Beyond green building: What it means to work green

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A recent CB Richard Ellis study found what might be an unexpected benefit of the green building trend: A green workspace can save an average of $6,200 per year per employee through lower health-care costs and improved productivity. The study follows up on anecdotal evidence that people work harder, more efficiently and have less absenteeism when they work in a green building.

While building or leasing a healthy space is a great thing, I would submit that the benefits of such sustainable attributes as the use of daylight and fresh air cannot compare to the new corporate culture that often results from infusing green thinking into a company’s day-to-day business practices. Here are the benefits of what I call “working green.”

· Working green encourages employees to integrate their personal passions for environmental stewardship into their work and thereby make visible contributions every day. For example, a hybrid enthusiast could be put in charge of the hybrid vehicle fleet. Or, an employee with a passion for gardening could create a worm bin for the company’s composting program. And, don’t discount the young employees who are up on the latest lingo and can tell the CEO the difference between LDPE and polycarbonate. This sense of empowerment leads directly to employees feeling like they can take their hands off the oars and take control of the rudder.

· An active sustainability program can strengthen your brand and position your company as an industry leader. There are infinite opportunities to show leadership and innovation that can provide temporary — and sometimes permanent — differentiation from others in your industry. For example, be the first carbon-neutral doggie day care or the first steel fabricator with an alternatively fueled welder. Once you have established your company as the leader, your employees, who believe in the programs and have turned them into reality, will become your best brand champions.

· Working green can help attract and retain the best talent. Service industries have only three assets: their clients, their reputations and their skilled labor forces. And, you don’t get the first two without the third. Young talent is looking for employers that, at the very least, encourage green thinking. Although young workers are still looking for good compensation and a challenging career, they are more intrigued when a sustainable culture is a given.

· Green companies can forge synergies between dissimilar industries. Paul Hawken, cofounder of Smith & Hawken, Natural Capital, and the Biomimicry Institute, estimates that there are more than two million organizations worldwide that have environmental stewardship as a component of their missions. These organizations include for-profit companies, environmental organizations, ecumenical groups and NGOs. Children’s and health causes typically bring diverse groups together, but vastly different companies can share their green cultures in an open source way that fosters rapid change. Imagine: Perhaps the drycleaner next door to an accounting firm would be willing to share her waste heat in exchange for her business taxes being prepared.

All in all, working green can make a positive impact on company morale. Progressive green companies are now creating visioning teams that cut across titles and seniority and encourage everyone to be involved in the brainstorming of new sustainable programs. Often, the most radical, yet very simple, ideas come from outside upper management. When management rises to the challenge and implements a new employee-born idea, the green corporate culture is reinforced and the company will become stronger through engaging the new green workforce.

Steve Clem is vice president of preconstruction in the Beaverton office of Skanska USA Building and specializes in sustainable building.