The IEP Learning Academy Podcast

Why Workplace Sustainability Matters
Brought to you by Assemble You.
It's time to work on YOU. So sit back and listen to practical, actionable advice to accelerate your progress.
On a beautiful Saturday in March 2019, “the curators at a natural history museum in Davao City, the Philippines, got a call from the local marine agency: An emaciated-looking whale in the Davao Gulf was vomiting blood … They later found more than 88 pounds of plastic waste jammed into its belly.”
Sophie was taken aback as she read about this during her lunch break. As she explored the events further, she discovered this was not an isolated incident. Thousands of seabirds, turtles, seals, and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it. In the articles Sophie was reading, terms like climate crisis, global warming, sustainability, plastic pollution, and environmental degradation kept popping up. It became apparent that human activities are causing the planet harm.
And then she realised she was sipping coffee from a plastic single-use cup. She imagined millions of people in their offices all over the world who use such cups every day. She imagined them all ending up in the belly of sea animals.
One thing was abundantly clear. Our actions as human beings are damaging our natural environment. It got Sophie asking the questions: how can humans and nature exist in harmony? Is there anything I can change? How could I improve my workplace? The answer lies in the word sustainability.
In this track, we will take a look at how this applies to the workplace and why it matters. Then we’ll provide actionable steps for how to go green at work.
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So what is sustainability?

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. To pursue sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations.”
So this is not only about single-use plastic cups but a broader need to reduce our impact on the environment. Like most professionals, Sophie spends a huge part of her day - and by extension, a huge part of her life- in the workplace. If millions of people in offices take sustainability seriously, it could have a huge effect on the environment.
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CB Bhattacharya, the Director of the Center for Sustainable Business, notes that it’s easy to feel like sustainability is somebody else’s problem. He says, “While most organizations talk the talk of sustainability — doing things such as integrating environmental and societal concerns into their business models — very few walk the walk.”
So, what exactly is workplace sustainability?
According to FMP Consulting’s Monica Shuler and Nathaniel Voss, it means "measuring organizational success according to triple bottom line criteria [people, planet, profit], and acting individually and collectively to maximize effective use of natural resources and minimize the negative impact on the planet."
And why is that so important?
If organisations can get sustainability right, it will be a giant step towards protecting our planet and “research also shows that employees who engage in green behaviours at work also experience higher levels of engagement in their jobs.”
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How do we begin to act sustainably in our workplaces?
1) Eliminate single-use cups
Single-use cups are harmful to the environment. Plastic and styrofoam cups aren’t biodegradable and can spend years in landfill or make their way into water bodies, ending up in the bellies of whales and sea animals. Using a reusable bottle or coffee cup is a useful alternative.
2) Make your office paperless
Our planet's resources are finite. With the current issue of deforestation, using the resources we derive from trees more sustainably is vital for the planet. If you can help it, do away with printing on paper. If you have no other option and need a physical copy of some documents, there are greener ways of going about it. You can print on recycled or FSC-certified paper. According to the EPA, printing double-sided can reduce your paper waste by 10-40%.
3) Some business trips can be replaced with video calls
One thing the Covid-19 pandemic revealed to us was that not all meetings have to happen at the office, and much of the business travel we used to think of as essential isn't so necessary. Many meetings can be done virtually from your home or office. Unnecessary business trips are a major contributor to many organisations' carbon footprint, especially when flying. Reducing non-essential office travel and having virtual meetings instead helps to reduce your organisation’s environmental impact.
4) Let LEDs lead the way
Nadja Popovich, for The New York Times, notes that “LED lights are by far the most efficient type of lighting on the market, using up to 85 per cent less energy than traditional bulbs, and can last for 25 years,” and IHS Markit, a global research firm, found 570 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions were reduced thanks to the use of LED bulbs. Changing a light bulb to an LED bulb does not seem much, but it is a great step in making your workplace more sustainable.
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5) Decrease the brightness on your monitor and turn it off when leaving the office
Small changes like these, which aren’t time-consuming at all, can greatly contribute to minimising our impact on the planet.
6) Create a greener bathroom
Make your home or office bathroom more environmentally friendly by providing recycling bins, using refillable hand soap, and choosing a responsibly-sourced toilet paper. Turn down the heat on your water heater, use less water, and watch out for leaks. Recycle paper waste.
7) Embrace the three Rs
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Colleen Beaty of the Wildlife Habitat Council breaks down the three Rs.

Reduce means using fewer resources in the first place. It takes resources to manufacture, transport, and dispose of products, so reduction minimizes the use of new resources. Reuse means using materials more than once in their original form instead of throwing them away after each use. Recycle involves converting waste materials into new products, changing them from their original form through physical and chemical processes. Although recycling uses energy, it helps to prevent new resources from being used and old materials from entering the waste stream.
8) Finally, make an effort to talk to others about sustainability
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Deloitte’s Sustainable Actions Index aims to better understand the individual and collective roles people play in addressing climate change and sustainability… The research suggests that people can be moved to action if they believe the world is also likely to act.”
This is why it is important to keep the conversation on sustainability alive and active. Introduce the topic to your office, tell a colleague, and post your sustainability goals on social media. Doing so can encourage others to get involved in the fight against climate change and give people the confidence to act.
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In this track, we explored sustainability and why workplace changes are essential. In terms of individual actions, we can make our workplaces more sustainable by eliminating single-use plastics, reducing paper usage, limiting air travel, and decreasing the brightness of our computer monitors. Embrace the three Rs and, finally, do your best to spread the word.
The whale that was washed up in Davao City later died. It is a reminder of how the plastics we use unthinkingly often end up in the belly of sea animals. It’s easy to forget the consequences of our day-to-day behaviours. Every little sustainable action matters to our planet because this is the only home we have.
What sustainable action will you be taking in your workplace today?