Lancaster University Management School - 54 Degrees Issue 12

A round the world, ever more companies are taking a serious approach towards becoming sustainable. From reducing their carbon footprints and having a positive impact on the environment rather than a negative one, to bene fi ting society and their geographies, sustainabilitymakes good business sense. But often there is a gap that exists between the intention to engage in an environmentally responsible behaviour and the actual behaviour itself, and a key factor inmaking ambitions a reality is the role of employees. If a company is to introduce greener practices, it needs sta ff to actively engage in environmental behaviour. My own studies have looked at employee green behaviours (EGBs) in the supply chain of fi ve large companies in the UK and India, across the service andmanufacturing sectors. EGBs are actions and behaviours linked with and contributing to environmental sustainability, and supply chain employees engage in a lot of practices that have environmental aspects integrated into them. Some of these behavioursmay not be entirely voluntary from the organisation’s perspective, and the employees can thus be seen as having sustainability criteria in their role expectations. We interviewed sustainabilitymanagers alongside managers in logistics, purchasing, quality, service, and productions, those supposed to be involved directly with environmental issues, though not always with formal responsibility for sustainability. Our research found a shift towards seeing EGB as proactive engagement in sustainability, with employees taking it upon themselves to take action and go beyond what might be expected of them in their roles for the bene fi t and e ff ectiveness of the organisation. The level this behaviour will often depend on individual perceptions and organisational factors that these employees experience. EMPLOYEES MAKING A DIFFERENCE Employee participation is necessary not only to develop innovations based on personal suggestions and initiatives, but also to implement cleaner technology, change existing ways of working, and develop new knowledge, all of which require proactive employees. Traditional jobs can, and increasingly do, incorporate tasks that contribute to the environmental sustainability goals of their organisation. For example, managersmight use remote conferencing to limit the impact of travel – even before the Covid pandemicmade this a norm for many fi rms – or digitise to reduce paper use. These behaviours ranged from Compliance Green Behaviours (CGBs) – e.g. improving operational e ff ectiveness, conforming to sustainability policy or environmental laws – to Proactive Green Behaviours (PGBs) – e.g. taking charge, assuming additional roles, acquiring knowledge and in fl uencing others – due to employees’ role perceptions and internal motivations. CGBs occur when an employee perceives a responsibility to engage in green behaviours to conformwith existing environmental management norms and tomeet environmental objectives. Taking part in other environmental behaviours was seen as taking themaway from their core responsibilities. In contrast, with PGBs employees take charge rather than following, anticipate instead of react. They challenge the organisational status quo and suggest organisational improvements. 36 | Employee participation is necessary not only to develop innovations based on personal suggestions and initiatives, but also to implement cleaner technology, change existing ways of working, and develop new knowledge, all of which require proactive employees. ‘‘ ’’