Planting The Seeds of Engagement: How Employee Involvement in Sustainability Enhances Organizational Success

Employee engagement has proven to be a game-changer in the business world, with profound effects on company performance and success. Contrary to the traditional focus on employee satisfaction, engagement occurs when individuals express their true selves in the workplace and actively contribute to their organizations. Financially healthy companies with a productive workforce and high employee retention rates often owe their success to highly engaged employees. It’s not the superficial perks and benefits like free snacks that drive engagement, but rather the opportunities for meaningful contribution and involvement.

Recognizing the vital role of employee engagement in talent retention and workplace culture, a global commercial real estate company decided to prioritize sustainability as a means to increase engagement. Through their own research, they discovered that an overwhelming majority of employees (90%) desired to work for a company that actively involved them in sustainability efforts. By becoming a sustainability leader and fully embracing sustainability at all levels, the company aimed to ensure that their commitment reached every department and empowered each individual employee.

To bring sustainability and engagement together, one Director within the company introduced tree planting as reward for completing a feedback survey to an internal training session for the leasing team. Following the training, employees were asked to share their feedback, and as a token of appreciation, they received a planted OneSeed tree that they could virtually visit. This approach allowed employees to make direct contributions to the company’s sustainability, sparking further awareness and buy-in.

The results were notable. The survey response rate doubled compared to the company’s typical employee survey response rate. The Director remarked, “gifting OneSeed trees increased engagement and feedback on the training initiative. The cohort was genuinely impressed by how the tree planting activity came to life, and being able to track the progress of their trees made it all the more real for them.”

Engaging employees in sustainability serves a dual purpose. It not only contributes to environmental protection but also fosters a sense of responsibility, awareness, and collective action among the workforce. When employees are actively involved in environmental initiatives, organizations can make substantial contributions towards addressing environmental challenges and working towards a more sustainable future.

For this commercial real estate company, the tree planting initiative proved to be a highly effective approach to build greater awareness and adoption of their sustainability efforts. By integrating sustainability into their workplace culture and providing tangible rewards for engagement, they not only reinforced their commitment to environmental protection but also created a workforce that felt valued and empowered. This holistic approach to sustainability and engagement holds tremendous potential for organizations seeking to enhance their overall success and positively impact the world around them.