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With it being the norm now to take your own carrier bag to the supermarket, reusable coffee cup to get your coffee fix, and carry your own refillable water bottle, employers are following suit to encourage this eco-friendly practice in the workplace.

It has become increasingly common for employers to take away the paper cups from tea and coffee stations and provide branded water bottles to staff to discourage single-use plastic. Company’s are starting to see this step as a demonstration of their commitment to social responsibility.

Plastic Ban

Earlier this year, Intelligent Hand Dryers (“IHD”) attracted headlines after announcing a ban on single-use plastic in their offices. The owner of the company implemented a three-strike policy in the contract of employment. If an employee is found to be using single-use plastic three times, a formal disciplinary procedure would be initiated with a risk of dismissal as a potential outcome.

Consultation and trial

IHD’s owner, Andrew Cameron (“Mr Cameron”) is quoted on their website: “ So, we came up with the idea of proposing and potentially banning single-use plastics in the office into contracts and having a consultation on it. No plastic milk cartons, no sweets, crisps, water bottles etc etc”.

Mr Cameron played a video to his staff on climate change to allow them to gain a better understanding of how the “production and consumption of unnecessary products that have been created purely for convenience has caused so much extra emissions”.

He was lucky, the consultation was a positive discussion, with his staff being open to the trial. Mr Cameron even explored the concept of some kind of reward system for staff who complied with the policy, primarily as he did not want the change to be too much of a hardship.

In order for an employer to be able to implement a change to a contract of employment, an adequate consultation with all those affected by the proposed change is recommended. Employees often resist change,  but they are more likely to support a change if there has been a meaningful consultation, trial or adjustment period, or where changes are suggested rather than unilaterally imposed.

IHD took the following steps to facilitate the changes:

1. Weekly delivery of fruit, as much in season and locally produced as possible
2. Glass bottled milk delivery
3. Collection of sweet treats weekly

As part of IHD’s consultation process, they also explained the need for education around what could and could not be recycled, and they are currently producing a guide for all staff.

How far is too far?

Whilst the majority of environmental campaigners would be in support of this type of workplace policy, it is certainly a topic which has caused debate. The question is, how far should employers (personal) view impact employees in the workplace.

Connection to work

Whilst a contract of employment and any policies and procedures are there to set the framework of how an employee is expected to behave in the workplace, the idea of setting rules which govern the actions of staff which are unconnected to their work is a step further.

#millenials

Research conducted by LinkedIn revealed that 86% of millennials and 71% of all those polled would consider taking a pay cut to work at a company with values they believed in. The same concept is expected to apply when it comes to environmental issues; in that having a robust environmental policy may well help recruit and sustain an engaged workforce with possibly increased levels of productivity.

Pro’s of an environmental policy

• Engaged workforce
• Reputational
• Increased client relationships
• Social responsibility

Con’s of an environmental policy

• Time taken to adequately implement change
• Cost of implementing change (if high number of employees)
• Can be burdensome
• Employee disengagement/loss

Ultimately, it is the role of the employer to gauge their staff to decide whether any proposed scheme is likely to be agreed and followed, and balance the potential negative impact against the considerable benefits to the workplace in the long term.

For advice on drafting or implementing environmental practices or policies in the workplace please contact a member of our employment team on 020 8363 4444.

This blog has been created for information and guidance purposes only.