimisation programme that affects everyone in the business, compared to buying energy-efficient equipment that affects very few people.

Where do you start with environmental improvements?

You should hold an initial meeting with all affected staff. This will enable you to introduce your plans, get initial feedback and ideas, and allow staff to raise any concerns or worries they may have. You may want to follow this up with meetings or informal discussions.

Environmental improvement staff champions

If your initiative affects a significant number of people in the business, you may want to appoint 'staff champions'. They can help you implement the changes and encourage the active participation of other members of staff - see environmental teams and champions.

How will you move forward?

Once your initial plans are in place and the champions or co-ordinators are chosen, organise regular meetings or written communication to help keep everyone informed. Publicise a clear structure - where key responsibilities lie, the timescale, the aims and objectives, and how everyone can input ideas and feedback efficiently - see how to maintain communication about environmental improvements.

Encourage initiative for environmental improvement

If you have an ongoing programme of improvements, such as plans to improve workplace travel, make sure you encourage staff to contribute their ideas. Find out what staff want and need to help them in their efforts to make small environmental changes - for example, safe parking for bikes, or flexible hours to make travelling to work on public transport feasible. Small changes can be key to the success of the overall plan.

Environmental improvement incentives and penalties

You could consider using incentives or penalties to motivate staff to adopt your environmental improvements. However, you should be very careful that such methods are used fairly and do not lead to claims of favouritism or excessive punishment.

You may find it useful to appoint an environmental 'champion' or team who can help implement environmental improvements and encourage the active participation of other members of staff.

The champion's key role is to co-ordinate and facilitate the work. As well as appointing any supporting team members, the champion should act as the main focal point for communications, resources, action, programmes and training.

To maximise their impact, the champion needs the support and commitment of senior management and the wider team that will deliver the improvements.

During the early stages of a programme or project, the champion is likely to take the lead in collecting data and identifying opportunities to improve environmental performance. Useful data to collect includes the cost and quantity of raw materials and energy used, and waste produced.

Choosing an environmental improvement champion

It is important to choose the right person to be the champion. They should:

• be enthusiastic about the role and willing to learn
• be credible at all levels of the business
• have the communication skills needed to organise resources, meetings and training, and the ability to liaise with all levels of staff
• be able to motivate workers, overcome barriers, resolve problems and continue with progress

The size, nature and culture of your business will also affect the choice of champion. Larger businesses typically appoint someone who knows the staff and is familiar with processes, as well as any technical, quality and environmental issues. This might be a production manager, site engineer or quality manager. In smaller businesses, the champion is often the managing director or production manager.

Get everyone involved in environmental improvements

To successfully integrate your initiative into the culture of your business, you should involve workers from all areas. You could also consider involving trade union workplace representatives if you have them.

Ideally, teams should be cross-functional. People from different roles and with varying experiences will bring different skills and ideas, and will ensure a wider commitment. Team working will also lead to the identification of ongoing opportunities for cost savings - see ongoing environmental improvement.

No matter how good your environmental improvement plans are, they will compete for attention with many other tasks. Make sure you keep them fresh in everyone's minds and keep the lines of communication open.

Regular updates on environmental improvements

Even the best-planned initiatives can tail off without fruitful communication. How you communicate may depend on the nature of the initiative and how many people you need to keep informed. You might consider:

• organising regular meetings that are open to all - these can be good for planning and to encourage everyone to input ideas
• using a regular slot in general staff briefings and newsletters for quick reminders and updates
• informal communication with the staff champion and any other project leaders

Training for environmental improvements

You could encourage staff champions and others to take up relevant training opportunities to improve their knowledge and contribute more effectively to your environmental initiative. This could form part of their personal development.

You may be able to arrange for someone to shadow the environmental representative of another organisation who has relevant expertise, or share best practice with others involved in the same work.

Induction awareness of environmental improvements

Ensure that your environmental improvements are included where applicable in induction for new staff members - so that they know how to take part, and that their input will be welcome and valued.

When you look for new staff, you could highlight your environmental credentials and try to recruit people who share the same environmental ideas. This can help you employ staff who are motivated.

If your programme of environmental improvements is to work, one of the key roles for you and any environmental champions is to persuade staff to regard environmental change as an ongoing process, not a one-off measure or gimmick.

