A recent survey conducted by OnePoll looked at companies’ actual commitments for carbon offsetting initiatives. The survey found that one third of Brits are more loyal to an environmentally sustainable employer…
The study participants included business owners and company employees, revealing unexpected findings about corporate environmental practices. read on to see how the UK is performing, or rather isn’t, compared to the US and Australia.
1. Environmental Accreditation
A surprising 66% of respondents said they aren’t aware of their company having any environmental accreditation, such as an Environmental Management System, Leadership in Energy, and Environmental Design. This lack of accreditation suggests that many businesses aren’t as engaged with sustainable practices as expected.
2. Environmental Practices
The study delved into a few standard environmental practices, such as recycling, waste reduction strategies, and cycle-to-work schemes. The results were quite disheartening – a third of all UK businesses haven’t adopted any of these common practices. Less than one in five companies promoted cycle-to-work schemes, and more than three quarters (77%) don’t have an established recycling facility on site.
We want to work for an environmentally sustainable employer, but how are UK businesses performing?
When compared with Australia and the US, the UK scored the lowest for working with third parties and consultants to measure their environmental impact and build a decarbonisation strategy.
1. Workforce Impact
Employee respondents were also questioned on how important sustainability benefits are when it comes to looking at the overall package offered by employers. A huge 72% of young adults (18-24 years old) said that it’s important! Moreover, a third of the British public said they’re more likely to stay in a company that cares about sustainability and has initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint.
Mark Hall, sustainability expert and co-founder of BusinessWaste.co.uk, comments: “We were frankly very surprised to find out some of these statistics. In a world where we’ve got advocates for sustainability left, right, and centre, with companies trying as hard as possible to shout out about every little ‘green’ practice, to see that 66% don’t even have an accreditation of any sort is shocking.”
Hall also highlighted the low implementation of waste reduction strategies, which only 16% of UK companies have adopted. He emphasised that these strategies are not difficult to put in place and can make a real difference.
He continues: “Seeing that sustainability efforts from companies are important to employees, however, makes me hopeful that it might lead to some change.”
OnePoll findings in full can be found here.
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