Planning to organise a sustainability engagement or initiative for your company or community? With over 600 engagements conducted with companies, schools, and communities, we’d like to highlight three pitfalls to avoid to ensure your sustainability efforts are meaningful for employees and participants.
It's easy to organise an event based on what the leadership wants, but to boost engagement with employees, consider their interests and preferences.
For instance, one company we worked with struggled with low turnout for their sustainability initiatives. After consulting with them, we discovered that employees were more interested in community and social engagements.
Instead of persisting with the same types of engagements, we shifted our focus to creating social events where employees could work with beneficiaries on sustainability initiatives. For example, we organised workshops where employees could support efforts indirectly, rather than being directly involved. This approach led to higher participation and allowed us to engage employees meaningfully in environmental sustainability through hands-on support.
One simple way to obtain feedback is to create a poll with shortlisted ideas for participants to choose from or to hold an anonymous feedback session to gather their suggestions. This not only provides an opportunity to hear what participants want to do but also significantly increases their buy-in and support for future initiatives.
Have you ever encountered a cleanup event that generated more trash from the organisers or participants? Unfortunately, such a sight is not uncommon whenever we receive enquiries from companies. Organisers, especially first-time planners, often “over-plan” to cover all possible scenarios.
On one occasion, a company provided bottled water, bento meals, wet tissues, hand sanitisers, and disposable gloves. However, many participants, exhausted after the session, left the meals behind, resulting in a significant amount of food waste and single-use disposables.
Another common issue is when companies plan cleanups based on their own schedules, forgetting that coastal cleanups are tide-dependent. It is more effective to conduct cleanups during low tide. When cleanups are scheduled at high tide, large groups of participants often find minimal trash to collect, defeating the purpose of a large-scale cleanup.
Aligning the coordination with the event's goals is crucial for demonstrating what companies and organisers aim to achieve. Planning in advance, such as checking tide tables for coastal cleanups or renting a cleanup toolkit to minimise single-use disposables, can help avoid these common mistakes and make the event more meaningful for all participants.
One of the most common mistakes organisers make is ending the session without closing the loop with participants.
In one instance, a company organiser left before the cleanup activity ended, leaving participants unsure of what to do next. This not only revealed the organiser's work ethic but also left an impression on their co-workers.
When participants take the time to join an event, it's helpful to update them on the impact of their efforts and share future plans to continue the momentum.
Besides updating them on what was achieved during the session, organisers can inform participants about similar upcoming initiatives for those interested in contributing more. In doing so, the progress made gains greater meaning, effectively demonstrating what the organisers or company aim to achieve.
Organising any initiative and engagement is not easy, especially for first-timers. However, it's essential to consider the significance of these engagements for participants, especially if they are encouraged to consider future events and initiatives. After all, employees and participants are human and want their contributions to matter, and thoughtful planning can make all the difference.
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