Various jargons have been driving this world. Literature is full with examples. Several efforts have been floated for various stories of success, while a few ones were shortlived. One fresh arrival is "Going Green". There has been wide talk on this on a global basis. Several enlightened countries have made a confident start at local levels and later graduated to the national level.
In our country, there is a need to develop a national policy starting from the union council, move to the tehsil level, later take it to the district level, graduate to the provincial level and finally take it to the apex level namely, the national level. An accelerated tempo is the call of the day so that a social movement is launched and the whole country is addressed as an agenda for the nation involving all stakeholders.
Moreover, at the business level in general and at the corporate level in particular, "Going Green" should be accepted as a manifesto for implementation. In the forthcoming 2012 elections in Pakistan, all political parties are urged to include the slogan of "Going Green" in their election manifestos as their firm and positive commitment.
It is necessary that we must comprehend the concept of "Going Green". The conceptual aspects include technical factors namely, reduction of emissions. However, managerial aspects of "Going Green" are also important to comprehend. In this backdrop, the following clarifications would be helpful:
1. It consists of designing, selling or funding echo-friendly products and services.
2. The future is in.
a. Reusable products
b. High-emission standards
3. Healthy employees-employer relations.
4. Transparency in operational matters.
5. Natural environment is also described by Green World.
Going Green is believed to be good for the bottom line. Earlier there was a concept of one Bottom Line (IBL). Currently, there is an approach of Three Bottom Lines (Triple BLS) which is explained in the following figure. Economic refers to the bottom line, eg profit for corporate entity, economic growth for the country, objectives accomplishment for NGOs etc.
Social stands for "Corporate Social Responsibility" (CSR). This is on the rise as a social response by the corporate sector. Some corporate entities earmark a certain percentage of these activities to serve the society out of their gross revenues. However, this concept is in wide currency when there are boom days. When businesses are suffering losses, then the CSR impact becomes negligible and diminishing. Concerns for environment is on the high agenda for discussion globally. Several international conferences have been held to create awareness and motivate stakeholders to undertake steps to reduce the adverse impact of the environment on the success of the system. Going Green is the focus of this paper.
Accordingly, Going Green in the corporate sector would be:
1. Have a good brand.
2. Be an employer of choice.
3. Maintain a strong market position.
4. Earn the trust of the financial markets.
5. Motivation in development of new products and services, and
6. Creating new markets.
GOING GREEN AT WORK
TOP TEN TIPS (http/planetgreen.discnery.com/go-green-work/greenwork-tips html.)
Literature is full of tips and guidelines for implementing the spirit of Going Green at work. However, for this paper, we have downloaded top ten tips for the above subject. Besides listing these points, these have been briefly explained by us in our language below:
MORE WORK WITH LESS ENERGY This requires smart work approach so that goods are delivered in a befitting manner with less energy.
DIGITIZE As best as one can the job should be handled with a digitalisation approach. The old generation of workers need to upgrade their skills so that rather than undergoing work through hand, a good bye is given to hand work and a digital culture is introduced for the Green World.
DO NOT BE A PAPER-PUSHER The corporate culture needs to introduce rather than pushing paper in offices. The new culture should be introduced in government and non-government. offices. In our government offices, it is generally believed that the current practice is: "Apply, Apply but no Reply" with some exceptions. Dr Mahathir of Malaysia has stated that the best way to make bureaucracy efficient is to digitise the work. Training needs to be given to the younger and older generations so that we must visualise paperless offices now across-the-board.
GREENING THE COMMUTE Driving the car above should be replaced by taking more people to sit in the car. Some schools in Lahore have disallowed the entry of cars, which carry one student for study. Encouragement has been provided that we must optimise the use of car pool concept of bringing more students. In USA several World Bank employees follow the pooling of car for commuting from Baltimore to World Bank (Washington D.C).
GREEN SLEEVES One must use clothes, which do not need dry cleaning quickly.
WORK FROM HOME Video conferencing should be used rather than physical meeting to avoid wastage of money, time and effort hassle.
USE GREEN MATERIALS Used papers and used envelopes be recycled and used again. Cultural change is needed to implement this spirit.
REDESIGN THE WORKPLACE Workplace be redesigned to optimise the benefits of productive use of workplace.
PLACE A LARGE ORDER On the assumption that finances are available, a large order be placed to mitigate the impact of inflation and also to ensure lower ordering cost.
GET THE THINGS ON THE ACT Encouragement be produced to create an environment of sharing tips and success stories with colleagues.