The world is become more eco-friendly and green, but it can be hard for you as an entrepreneur to motivate individuals to join the movement. In the same way that you can motivate employees with incentives for good work or attendance, you can do the same with green actions by rewarding this Earth positive activity.
Here are some great ideas on incentives that you can use to promote green activity with your employees:
Alternative Transportation Bonuses
There are a few levels for bonuses here. If an employee drives to work by himself or herself, then there is no bonus for that. A group of employees that carpools, however, do get a small bonus for their efforts.
The best bonuses would be given to those that opt to take public transportation such as a bus or train, with the top of the line bonus going to the employees that walk or take the bike. Be wary, though, and know your employees.
Health expert Richard Bracchi explains that entrepreneurs and their employees absolutely must stay healthy, and biking or walking to work is a great way to do it.
There may be circumstances in which some employees live in an area where public transportation (and even carpooling) aren’t an option. Make sure to give these employees incentives if they are able to use ethanol fuel or other ways to go a bit greener on their commute.
Green Day
Not the popular rock band, but one day set aside each month in which employees can earn a day’s pay by volunteering. It can be a weekend, or even time away from regular office hours. Either way, it’s a great opportunity to get some fresh air for employees while helping the environment.
There will be plenty of places to volunteer your services (think greenhouses or beaches) to help clean, garden or grow plants. Use your imagination!
Drink coffee the right way
You know first hand that the amount of coffee that is consumed on a regular morning in the office could fuel one person for an entire year. There’s no problem with that, but the problem that comes from coffee is the way it’s drank.
Paper and other disposable cups are too common for coffee drinkers, so it’s best to give out a reusable and washable container. Each employee can get one and it’s not very expensive to order them in bulk, or even have them customized.
Use solar power for the small things
Portable chargers that use solar power for any mobile device can be found at a reasonable price. You can thank the employees for their efforts of using these types of chargers by either buying them for the employee ahead of time, reimbursing them or giving them a percentage of the money to get one.
Not only will electricity use go down in the office, but it will go down in their house as well. It may not make the largest impact, but every little bit counts.
You can even go as far as installing specialty lights that automatically turn on when someone enters a room, and shuts off after a short period of time when the room is empty. Offices have been using these to save a lot of money on power.
Other Green certificates
Use a reward system with your employees that logs the amount of green activities they have partaken in. This can be any of the things mentioned above or a new way that you can think of (such as turning off a power screen on the computer when not in use).
You can give out green certificates that can be redeemed for a multitude of related awards, such as a gift certificate to an organic food market or eco-friendly salon/spa. There’s many different ways to reward your employees for doing the right thing, and these are just a few of those ideas.
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