This document outlines best practices for establishing effective Green Teams within companies. It recommends that leadership clearly communicate support for Green Teams and define their objectives. It also suggests defining the team's responsibilities, scope, and decision-making process. Green Teams should assess company operations and identify sustainability opportunities. Ongoing education, incentives, and rewarding progress can help Green Teams succeed. Broader employee engagement efforts should align with sustainability and business goals through communication, education, metrics and integrating campaigns with company culture.

1. Green Team
Best Practices
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2. Arming Brand Ambassadors
 Employees are a company’s most important
resource – and they’re hungry to get involved!
 Educated, eco-minded employees foster creativity
and drive progress. Harness their grassroots
ingenuity and passion to integrate sustainable
innovation across your business.
 Internal programs should be customized for each
company’s unique culture, mission and values.
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3. From Facilities to Operations
• It’s important to move beyond “green buildings”
to evaluate how employees operate within a
building.
• Employees are on the front-lines of the business
and should be engaged in defining those new
sustainable operational practices.
• Green Teams are the perfect entity for
identifying, vetting and implementing those
opportunities.
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4. Common Green Team Obstacles
• Grassroots efforts don’t align with
corporate sustainability vision and
objectives
• Team lacks direction or commitment
• Team members’ managers are not
supportive
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5. Common Green Team Obstacles
• Inadequate policies, tools and resources
• No clear process for vetting proposals
• Team lacks specialized sustainability
expertise
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6. Best Practices: Green Teams
 Leadership should clearly communicate both its
support and objectives for the Green Team
 Team responsibilities and commitment level must
be understood by team members and their
managers
 A well-defined scope, decision making framework
and approval process can streamline progress
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7. Best Practices: Green Teams
 Teams can learn by looking at typical business
impacts and then move on to assessing company-
specific operations and processes
 Ongoing education is critical to success
 Incentivize participation
 Reward progress
© 2010 Paydirt, LLC 7

8. Best Practices: Employee Engagement
 Design broader employee engagement efforts
to fuel the company’s overall sustainability and
business objectives
 Take a “top-down, bottom-up and sideways”
approach to internal communications
 Provide education and tools on-demand
© 2010 Paydirt, LLC 8

9. Best Practices: Employee Engagement
 Cultivate an ongoing dialogue
 Supplement education with fun and
inspiration
 Establish benchmarks, metrics and
accountability
 Integrate campaign with overall brand,
mission and culture
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10. For More Information:
jkolling@thinkpaydirt.com
612.840.5673
www.thinkpaydirt.com