You'll need to set short-term targets and long-term objectives, and devise straightforward, practical ways of monitoring their success. Make sure you use SMART objectives - ie they are:

• specific
• measurable
• attainable
• realistic
• time-bound

You may be able to use key performance indicators (KPIs) to report on your environmental improvements to both internal and external audiences. Environmental KPIs enable businesses to measure their environmental impact - see how to set environmental performance targets.

Collect data systematically and encourage everyone to do the same. Decide in advance how the data you collect will be used, and ensure it is circulated to everyone who needs it - see how to produce environmental reports for your business.

Make sure you provide regular feedback on the progress of environmental improvements as this will help to motivate staff. For example, if you have been asking everyone to turn off equipment or machinery when it's not in use, let them know how this has reduced power consumption, plus the financial and environmental benefits.

Re-evaluate environmental improvements regularly

Of course, not everything goes right immediately - and some things may not work at all. Plan to re-evaluate regularly. Be prepared to change and adapt, and if necessary draw a line under an idea that was a non-starter or has run out of steam. Re-planning and re-evaluating can be a positive step, not a failure.

Environmental issues are a particularly good catalyst for change in any organisation - encouraging a new look at old habits and offering a chance to re-assess the culture of your business. A values-based culture need no longer be at odds with a business culture.

Old business - new business

Most people have at least a passing interest in their environment. The workplace can be at the forefront of environmental awareness, and take its responsibilities to the environment and its employees' views seriously. Environmental projects offer opportunities for teamwork, delegation and the fostering of new talents in all areas of business.

Old ways - new ways

There may be some people who resist change. Persevere - for some this will be the first time they have had to confront environmental issues at work.

Point out that change is not optional, but don't be too critical - someone with a more pragmatic approach can be a useful member of the team, helping to rein in over-ambitious or unrealistic ideas. Once everything is underway, most will see the value of the changes, and the new culture will become the norm.

In order to raise the profile of environmental issues and improvements in your business, you should be able to highlight the key benefits to both senior management and staff.

Advantages of environmental improvements for your business

There are a number of reasons why improving your environmental performance makes good business sense, such as:

• Complying with legislation - rules are becoming increasingly tight as governments try to reduce the negative impact business operations have on the environment.
• Cutting costs - using less energy, water and raw materials will reduce your purchasing and waste disposal costs.
• Business opportunities - you may be able to create new products and market them as environmentally friendly, or work with organisations that require their partners to have good environmental credentials.
• Marketing opportunities - being able to demonstrate how your business is improving its environmental performance enables you to highlight this in the local media, enter award programmes and use relevant labelling schemes - see how to market your environmental credentials.
• Attracting and retaining staff - employees may be more willing to work for your business if you can demonstrate good environmental credentials.
• Improving stakeholder relations - in addition to your employees, other stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, investors and regulators are increasingly focusing on how a business manages its environmental performance.
• Future proofing - by understanding your business' environmental impact, you can better appreciate how future changes, such as new legislation, will affect you.

For further information, see how to improve your environmental performance.

When you put together your business case for environmental improvements, you may find it useful to consider both financial and non-financial factors. See how to make the financial case for environmental improvements and make the non-financial case for environmental improvements.

To give your plans the greatest chance of success, managers must show that they are committed to making the changes work. This means showing that they are setting aside time, money and other resources where they are needed.

You can demonstrate commitment to change by involving and motivating your staff - see how to motivate staff to make environmental improvements.

Long-term commitment to environmental change

It is important that everyone affected by the environmental improvements knows that the commitment to change is:

• sustainable - not part of a fashion or fad
• well-planned - part of a properly developed strategy with all the right back-up available
• inclusive - valuing the input of everyone in the organisation
• measurable - so you can demonstrate what you have achieved

Investing in environmental change

Not all improvements require capital investment such as buying new equipment, but they will need resources in terms of people's time. Make sure that everyone involved knows that the project has a realistic budget and is aware of:

• what the budget is
• exactly what the budget covers
• how long the budget will sustain the plans made
• any restrictions on how the budget can be spent
• what - if any - contingency plans there are

Time given to environmental change

Make sure that everyone knows how time will be managed across the project, including:

• how much management time will be put aside
• how the needs of the project will be integrated with the other needs of the business
• what timescale is envisaged
• how project time will be apportioned day to day

Environmental change and personnel

Depending on the nature of the project or programme, you may need to consider how the work will be:

• included in work plans and appraisals
• included in relevant team plans at all levels
• planned so as to continue even if personnel changes
• planned to a timescale that everyone concerned feels they can work to

There are a number of non-financial factors that you may need to make clear to persuade senior management that you should be allowed to proceed with your project or initiative.

