Sustainability is essential to continued business success and a thriving environment. While human resources professionals may feel like they might not have an opportunity to positively affect the environment, the reality is HR can play a formative role in supporting company sustainability.

By starting with a comprehensive understanding of why sustainability is important to company policy, HR professionals can integrate common-sense policies that make a real difference. This makes for a cleaner and better world for everyone.

Here’s what you need to know.

Why Sustainability is Important

As climate change continues to complicate our lives and the way we do business, sustainability measures enacted by all kinds of industries are increasingly important. Implementing sustainability standards can come with a host of benefits for those managing a business, and HR can help.

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Here are just some of the facts showing that sustainability in business can make both an environmental and financial impact:

• 87% of U.S. consumers will buy from a company invested in a cause they care about.
• Wide-spread green policies are expected to reap up to $26 trillion in economic benefits.
• 148 CEOs said human resource practices were essential in implementing sustainability practices.
• Companies have saved as much as $11 million by instituting sustainability practices.

By implementing policies that consider environmental impacts and plan for the future, businesses put themselves in a position to encourage growth and sales while saving money. These benefits can be invaluable for any company in the wake of the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus.

The best part is HR and sustainability teams can combine efforts to achieve real progress. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) teams are a common reality of modern business, one that applies human and environmental focuses on a plethora of business practices.

4,900 companies utilizing these groups issued sustainability reports in 2017 alone, with numbers on an upward climb. This illustrates the prominence of sustainability measures in business going forward and how HR can play a vital role in integrating these policies.

Policies You Can Integrate

For any HR professional, sustainability should be a goal of your approach to cementing and celebrating company values and culture. With sustainability in both human and environmental practices front and center, you’ll build a company that draws in ideal candidates and retains your best workers, making the job of any HR manager that much easier.

While the scope of sustainable procedures you can implement might seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be. Here are some of the best policies you can build into your company culture and human resources toolkit now:

• Be an architect of company culture.

HR workers have a special place in laying the foundations of company values and culture amidst policy and staffing changes. With the mass transition to remote work, for example, HR departments can help institute renewed efforts to sustainable policies by working with employees to limit resource consumption.

Flexible scenarios like hybrid work programs can ensure that workers cut down on fossil fuel and other resource use when balancing home and office transitions. The key is finding sustainable solutions for employees in any situation.

• Integrate sustainability into training.

From the training level, HR professionals can institute sustainability education programs like those created by Health Education Systems (HES). This program uses a simple and engaging educational structure to impart employees with applicable knowledge on how to make daily decisions that are gentler on the planet.

As a result, employees can gain a better understanding of the impacts of their actions while engaging in community sustainability efforts.

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• Hire candidates that match company values.

The extension of remote work options gives many HR workers a broader pool of applicants to choose from. With geography out of the way, HR teams can look for ideal candidates that embrace sustainability values in their culture and experiences.

Workers who align closely with company sustainability values will be more involved and ready to innovate for clean practices.

• Communicate, communicate, communicate.

The HR department is in a unique position to provide and disseminate information regarding sustainable business procedures. From hiring and training onward, spreading this information will help ensure that cleaner measures are in place and that workers keep sustainability in mind.

HR departments can even institute programs or fun competitions that incentivize carbon-reducing actions across the workplace.

• Practice what you preach.

The best way to promote a culture of sustainability is to practice the policies that you teach and promote. Announcing sustainability goals and measures is one thing, but applying them to workable practices for all employees is another.

Ensure that your dedication goes beyond words and makes its way into the actions you take as an HR professional.

These practices may not immediately make an impact on the cleanliness of the environment, yet their application is an easy way to support a cleaner future. With values built into a company culture from the start, sustainability will be a deciding factor in a wide variety of business decisions, from hiring to employee resources.

Building a Cleaner World

Human resources workers can play a unique role in building a cleaner and safer world. This process starts at the education level and is reinforced through consistent company policies and values that HR can promote through practices like defining company culture and being a solid example of sustainability.

Sustainability means installing processes that allow for the safe and ethical treatment of people, animals, and the environment. At the human resources level, educating and hiring employees to understand the value of such processes will make for a brighter, cleaner future, one we can all be proud to be a part of.

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