Companies looking to boost their productivity should think about “going green” as a University of California, Los Angeles-led study found that employees in companies who follow green practices are 16 percent more productive than the average.
According to the study’s findings, employees in firms that voluntarily adopt international green practices and standards are more motivated, receive more training and benefit from better interpersonal relationships.
Professor Magali Delmas, an environmental economist at the university, and Sanja Pekovic from France’s University Paris-Dauphine are the first to study how a firm’s environmental commitment affects its productivity.
The two collected data from a survey of employees at 5,220 French companies, randomly selecting two employees from each company for a pool of around 10,000 people. The companies that had voluntarily adopted international standards, eco-labels or the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 14001 certification were identified as green.
«Green practices make a company more attractive because so many employees want to work for a company that is green, but we also argue in this paper that it’s more than just wanting to work there – it’s working more,” said Ms. Delmas.
According to Ms. Delmas, green certifications can be used by managers to increase productivity and be taken by potential employees as a sign of a better work environment. The higher-productivity effect stems from employees’ appreciation for their workplace.
Going green can also help the company meet its bottom line. Previous research has already shown that sustainable business practices can result in cost-efficiencies. They can also be taken by investors as indicators of good management practices. – EcoSeed Staff