Resources and implementation

Senior management will be particularly interested in how much time and human effort is required for your project to be successful. You should be able to demonstrate how the outcomes of your project will add value to the business.

You should also be able to provide information on how easy it will be to implement your improvements, and how much ongoing time and effort will be required.

Legal and other requirements

If your environmental improvement is based on a legal requirement, you should get the go-ahead. However, you may need to assess the pros and cons of a number of options - for example different types of monitoring equipment or how to recycle packaging most effectively.

You may also find that there are other industry standards or requirements that are recommended as good practice by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency or your trade association. If you can demonstrate that respected organisations suggest you make the changes, and your competitors have also acted, this can be a powerful motivator.

Policy and strategy

If your business has an environmental policy or environmental management system (EMS), you should demonstrate how your project can help to meet the aims and objectives of that policy or system.

If your business doesn't have an environmental policy or EMS, you could demonstrate how your project will help to meet the objectives of the core business strategy.

Marketing and business opportunities

You may be able to sell the idea of your project as a marketing opportunity for the business - see how to market your environmental credentials.

You may be able to demonstrate how your business can grow by becoming more sustainable.

Some projects require money in order to achieve their objectives. If everyone can see that financial decisions have been made carefully, and that there is enough money for the project, they will take your plans more seriously. You should then find it easier to get people to commit their time and expertise.

Have a clear budget for environmental improvements

Make sure everyone who will be responsible for any part of the budget knows:

• exactly how much they have to spend
• what they can spend it on
• how they are expected to report back on their investment

Carry out an investment appraisal

If you are not the budget holder, you will probably need to make the financial case for why management should invest in your project. You should show how the time and resources you need will offer good value for money.

You could carry out an investment appraisal to demonstrate how long it will take your project to pay off the costs involved, and any possible profits that it could generate.

There are a number of different investment appraisal methods you could use, including:

• payback period - takes financial returns and costs over the project period, and calculates how long the project woud take to pay for itself
• average rate of return - looks at the average returns over the years of the project, and divides by cost to give a percentage return
• discounted cashflow - takes into account that a return of £100, for example, in several years is worth less than a return of £100 now, so discounts the estimate of returns

Each method has pros and cons, so it's worthwhile using two or more different methods - see investment appraisal techniques.

Not just the bottom line

Make sure that you consider all the financial benefits of your project. Many of the benefits that can flow from making environmental changes will not be immediate and may not show up directly in your bottom line. For example, you may find that employees are happier working in a 'green' company and that staff turnover is reduced. This could significantly cut recruitment costs.

The amount that you need to involve and motivate staff will vary depending on what form of environmental improvement you are making. For example, the amount of effort required will be significantly more for a waste-minimisation programme that affects everyone in the business, compared to buying energy-efficient equipment that affects very few people.

Where do you start with environmental improvements?

You should hold an initial meeting with all affected staff. This will enable you to introduce your plans, get initial feedback and ideas, and allow staff to raise any concerns or worries they may have. You may want to follow this up with meetings or informal discussions.

Environmental improvement staff champions

If your initiative affects a significant number of people in the business, you may want to appoint 'staff champions'. They can help you implement the changes and encourage the active participation of other members of staff - see environmental teams and champions.

How will you move forward?

Once your initial plans are in place and the champions or co-ordinators are chosen, organise regular meetings or written communication to help keep everyone informed. Publicise a clear structure - where key responsibilities lie, the timescale, the aims and objectives, and how everyone can input ideas and feedback efficiently - see how to maintain communication about environmental improvements.

