If you can't sell your green programs to your own employees, how will you ever sell your company as a sustainability leader? Frogfile Office Essentials, an online source for greener office products, offers these ten tips for getting green buy-in within your enterprise.

1. Establish a clear and transparent environmental policy. Any successful program requires a clear plan so that management and employees are all on the same page and share the same goals and objectives. Your environmental policy should contain a mission statement, principles and objectives. You might also want to set clear, measurable targets and deadlines.


2. Start a "Green Team." It's a great idea to get together a group of keen individuals from different areas of your business to form a Green Team. The Team is responsible for identifying environmental projects and getting the rest of your employees jazzed up about them. The Green Team meets regularly to evaluate their progress and next steps.


3. Encourage participation in educational events and networks. Give employees, especially Green Team members, the opportunity to attend events where they can learn about green workplace strategies and develop connections with other green leaders. Organizations like Young Environmental Professionals and the Sustainable Purchasing Network are a great start.


4. Show them that their actions make a difference. Several years ago, employees from the City of Seattle wanted the City to switch from using virgin copy paper to 100% post-consumer copy paper. The City wanted to make the change, but was not willing to increase its copy paper budget. So, in exchange for make the change, employees agreed to print all documentation double-sided and to refrain from printing emails. In this way, the City's paper consumption was reduced so that they could afford to use the environmentally-friendly paper.
   
   It's so important to show employees that what they do makes a different for the business and the environment. Try posting notices about the resource savings obtained through your environmental program and reward employees for cost savings by offering other benefits.


5. Reward innovation. Your employees are the ones that run your operation and they know it best. So give them the opportunity to make suggestions on how to save resources and reward them for it. Consider implementing a points system where environmental ideas that are implemented receive points that can be redeemed for time off or other benefits.


6. Recognize leadership. Within every organization, there are those who have a passion for environmental conservation and are willing to take on a leadership role in implementing better workplace practices. Recognize these individuals by giving them a token of appreciation or saluting them in your employee newsletter. Recognizing these individuals tells other employees that you value efforts to create a more sustainable workplace and give credibility to the idea of conserving resources.


7. Communicate employee efforts to the community and customers. So you've done all this good work. Now you need to share it with your customers and community stakeholders. If your employees have achieved an environmental success, recognize them in your external communications. This goes a long way to enhancing employee morale and building better relationships with your customers.


8. Lead by example. Employees aren't going to take environmental initiatives seriously if you don't. Set personal targets on environmental conservation. Attend Green Team meetings occasionally. Speak out on the issue. Personally recognize green efforts within your workplace. Show your organization that you think a green workplace is a priority. In short, lead by example.


9. Create a listserve or blog to share ideas and information. Consider setting up a listserve or some other tool for communicating ideas, initiatives and successes to employees. One large crown corporation maintains a voluntary listserve of more than 150 employees to share information on greening initiatives.


10. Make it fun! People want to have fun! Make sure that environmental responsiblity is not seen as a chore, but rather as a fun activity. Create competitions between individuals or departments to see who can conserve more or who can suggest more creative environmental solutions. Hold a "Green Drinks" event where people can meet and socialize and learn about greening initiatives. Give out prizes (e.g. a book on a green theme) to reward exceptional achievements.