Once you’ve identified the changes you can make, worked out your priorities and set up systems to track your progress, its time to get started!

To ensure successful outcomes:

• Set goals which are consistent with your environmental management policy and are practical, achievable and measurable (e.g. reduce energy consumption by 10% over the next financial year)
• Set a timeframe for implementing each action
• Determine who is responsible for following through and making it happen
• Review and report on progress.

It’s important to be realistic. Focus on areas where you can make the biggest improvements for the least expense or effort. Take small steps and remember that becoming a more environmentally sustainable business is a continuous process.

Fostering sustainable behaviour

A critical aspect of implementation is in understanding how to encourage people to be sustainable – although it might seem straightforward, it isn’t necessarily the case.

Some of the actions identified in your plan only need to be implemented once, such as installing more efficient lighting, or putting in water saving devices. Other actions will require repetitive behaviour change to achieve significant environmental benefit (such as staff remembering to turn off computers and monitors). These behaviours are more difficult to cultivate because they rely on people changing their habits.

Relying only on telling people what you want them to do is likely to be ineffective. Introducing sustainability initiatives involves educating people to change their attitudes and influencing people to change their behaviour - this is what will deliver results. To influence behaviour change its important to understand the barriers people face or perceive and convince them of the benefits of changing their behaviour.

To encourage sustainable behaviour it is important to gain a commitment from people to convert their intentions into actions. People who have made a formal commitment are more likely to follow through with action. 

Tools to educate and influence behaviour

Prompts help people remember to act – such as signs telling people to turn off the lights, take shorter showers, switch off office equipment etc. Prompts should be noticeable, self explanatory, and simple. They should also be presented as close to the targeted behaviour as possible, e.g. directly above the light switch.

Social norms – people are more likely to change behaviour if others are visibly leading the way. They will want to be seen to be ‘doing the right thing’ within the community, or within your organisation.  Appoint people in your team as sustainability ambassadors.

Effective communication – be vivid, clear and specific about what the desired behaviour is, make it easy for people to remember what to do, how to do it and when to do it, and where possible deliver the information in person using someone with credibility in the organisation.

Reward appropriate behaviour as people change. Show them you recognise their efforts.

Next step: Monitoring your performance