Encourage initiative for environmental improvement

If you have an ongoing programme of improvements, such as plans to improve workplace travel, make sure you encourage staff to contribute their ideas. Find out what staff want and need to help them in their efforts to make small environmental changes - for example, safe parking for bikes, or flexible hours to make travelling to work on public transport feasible. Small changes can be key to the success of the overall plan.

Environmental improvement incentives and penalties

You could consider using incentives or penalties to motivate staff to adopt your environmental improvements. However, you should be very careful that such methods are used fairly and do not lead to claims of favouritism or excessive punishment.

You may find it useful to appoint an environmental 'champion' or team who can help implement environmental improvements and encourage the active participation of other members of staff.

The champion's key role is to co-ordinate and facilitate the work. As well as appointing any supporting team members, the champion should act as the main focal point for communications, resources, action, programmes and training.

To maximise their impact, the champion needs the support and commitment of senior management and the wider team that will deliver the improvements.

During the early stages of a programme or project, the champion is likely to take the lead in collecting data and identifying opportunities to improve environmental performance. Useful data to collect includes the cost and quantity of raw materials and energy used, and waste produced.

Choosing an environmental improvement champion

It is important to choose the right person to be the champion. They should:

• be enthusiastic about the role and willing to learn
• be credible at all levels of the business
• have the communication skills needed to organise resources, meetings and training, and the ability to liaise with all levels of staff
• be able to motivate workers, overcome barriers, resolve problems and continue with progress

The size, nature and culture of your business will also affect the choice of champion. Larger businesses typically appoint someone who knows the staff and is familiar with processes, as well as any technical, quality and environmental issues. This might be a production manager, site engineer or quality manager. In smaller businesses, the champion is often the managing director or production manager.

Get everyone involved in environmental improvements

To successfully integrate your initiative into the culture of your business, you should involve workers from all areas. You could also consider involving trade union workplace representatives if you have them.

Ideally, teams should be cross-functional. People from different roles and with varying experiences will bring different skills and ideas, and will ensure a wider commitment. Team working will also lead to the identification of ongoing opportunities for cost savings - see ongoing environmental improvement.

No matter how good your environmental improvement plans are, they will compete for attention with many other tasks. Make sure you keep them fresh in everyone's minds and keep the lines of communication open.

Regular updates on environmental improvements

Even the best-planned initiatives can tail off without fruitful communication. How you communicate may depend on the nature of the initiative and how many people you need to keep informed. You might consider:

• organising regular meetings that are open to all - these can be good for planning and to encourage everyone to input ideas
• using a regular slot in general staff briefings and newsletters for quick reminders and updates
• informal communication with the staff champion and any other project leaders

Training for environmental improvements

You could encourage staff champions and others to take up relevant training opportunities to improve their knowledge and contribute more effectively to your environmental initiative. This could form part of their personal development.

You may be able to arrange for someone to shadow the environmental representative of another organisation who has relevant expertise, or share best practice with others involved in the same work.

Induction awareness of environmental improvements

Ensure that your environmental improvements are included where applicable in induction for new staff members - so that they know how to take part, and that their input will be welcome and valued.

When you look for new staff, you could highlight your environmental credentials and try to recruit people who share the same environmental ideas. This can help you employ staff who are motivated.

If your programme of environmental improvements is to work, one of the key roles for you and any environmental champions is to persuade staff to regard environmental change as an ongoing process, not a one-off measure or gimmick.

You'll need to set short-term targets and long-term objectives, and devise straightforward, practical ways of monitoring their success. Make sure you use SMART objectives - ie they are:

• specific
• measurable
• attainable
• realistic
• time-bound

You may be able to use key performance indicators (KPIs) to report on your environmental improvements to both internal and external audiences. Environmental KPIs enable businesses to measure their environmental impact - see how to set environmental performance targets.

Collect data systematically and encourage everyone to do the same. Decide in advance how the data you collect will be used, and ensure it is circulated to everyone who needs it - see how to produce environmental reports for your business.

Make sure you provide regular feedback on the progress of environmental improvements as this will help to motivate staff. For example, if you have been asking everyone to turn off equipment or machinery when it's not in use, let them know how this has reduced power consumption, plus the financial and environmental benefits.

