Simple changes to make your workplace Resource smart
Changing behaviour in workplaces
Successful behaviour change programs follow a common
pathway. First, understand your audience, work out
your strategies using a range of behaviour change tools,
evaluate and review your achievements.
1. Start with research. Find out what barriers
and benefits exist in your workplace.
2. Get management support for your initiatives.
3. Get staff to commit to the program and make
this commitment public in the workplace.
4. Spread the word. Tell everyone about the
green initiatives and why they are so important
to your organisation.
5. Reward and recognise. Provide incentives to
reward people for participating and taking action.
6. Keep the message fresh. Prompt people regularly
about what they can do and why they’re doing it.
7. Keep track of success. Evaluate to see what works
and what doesn’t. Use your results to develop new
initiatives and review existing.
Behaviour change initiatives are often the first steps in the
transition to sustainability. It also about ‘engaging everyone’
- everyone can help make a difference to the environment
and be Resource smart at work.
This kit gives you ideas, strategies and resources to create
positive change in your workplace by simple actions to:
• save energy and water
• reduce waste and save paper
• reduce greenhouse gases.
Many of the actions you take will also save money, which
your boss will love.
This kit gives you an introduction on how to be Resource
smart in your workplace. We have also supplied you with
example strategies to give you ideas for creating and
evaluating change in your workplace.
Behaviour change strategies
• Save paper
Use recycled paper, print double-sided and reduce
paper use.
• Buy Resource smart
Consider the environment when buying office
equipment and supplies.
• R
 educe, reuse and recycle
Bring your home recycling practices to work.
• Switch off and save energy
Switch off lights and equipment to save energy.
• Use sustainable transport
Use public transport, walk or ride to work and/or work
meetings.
• Save water
Save water in kitchens and bathrooms at work.
Have a look through this kit and think about what sort
of changes you can introduce in your workplace. Use
the seven step process to help you to plan the program
for your workplace using the strategies and resources
available in this kit.
A behaviour change planning template is provided to assist
you in your program.
Step 1: Start with research
• A
 sk questions about the current and desired behaviours
and test your ideas
• Use the results to plan your programs
Start by asking some questions. What do people in your
company currently do? What is stopping them adopting
the new practices? What would help them to make the
changes? What incentives and rewards would appeal to
them? Test out some of your ideas. See if there are other
people who are willing to help you with your Resource smart
initiatives.
Use the results to help you plan what you are going to do in
your workplace.
Step 2: Get management on board
• S
 how the benefits of Resource smart from your
managers’ perspective
• S
 eek resources and senior commitment to support
implementation
Get management on board by showing them the financial
and environmental benefits of implementing the Resource
smart strategies.
Whether it is financial savings or reductions in energy
usage, waste production or water savings, use the data
demonstrate how much your program will save. Talk to
them about your ideas and initiatives and point out how
much money the company will save and other benefits, like
being able to promote their green initiatives to their staff and
customers.
Ask management to allocate a budget for your green team to
cover the costs of your new Resource smart initiatives. See
if a senior manager will be a champion for the program or
send an email to all staff members expressing support and
inviting their help.
Step 3: Ask people to commit to the project
• R
 ecruit a highly motivated team to support you and
champion the program
• Develop the Resource smart initiatives together
It can be hard doing all the work on your own and your
campaign will work better if more people are involved.
Identify some highly motivated people in your office and
create a Resource smart ‘Green’ team to help you come up
with ideas and champion these ideas in the workplace.
As a team, decide on the environmental initiatives you will
undertake. People are more likely to stick to a program if
they have ‘ownership’ of the project or feel that they have
had some involvement.
The team should approach others in the workplace, explain
the initiative and ask them to be involved.
Tell everyone who has made a commitment to change.
Send an email around the office to let people know who the
champions are, or put a poster together with their pictures
and signatures and place it in a prominent position in your
office.
Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day! Start small and get
your colleagues doing simple, easy things. Once they’ve
accepted and adopted these smaller changes, then move on
to bigger projects.
Step 4: Spread the word
• T
 ell people about the Resource smart initiatives and why
they are important
• Remind them regularly
Simplicity is the key to communicating change.
Communicate through a variety of methods such as email,
putting up signs and posters or verbally at meetings.
Explain the project in detail and give staff an opportunity to
ask questions. Do this individually, or hold a staff meeting.
Face-to-face is always more effective. Follow up with regular
emails to keep them informed of any new changes in your
office.
People are more likely to participate if they understand the
reasons behind the behaviour change. Use the information
provided to you in this kit to educate your colleagues and
show them how these new behaviours will make a difference
for both them and the environment.
When conducting orientation of new staff, make sure to point
out sustainable behaviours so they know from the start how
they can make a difference to the environment.
Use brightly coloured posters and unusual, attention-
grabbing headlines and statistics to get their attention.
Create an e-newsletter (or add a column to the regular one)
to keep people updated on your initiatives.
Make sure the language you use is appropriate for your
workplace. This is especially important if English is not a first
language for some or all of the people in your workplace.
Communication tips:
• C
 ommunicate positive messages. Make sure all
messages are not negative and just telling people what to
do, but include reward for achievement and encouraging
messages too.
• M
 ake the call to action prominent. Most staff are happy to
do the right thing – as long as it is clear what is expected
of them.
