“I love the idea of corporate environmental responsibility,” Andrea stated. “But can we get our leadership on board with the additional expense of being green?”

Roberto countered, “I don’t think adopting a corporate environmental responsibility program needs to be costly. In fact, it can pay dividends, like attracting investors and customers. I know I’ll pay a bit more for a product or service if the company behind it shares my environmental values. Besides, we may already be doing things that we can hype up.”

Andrea said, “Let’s explore that. It seems like candidates care about CSR. I saw that 65% of Americans will research whether a company’s stance on a social or environmental issue is authentic and 76% of millennials will do the same. I bet our candidate will research or at least ask us for more details to sniff out any falsities.”

“And that would be embarrassing,” Roberto continued. “OK, let’s brainstorm what we already do as well as some easy ideas that we could implement. First, we do recycle; we have those bins for different waste in the breakroom with signs as to what should go where. And our employees seem to be adhering to those signs.”

“Oh, and last year, we adopted that no-travel policy, which is now our ‘necessary travel only’ policy since we are coming out of the pandemic. I know we saved some money as a company by instituting this policy. So, by being good for the environment, we achieved some cost savings. It’s a win-win!,” Andrea said.

“What else? I know we have paid volunteer time off (VTO). I know we had a couple colleagues recently volunteer to maintain a hiking trail. Maybe we can encourage people to use their VTO for other environmental things like beach clean-ups or even coordinate a similar activity we could do together?” Andrea continued.

“That’s a good one because it is environmental and social responsibility all in one activity! And it sounds exactly like something our candidate would love,” Roberto stated. “Maybe they can plan our first in person volunteer event… ”

“Also, during the pandemic we finally learned how to use these cool editing tools that we always had but never had to use. I know pre-pandemic, I was in the practice of printing everything, reading and editing it with a pen, then discarding of the paper when I was done. Learning to use the editing tools was a steep curve, but I think our company’s investment in the tools and in educating our folks on how to use them has paid off. I know our paper usage, even after our return to office, has been way down,” Andrea said.

“See? We already have a corporate environmental responsibility program and we didn’t even know it!” Roberto said. “Maybe we can even get the building to reduce energy consumption by putting lights on a timer or switching to LEDs.”

Andrea responded, “Good idea. Let’s see what our landlord would agree to and let’s ask about low flow toilets and regularly changing air filters while we are at it. We are well on our way to a full-fledged CER program!”

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