Re-evaluate environmental improvements regularly

Of course, not everything goes right immediately - and some things may not work at all. Plan to re-evaluate regularly. Be prepared to change and adapt, and if necessary draw a line under an idea that was a non-starter or has run out of steam. Re-planning and re-evaluating can be a positive step, not a failure.

Environmental issues are a particularly good catalyst for change in any organisation - encouraging a new look at old habits and offering a chance to re-assess the culture of your business. A values-based culture need no longer be at odds with a business culture.

Old business - new business

Most people have at least a passing interest in their environment. The workplace can be at the forefront of environmental awareness, and take its responsibilities to the environment and its employees' views seriously. Environmental projects offer opportunities for teamwork, delegation and the fostering of new talents in all areas of business.

Old ways - new ways

There may be some people who resist change. Persevere - for some this will be the first time they have had to confront environmental issues at work.

Point out that change is not optional, but don't be too critical - someone with a more pragmatic approach can be a useful member of the team, helping to rein in over-ambitious or unrealistic ideas. Once everything is underway, most will see the value of the changes, and the new culture will become the norm.

In order to raise the profile of environmental issues and improvements in your business, you should be able to highlight the key benefits to both senior management and staff.

Advantages of environmental improvements for your business

There are a number of reasons why improving your environmental performance makes good business sense, such as:

• Complying with legislation - rules are becoming increasingly tight as governments try to reduce the negative impact business operations have on the environment.
• Cutting costs - using less energy, water and raw materials will reduce your purchasing and waste disposal costs.
• Business opportunities - you may be able to create new products and market them as environmentally friendly, or work with organisations that require their partners to have good environmental credentials.
• Marketing opportunities - being able to demonstrate how your business is improving its environmental performance enables you to highlight this in the local media, enter award programmes and use relevant labelling schemes - see how to market your environmental credentials.
• Attracting and retaining staff - employees may be more willing to work for your business if you can demonstrate good environmental credentials.
• Improving stakeholder relations - in addition to your employees, other stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, investors and regulators are increasingly focusing on how a business manages its environmental performance.
• Future proofing - by understanding your business' environmental impact, you can better appreciate how future changes, such as new legislation, will affect you.

For further information, see how to improve your environmental performance.

When you put together your business case for environmental improvements, you may find it useful to consider both financial and non-financial factors. See how to make the financial case for environmental improvements and make the non-financial case for environmental improvements.

To give your plans the greatest chance of success, managers must show that they are committed to making the changes work. This means showing that they are setting aside time, money and other resources where they are needed.

You can demonstrate commitment to change by involving and motivating your staff - see how to motivate staff to make environmental improvements.

Long-term commitment to environmental change

It is important that everyone affected by the environmental improvements knows that the commitment to change is:

• sustainable - not part of a fashion or fad
• well-planned - part of a properly developed strategy with all the right back-up available
• inclusive - valuing the input of everyone in the organisation
• measurable - so you can demonstrate what you have achieved

Investing in environmental change

Not all improvements require capital investment such as buying new equipment, but they will need resources in terms of people's time. Make sure that everyone involved knows that the project has a realistic budget and is aware of:

• what the budget is
• exactly what the budget covers
• how long the budget will sustain the plans made
• any restrictions on how the budget can be spent
• what - if any - contingency plans there are

Time given to environmental change

Make sure that everyone knows how time will be managed across the project, including:

• how much management time will be put aside
• how the needs of the project will be integrated with the other needs of the business
• what timescale is envisaged
• how project time will be apportioned day to day

Environmental change and personnel

Depending on the nature of the project or programme, you may need to consider how the work will be:

• included in work plans and appraisals
• included in relevant team plans at all levels
• planned so as to continue even if personnel changes
• planned to a timescale that everyone concerned feels they can work to

There are a number of non-financial factors that you may need to make clear to persuade senior management that you should be allowed to proceed with your project or initiative.

Resources and implementation

Senior management will be particularly interested in how much time and human effort is required for your project to be successful. You should be able to demonstrate how the outcomes of your project will add value to the business.

You should also be able to provide information on how easy it will be to implement your improvements, and how much ongoing time and effort will be required.

Legal and other requirements

If your environmental improvement is based on a legal requirement, you should get the go-ahead. However, you may need to assess the pros and cons of a number of options - for example different types of monitoring equipment or how to recycle packaging most effectively.

