March 3, 2008 - The most successful corporate sustainability initiatives operate on a micro level, encouraging individual employees to green their personal environments, according to Robert Hildreth, vice president of global strategy at green-branding firm Saatchi & Saatchi S. Speaking at a recent conference in Rhode Island, Hildreth pointed to the success of Wal-Mart's Personal Sustainability Project (PSP), which his company developed, as a case in point, Providence Business News reports.

“The green movement in general suffers from one of the largest communications problem that’s out there,” Hildreth says. “We need to orient ourselves more around making the problem so compelling that it draws people in.”

For example, Wal-Mart's PSP encourages employees to find small ways to green their personal environments, from recycling more to walking to work one day a week. One employee suggested turning the lights off in break room soda machines, a move that now saves the company $2 million each year on electricity bills.

What doesn't work, according to Hildreth, is creating company "green teams" to develop big-picture programs that don't engage employees on a personal level. “Nobody really cares about it; they’re just sort of doing it," says Hildreth.