• U
 se communication measures such as selective and
occasional emails, reminders, e-newsletter etc. to send
interesting facts and updates. All forms of communication
should be used selectively to be effective and to avoid
inundating staff with messages and emails. Use an
intranet based user forum that can be accessed when
they need.
• U
 se education signage that provides clear and consistent
message throughout the workplace.
Overcoming the barriers
There are always good reasons for people not to change
their behaviour. This could include a lack of time, lack of
support from staff or management and financial constraints.
Be prepared. Brainstorm a list of all the possible excuses
that you are likely to hear before advising people of change.
Remove as many barriers as practicable and have prepared
answers for those that you cannot remove.
Your research will help you to identify what the barriers are in
your workplace. Try to think of ways to overcome each one.
Use the problem solving matrix in this kit to work through any
barriers or blockers you come across.
For example:
Barrier: “It’s too hard/I don’t know how to print double-
sided”
Solution: Show them what you want them to do. Email
around a list of instructions on how they can set their printing
defaults or arrange a short staff training session.
Barrier: “It takes up too much time walking to the recycling
bin every time I have a piece of scrap paper”
Solution: Let’s move them closer to your desk, or get more
bins around the office so that people don’t have to walk too
far.
Step 5: Reward and recognise
• Find incentives that relate to staff in your workplace
• U
 se incentives to motivate staff to change their behaviour
and to reward them for Resource smart actions
Incentives motivate people to carry out the new behaviours
in the office. Incentives may be for an individual who has
done the right thing or as a reward for the whole group if
they meet a set target or goal.
Incentive suggestions:
• p
 rovide tickets or reimburse public transport costs for
staff to catch the train or bus instead of getting a taxi to
meetings.
• u
 se the savings from decreased electricity costs to pay
for a staff function such as a celebration morning tea or
Christmas party.
• S
 trike a deal with a local café to charge staff 50 cents
less for take away coffee if they bring their own reusable
mug.
• c
 elebrate and reward people’s ideas, contributions and
successes with certificates, or awards (i.e. ‘Star Awards’)
small gifts, vouchers and time off.
• reward frequent recyclers with a chocolate frog or small
treat.
Step 6: Keep the message fresh
It takes time for new behaviours to become ‘the norm’.
Remind people of what they should be doing regularly to
keep Resource smart practices top of mind. Prompts should
be noticeable, self-explanatory and preferably located in the
same place as the behaviour. For example:
• p
 lace switch off stickers on light switches to remind staff
to turn off the lights when they leave meeting rooms.
• p
 ut specially labelled recycling bins for bottles and cans
next to the regular rubbish bins to remind people to
recycle.
Step 7: Keep track of success
• Evaluate the success of your strategies regularly
• R
 eview and update your activities according to your
findings
Use your evaluation to identify what changes are being made
in your workplace, how well you are doing and what results
you are achieving.
Measuring relevant data on resource use such as:
• a
 mount of total waste produced (materials recycled plus
waste sent to landfill)
• how paper use per staff member has declined
• how recycled paper use has increased
• how electricity and water use has decreased.
Measuring how many people are involved in the program:
• h
 ow many staff have committed to the program and how
many have stayed involved over time
• the number of queries
• suggestions or ideas provided from staff
• complaints or negative feedback from staff.
Use different methods to measure your success:
• U
 se a staff survey to assess staff attitudes and
behaviours around the environment
• g
 ather feedback by asking people to keep diaries,
conducting interviews or focus groups, keeping minutes
and notes from workshops and meetings, reviewing
comments people have made
• M
 easure progress with developing formal documents
such as policies and agreements.
• R
 ecord progress, initiatives and achievements by taking
photographs and videos.
• Interview management to gain their feedback. Find out if
the initiatives were seen as cost effective, if they thought
the program was well managed and their views on the
activities. This will also help management to engage in
the program for environmental improvement.
• M
 eet regularly with people in your office or your green
team to discuss the program and talk about ways to
improve it.
Communicate your results to staff and management to show
the successes the program has had and to gain support for
the next phase.
Planning your program Theme Timing
It is important to plan your program, taking into consideration Research and planning October -
things like the weather, peak periods in your workplace and December
holiday periods.
For example, you may choose to run a campaign to use less Launch event January
air-conditioning and lighting during spring and summer, and Kick off save paper campaign
run a separate program about using appropriate heating
during autumn and winter. Save water campaign March
Set a time frame for your campaign, either three, six or 12
months and schedule activities for each month. Save energy campaign May
You may spend the first few months researching and
developing your program before you start implementing the Recycle campaign July
Resource smart strategies.
Resource smart purchasing campaign September
You may also choose to have an official ‘launch’ of your
program. This could simply be an announcement by
your CEO and green team, or you could choose to run a Travel campaign November
workshop to launch your program or have a staff party.
Evaluate and review December
Make sure your timeline allocates time to evaluate each
individual strategy you implement as well as time to evaluate
the overall success of your program.
Use the example below, or a similar timeline, to help plan The resources in this kit are designed to help you plan and
your activities. develop strategies to make your workplace Resource smart.
Good luck!
For more information, research and tips for the home and
workplace visit www.sustainability.vic.gov.au

Chaning behavious in workplaces © Sustainability Victoria 2011

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© Copyright Sustainability Victoria, November 2011 (ENV057)
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