You may also find that there are other industry standards or requirements that are recommended as good practice by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency or your trade association. If you can demonstrate that respected organisations suggest you make the changes, and your competitors have also acted, this can be a powerful motivator.

Policy and strategy

If your business has an environmental policy or environmental management system (EMS), you should demonstrate how your project can help to meet the aims and objectives of that policy or system.

If your business doesn't have an environmental policy or EMS, you could demonstrate how your project will help to meet the objectives of the core business strategy.

Marketing and business opportunities

You may be able to sell the idea of your project as a marketing opportunity for the business - see how to market your environmental credentials.

You may be able to demonstrate how your business can grow by becoming more sustainable.

Some projects require money in order to achieve their objectives. If everyone can see that financial decisions have been made carefully, and that there is enough money for the project, they will take your plans more seriously. You should then find it easier to get people to commit their time and expertise.

Have a clear budget for environmental improvements

Make sure everyone who will be responsible for any part of the budget knows:

• exactly how much they have to spend
• what they can spend it on
• how they are expected to report back on their investment

Carry out an investment appraisal

If you are not the budget holder, you will probably need to make the financial case for why management should invest in your project. You should show how the time and resources you need will offer good value for money.

You could carry out an investment appraisal to demonstrate how long it will take your project to pay off the costs involved, and any possible profits that it could generate.

There are a number of different investment appraisal methods you could use, including:

• payback period - takes financial returns and costs over the project period, and calculates how long the project woud take to pay for itself
• average rate of return - looks at the average returns over the years of the project, and divides by cost to give a percentage return
• discounted cashflow - takes into account that a return of £100, for example, in several years is worth less than a return of £100 now, so discounts the estimate of returns

Each method has pros and cons, so it's worthwhile using two or more different methods - see investment appraisal techniques.

Not just the bottom line

Make sure that you consider all the financial benefits of your project. Many of the benefits that can flow from making environmental changes will not be immediate and may not show up directly in your bottom line. For example, you may find that employees are happier working in a 'green' company and that staff turnover is reduced. This could significantly cut recruitment costs.

The amount that you need to involve and motivate staff will vary depending on what form of environmental improvement you are making. For example, the amount of effort required will be significantly more for a waste-minimisation programme that affects everyone in the business, compared to buying energy-efficient equipment that affects very few people.

Where do you start with environmental improvements?

You should hold an initial meeting with all affected staff. This will enable you to introduce your plans, get initial feedback and ideas, and allow staff to raise any concerns or worries they may have. You may want to follow this up with meetings or informal discussions.

Environmental improvement staff champions

If your initiative affects a significant number of people in the business, you may want to appoint 'staff champions'. They can help you implement the changes and encourage the active participation of other members of staff - see environmental teams and champions.

How will you move forward?

Once your initial plans are in place and the champions or co-ordinators are chosen, organise regular meetings or written communication to help keep everyone informed. Publicise a clear structure - where key responsibilities lie, the timescale, the aims and objectives, and how everyone can input ideas and feedback efficiently - see how to maintain communication about environmental improvements.

Encourage initiative for environmental improvement

If you have an ongoing programme of improvements, such as plans to improve workplace travel, make sure you encourage staff to contribute their ideas. Find out what staff want and need to help them in their efforts to make small environmental changes - for example, safe parking for bikes, or flexible hours to make travelling to work on public transport feasible. Small changes can be key to the success of the overall plan.

Environmental improvement incentives and penalties

You could consider using incentives or penalties to motivate staff to adopt your environmental improvements. However, you should be very careful that such methods are used fairly and do not lead to claims of favouritism or excessive punishment.

You may find it useful to appoint an environmental 'champion' or team who can help implement environmental improvements and encourage the active participation of other members of staff.

The champion's key role is to co-ordinate and facilitate the work. As well as appointing any supporting team members, the champion should act as the main focal point for communications, resources, action, programmes and training.

To maximise their impact, the champion needs the support and commitment of senior management and the wider team that will deliver the improvements.

During the early stages of a programme or project, the champion is likely to take the lead in collecting data and identifying opportunities to improve environmental performance. Useful data to collect includes the cost and quantity of raw materials and energy used, and waste produced.

