Shrink Your Impact at Work

Sustainability Victoria has developed the Shrink your Impact at Work resources to support practitioners running green office programs in the work place.  The resources (see links and downloads at bottom of page) contain ideas for promoting behaviours that will reduce the environmental impact of your workplace, as well as resources to encourage actions like posters and switch off stickers.

Behaviour change initiatives are often the first steps in the transition to sustainability. It is also about 'engaging everyone' - everyone can help make a difference to the environment and be ResourceSmart at work.

Successful behaviour change programs follow a common pathway. First, understand your audience, work out your strategies using a range of behaviour change tools, evaluate and review your achievements.

1. Start with research. By talking to staff find out what barriers to the behaviours you want to promote exist in your workplace, and what benefits staff perceive could flow from switching to the new behaviour.  This will help you choose specific actions you can take to overcome barriers while promoting the benefits that resonate most.
2. Get management and staff to commit to the program you are running, and where possible get them to make a public commitment to achieving them.
3. Spread the word. Tell everyone about the green initiatives and why they are so important to your organization.
4. Reward and recognize. Provide incentives to reward people for participating and taking action.
5. Keep the message fresh. Prompt people regularly about what they can do and why they're doing it.
6. Keep track of success. Evaluate to see what works and what doesn't. Use your results to develop new initiatives and review existing. 

Resources

Below is a series of resources on behaviour change. The resources provide ideas, strategies and resources to create positive change in your workplace by simple actions to:

• save energy and water
• reduce waste and save paper
• reduce greenhouse gases.

We have also supplied you with example strategies to give you ideas for creating and evaluating change in your workplace. Many of the actions you take will also save money, which your boss will love.

You can also download a compilation of bite-sized facts that can be used for projects and presentations to explain the importance of your ResourceSmart activities.