Paid Program: Powering Sustainability for Tomorrow’s Workplace

Chapter 3

Powering Sustainability for Tomorrow’s Workplace

As going green becomes a mandate, businesses are getting serious about driving both internal and external change.

environmental impact. According to research from Harvard Business School, 2019 saw more than 10,000 publicly listed companies creating corporate sustainability reports, up from fewer than 20 firms in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, the share of Global 500 organizations setting sustainability targets spiked from 30% in 2009 to 89% in 2018. In recent years, sustainability—often top of mind from an operational standpoint—has become a workplace mandate. “Ten or 20 years ago, workplace sustainability might have meant putting out recycling bins or setting up a reusable water bottle station,” says Cathy Resler, sustainability and ESG advisory lead at the global public relations company Hill+Knowlton Strategies. “There may have been a feeling of, ‘OK, we’ve checked the box.’ But today, companies want to build a workplace that aligns their values with their purpose. It’s much more interconnected than it used to be.”

s the workplace continues to evolve, the drive toward sustainability in the office has emerged as a priority for businesses looking to align their internal green goals with the external steps they’re taking to reduce their global

While businesses often base their sustainability efforts around receiving green certifications, it’s equally important to engage employees and motivate them to adopt sustainable practices.

Taking Sustainability Further

wellness initiatives and green design. Together, the firm has found that prioritizing these pillars can drive workplace satisfaction while supporting climate goals. For example, one technology client of Moody Nolan designed its office to encourage bicycle-based commuting, placing a fitness center with showers next to its bike storage room to make it easier for employees to pedal to work instead of drive. Another saw the opportunity to reduce its reliance on artificial lighting while also creating an environment that would help employees feel productive, healthier and engaged, with a system that maximizes daylight while automatically adjusting artificial light sources based on outside conditions. As the firm’s chief operations and sustainability officer, Allen Schaffer, explains, such considerations mark a shift from earlier sustainability efforts. “Historically, sustainable design was about creating solutions that provide value to the client, to the community and to the world,” he says. “Today, multidisciplinary aspects of health, equity and climate justice have been brought into the sustainable conversation, which has prompted a very different understanding of what sustainable design can do since the early days of energy and water efficiency.”

hat interconnectivity can manifest itself in a number of ways. Leaders from the Columbus, Ohio-based architecture firm and 2021 AIA Architecture Firm Award recipient Moody Nolan point toward the intersection of sustainability efforts,

sustainability efforts around receiving green certifications, it’s equally important to engage employees and motivate them to adopt sustainable practices. In most work settings, where it’s easier to simply leave a machine running or the lights on, the first step is getting buy-in. “The number one thing a company can do to change behavior is to make it part of everyone’s remit,” Resler says. “If sustainability is living in a silo, it’s hard to get folks to participate. But if, as a company, you’re saying, ‘Hey, we care about this,’ it becomes a form of internal marketing and sends a strong signal to employees.” Brands like Nespresso have taken such steps to drive positive change in its own offices (which participate in a comprehensive recycling program), for its clients and the larger community. The company, which has been carbon neutral in its business operations since 2017, has also made significant contributions to ensure widespread adoption of sustainable practices. In fact, Nespresso committed $1.2 million in 2019 to better enable the recovery of its aluminum coffee capsules through New York City's free curbside recycling program for Nespresso users. The commitment also allows partner recycling plants to better sort and capture all lightweight aluminum collected from NYC “blue bins,” including foil and other mixed metals. Increasing the amount of aluminum that’s actually recycled means more sustainably made products—and as an added bonus, the coffee grounds taken from the Nespresso capsules can be turned into nutrient-rich compost and topsoil. In Australia, the brand partnered with a recycling plant to create a fully bespoke system to recycle its capsules, making it easier for both in-home and Nespresso Professional users to do their part for the environment. And in the United States, Nespresso has worked with UPS to make capsule recycling through the Nespresso program as convenient as possible, leveraging UPS’s nearly 98,000 drop off locations. The design of machines like the Nespresso Momento also adheres to the same sustainable principles, with modular construction and a sleep mode intended to maximize energy efficiency. “Sustainability has always been at the heart of everything Nespresso does,” says Kika Buhrmann, vice president of sales at Nespresso USA. “We believe that for our business to prosper, the environment and the communities we work with must as well. When businesses work with Nespresso Professional, they can feel assured they are not only making a high-quality coffee choice, but they are also making a choice to help benefit the environment.” Ultimately, efforts like the Nespresso free recycling programs can contribute to more than a few positive headlines or an improved brand image. Businesses play a powerful role in driving societal change—and when employers take steps to go green in their own workplace, even seemingly small decisions can have an outsized impact. “When we think about social determinants of health, equity and access, there are countless pieces that tie to the environmental conversation,” Resler says. “You have the right to clean drinking water. You have the right to live in an area that’s not going to be polluted or cause you to become ill. I think that we’re going to continue to see that theme becoming stronger and louder—especially in the workplace.”

or other companies, behavioral change among employees serves as a key area of opportunity. One recent report from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health notes that while businesses often base their

Being the Change

The number one thing a company can do to change behavior is to make it part of everyone’s remit. If sustainability is living in a silo, it’s hard to get folks to participate.

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Cathy Resler

Sustainability & ESG Advisory Lead Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Custom Content from WSJ is a unit of The Wall Street Journal Advertising Department. The Wall Street Journal news organization was not involved in the creation of this content.

Fostering Collaboration

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goal as much as a strategic one. No part of the office sits at the nexus of culture more than the coffee area, where people meet up, exchange ideas and create connections over a freshly brewed cup. Machines like the state-of-the-art Nespresso Momento Coffee & Milk are designed to facilitate those moments by providing a coffee shop-style experience in the workplace, with low-touch and touchless features that allow for safe operation as more employees return to the physical office. “With workplace dynamics and design changing, moments that encourage collaboration and inspiration between co-workers are critical now more than ever—and coffee plays a leading role in those important moments,” says Kika Buhrmann, vice president of B2C and B2B USA at Nestlé Nespresso SA. “Connecting might take a little more work, especially as we all adjust to being back in person and out from behind our cameras. This makes human interaction even more valuable.” Prioritizing their teams’ social dimensions on both a micro and macro level offers smart managers a targeted way to build a sense of connection for employees. “Something as small as offering a quality cup of coffee to employees might seem like an insignificant detail, but it creates a positive impression of your workplace, as well as providing an enjoyable moment for colleagues,” Buhrmann says. “Increasingly, workplaces adhering to higher standards are rewarded with greater employee satisfaction, higher employee retention and improved employee performance and communication.” In the years to come, carving out spaces for “us”—both physically and virtually—will be critical to how we work together. “What happened with the pandemic is that we had to systematically, intentionally rebuild culture,” Li says. “As we return to work, we’re again rebuilding what our culture will look like. What are the agreements we have? What is the common language we use? What are our shared beliefs and our accepted behaviors with each other? It’s never synchronic, and it’s never static.”