Develop an environment policy

An environment policy is a statement of an organisation's commitment to the environment and to reducing its environmental impacts.

The environment policy drives commitment and various actions to improve an organisation's environmental performance. This has numerous benefits including creating a healthier, safer workplace, improving your financial bottom line and enhancing your image in the community. The policy should communicate this.

As a minimum, the policy should include a:

• statement of the organisation's missions and core values
• commitment to protect the environment
• commitment to comply with relevant legislation and/or regulation, and relevant government policy commitments
• timeline for periodically reviewing environmental goals
• commitment to continual improvement in environmental performance.

The policy may also include other commitments such as a desire to:

• influence key stakeholders to improve their environmental performance
• make sustainability a driving principle or value for the organisation
• produce targets or general statements to reduce specific environmental impacts such as energy or water consumption, waste production or impacts on natural systems
• set an example of leadership in the field of environmental management.

The policy should be appropriate to the nature and scale of an agency's activities and its environmental impacts. It should provide a framework for setting and reviewing environmental objectives and targets.

Get started

The policy needs to be written in clear and inspiring language so that it is easily understood by all employees and stakeholders and motivates people to change. Depending on the size and complexity of the organisation's operations, the policy can be a simple one to two paragraph statement or a longer multiple page document. It should reflect the unique nature, scale and environmental impacts of the activities, products and services of an organisation that can impact the environment.

In developing an environment policy, an organisation should consider:

• how the policy fits with its mission, vision, core values and beliefs
• coordination with other organisational policies (e.g. quality, occupational health and safety)
• specific local or regional conditions
• policy commitments with which a government agency needs to comply.

The development of an environment policy should involve representatives of staff from all levels within the organisation. The final policy should be signed off by senior management - preferably the head of the agency.

Where to go for guidance

A growing number of international, national and local organisations, including government, industry associations and community groups, have developed guiding principles to assist in developing an environment policy.

Sample policies are available from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), Sustainability Victoria, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and a range of other Government agencies. You may also consider contacting relevant professional or industry associations, or looking at the websites of related organisations/agencies to see if they have an environment policy that you can use as a starting point.

Communicate the policy

The key to making sure that the policy works in your organisation is to ensure everyone is aware of it. Once a policy has been developed, it needs to be communicated to all employees as well as customers, clients and key stakeholders.

Tips to communicate your environment policy:

• Hang the policy in your front office, reception or behind a sales counter.
• Hang the policy in your boardroom where management regularly have meetings.
• Post the policy on your website and include it in corporate communications.
• Include the policy in the staff and contractor induction package.
• Present the policy at staff meetings.

The policy should be on public display in all locations, including your website, and be available to the public in hard copy if requested.

Review and continual improvement

An environment policy is not a static document. Review and update the policy periodically to ensure it remains relevant as the business grows and changes.

Avoid 'greenwash' - back up the policy with action

The community is becoming increasingly sceptical of organisations that make public commitments to environmental sustainability without concrete action to back this up. This phenomenon of 'greenwashing' often does more damage than good to the image of an organisation and does little to instil confidence in those looking for leadership on these issues from government agencies.

While an environment policy is an excellent start to the sustainability journey, it must be backed up by actions which actually reduce the environmental impacts of your organisation.

Sustainability as an organisational value

Values are the principles of "the way things are done around here" that underpin the culture and approach of the organisation. Values are critical to an organisation achieving its strategic goals. Performance management processes for employees often check in on how individuals' behaviour in the workplace aligns with the values of an organisation.

Do you know what the values for your agency are? Could environmental sustainability be included as a core value for your agency? This serves to integrate sustainability even more strongly throughout your agency as part of the normal culture of the organisation.

Check with senior management to identify the values of your agency and include environmental sustainability in these.