Rethinking Waste One Bag at a Time: Inspiring and Engaging Employees Around Sustainability

A culture of continuous improvement in sustainability needs to occur at all levels of the organization and become part of employee’s daily routines. The key is to leverage the “Power of Passionate People” and partner with them to drive sustainability throughout the organization.

At Clorox, a group of passionate volunteers started the Eco Network to identify sustainability opportunities, both internally and externally. The passion of the Eco Network is contagious and helps motivate other employees to think more about sustainability within the building, for their brands and, ultimately, the consumer.

The best impacts happen when employees experience sustainable initiatives first hand, get to participate and see the results. In June 2009, Clorox started “dumpster dives” at manufacturing facilities. The dumpster dives start by literally emptying the contents of a dumpster and engaging employees to sort out the items that could have been recycled.  When employees physically connect with the trash and see the amount of waste that could have been diverted, it increases awareness and commitment to recycle and impacts their long-term behavior. The result has been dramatic, with waste to landfill reduced more than 50% on average for all the Clorox sites that have participated so far.

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Source: Sustainable Brands
By Alexis Limberakis and Cheryl Hagedorn