Choosing an environmental improvement champion

It is important to choose the right person to be the champion. They should:

• be enthusiastic about the role and willing to learn
• be credible at all levels of the business
• have the communication skills needed to organise resources, meetings and training, and the ability to liaise with all levels of staff
• be able to motivate workers, overcome barriers, resolve problems and continue with progress

The size, nature and culture of your business will also affect the choice of champion. Larger businesses typically appoint someone who knows the staff and is familiar with processes, as well as any technical, quality and environmental issues. This might be a production manager, site engineer or quality manager. In smaller businesses, the champion is often the managing director or production manager.

Get everyone involved in environmental improvements

To successfully integrate your initiative into the culture of your business, you should involve workers from all areas. You could also consider involving trade union workplace representatives if you have them.

Ideally, teams should be cross-functional. People from different roles and with varying experiences will bring different skills and ideas, and will ensure a wider commitment. Team working will also lead to the identification of ongoing opportunities for cost savings - see ongoing environmental improvement.

No matter how good your environmental improvement plans are, they will compete for attention with many other tasks. Make sure you keep them fresh in everyone's minds and keep the lines of communication open.

Regular updates on environmental improvements

Even the best-planned initiatives can tail off without fruitful communication. How you communicate may depend on the nature of the initiative and how many people you need to keep informed. You might consider:

• organising regular meetings that are open to all - these can be good for planning and to encourage everyone to input ideas
• using a regular slot in general staff briefings and newsletters for quick reminders and updates
• informal communication with the staff champion and any other project leaders

Training for environmental improvements

You could encourage staff champions and others to take up relevant training opportunities to improve their knowledge and contribute more effectively to your environmental initiative. This could form part of their personal development.

You may be able to arrange for someone to shadow the environmental representative of another organisation who has relevant expertise, or share best practice with others involved in the same work.

Induction awareness of environmental improvements

Ensure that your environmental improvements are included where applicable in induction for new staff members - so that they know how to take part, and that their input will be welcome and valued.

When you look for new staff, you could highlight your environmental credentials and try to recruit people who share the same environmental ideas. This can help you employ staff who are motivated.

If your programme of environmental improvements is to work, one of the key roles for you and any environmental champions is to persuade staff to regard environmental change as an ongoing process, not a one-off measure or gimmick.

You'll need to set short-term targets and long-term objectives, and devise straightforward, practical ways of monitoring their success. Make sure you use SMART objectives - ie they are:

• specific
• measurable
• attainable
• realistic
• time-bound

You may be able to use key performance indicators (KPIs) to report on your environmental improvements to both internal and external audiences. Environmental KPIs enable businesses to measure their environmental impact - see how to set environmental performance targets.

Collect data systematically and encourage everyone to do the same. Decide in advance how the data you collect will be used, and ensure it is circulated to everyone who needs it - see how to produce environmental reports for your business.

Make sure you provide regular feedback on the progress of environmental improvements as this will help to motivate staff. For example, if you have been asking everyone to turn off equipment or machinery when it's not in use, let them know how this has reduced power consumption, plus the financial and environmental benefits.

Re-evaluate environmental improvements regularly

Of course, not everything goes right immediately - and some things may not work at all. Plan to re-evaluate regularly. Be prepared to change and adapt, and if necessary draw a line under an idea that was a non-starter or has run out of steam. Re-planning and re-evaluating can be a positive step, not a failure.

Environmental issues are a particularly good catalyst for change in any organisation - encouraging a new look at old habits and offering a chance to re-assess the culture of your business. A values-based culture need no longer be at odds with a business culture.

Old business - new business

Most people have at least a passing interest in their environment. The workplace can be at the forefront of environmental awareness, and take its responsibilities to the environment and its employees' views seriously. Environmental projects offer opportunities for teamwork, delegation and the fostering of new talents in all areas of business.

Old ways - new ways

There may be some people who resist change. Persevere - for some this will be the first time they have had to confront environmental issues at work.

Point out that change is not optional, but don't be too critical - someone with a more pragmatic approach can be a useful member of the team, helping to rein in over-ambitious or unrealistic ideas. Once everything is underway, most will see the value of the changes, and the new culture will become the norm.