Green Management: The prime need for business leaders!

Green management - a concept that involves improving environmental awareness through the usage of energy resources and eco-friendly technologies, reduce and recycle of wastes beginning with sourcing to production to packing and packaging and further, to delivering the products to the end customers.

The organization involved in the operational process need to fully integrate with the environmental goals and objectives that enables them to win over their competitors by creating a niche position and take complete advantage through best practices in connection to disposing or reusing scraps and wastes, take sustainable measures by implementing concepts such as ‘kaizen’ and maintain social responsibility and awareness. By doing so, the organization gains better recognition and goodwill across communities and societies.

The concept revolves around business sustainability without compromising the growth and development of the organization to face the future world, but to gain more advantage to completely take a win over the future market by providing long-term success building goals and solutions. The added advantage of being a business that is focused on green practices is to enhance the work place quality and to maintain the environment at the same time.

When an organization avoids or removes certain processes that are dangerous or harmful to the ecological environment, it is generally known to be a green practice.

Let us take Mr.X for example. Mr.X has worked for more than twenty two years in the same organization. When he started working about two decades ago, he and his company used enormous amounts of paper. There were millions of customer letters being sent, invoices that were eight pages long be sent to each customer by the end of each month. Meanwhile internally, several notepads were used by all the employees and the visitors for each meeting and for other general note-making during business hours. Moreover, there were several bundles of paper that came to the backyard daily that were to be shredded and be disposed. With no further explanation, it is clearly seen that his organization was utilizing tonnes of paper on a daily basis.

In the last two years, the organization has taken a major shift in its approach to daily usage of paper and has almost moved to a paperless organization. The decision was made unanimously by all the members in the organization to start being environmentally friendly, and avoid the practice of using papers for daily requirements. The idea was brought in to their system slowly through a recycling program that opened everyone’s eyes on the amounts of papers being wasted by the organization on the whole.

However, today all of their documents are stored and maintained electronically. Customer invoices are sent through emails and notepads are replaced with laptop notebooks for making quick notes and reminders by most of the employees.

The advantages in the above case are,

• Being environment friendly
• Less carbon footprint
• Simple and efficient approach
• Reduces overall cost of materials
• Boosts employee morale and satisfaction
• Recognition by regulators under environment protection act
• Paves ways to explore opportunities to reduced wastage in other areas

Green management is the answer when an organization follows practices to avoid processes that affect the environment. Environmental problems need to be kept as every organization’s top priority.

As business educators, ISBR believes in following the best of all practices that are people-friendly and environment-friendly. The adaptation of being environment friendly is followed by all the staff and students inside and outside the campus acting as a reminder to be kind to one another and to the nature, which is clearly our motto - ‘Real World, Real Learning’.

Fig. Green Management’s impact and influence in Business practice

There are several benefits through the adaptation of green management practices in an organization. This could be both short-term and long-term. Let us go through some of these benefits for deeper understanding.

Short-term benefits:

- Better health

- Better discipline

- Recycle and Reuse

- Better perception

- Radiates positivity

- Feel good effect in all the stake-holders, and

- Cleanliness as the result of elimination of wastes and dumps

As the short terms benefits are realized by the employees one after another, the loyalty towards the organization improves. This leads to reduced attrition among the employees and further helps in several administration aspects of the business indeed. As short term benefits get added, it leads into a snow-ball effect resulting in long-term benefits that are as follows.

Long-term benefits:

- Better brand

- Better relationships

- Teamwork in every part of work-life

- Better employee morale

- Best of cost efficiency

- Faster technology upgrades and adaptations

- Less utilisation of energy

- Optimisation of costs, and

- Reduced liabilities for the business

Organizations’ move into green management practices improves the awareness of the brand and its image. The larger community acclaims the firm doing its best to support the environment, and the employees are more positively driven with confidence carrying the company’s vision in their daily living.

To conclude, being socially responsible is everyone’s duty - starting within ourselves, in our homes and in our offices. It connects and builds better relationships across every entity and promotes positivity.

About the author

The article has been written by Dr Veena Shenoy, Professor- HR & OB, ISBR Business School

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha