Employees need more green training

Most people know that a great deal of the carbon emissions from offices can be avoided by doing pretty simple -- turning off lights at night, shutting down PCs not in use, only printing where really necessary, buying recycled supplies and so on. But businesses are not doing enough to educate their employees about taking responsibility for greening their workplace, according to a new study.

The Carbon Trust and YouGov report into employees' attitudes to carbon reduction found that 70 per cent said they wanted to cut their carbon emissions but wanted more guidance and empowerment.

Only one fifth said they thought their organisation was doing enough to cut its emissions and two thirds said their employer had made no attempt to encourage them to consider ways of reducing their emissions by taking alternative transport to work. Eighty per cent say they've had no training in reducing emissions.

This is a concern -- too many businesses are hesitating over energy efficiency and happy to continue burning cash on unnecessarily large electricity bills. The attitude is that either vendors or suppliers will carry the burden of greening, or that greening is a long-term business plan that requires a return on investment (ROI).

But turning the lights off does not require an ROI. It simply needs a little education and the cost of bringing in training consultants or sending employees out on day long courses would easily be offset by reduced energy bills.

"You can put in a new energy-efficient boiler, or install low-energy light bulbs, and those will make a difference, but many of the measures that will have the biggest impact and achieve the greatest savings require buy-in across your workforce," says Hugh Jones, Solutions Director at the Carbon Trust.

The Carbon Trust has launched a free employee pack, available online.

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