Despite raised awareness about green issues among UK firms, productivity and revenue gains were the biggest drivers behind creating a green policy, according to a survey by contact center consultancy Softlab.
‘Going green’ for green’s sake is not a current business goal, said Softlab senior consultant Lisa Olafsdottir. Companies do want to be seen to be taking steps to reduce their impact on the environment, but only if it makes commercial and financial business sense.
Most companies said they were increasing their adoption of technology, including workforce optimization tools, VoIP, and to a lesser extent speech-activation, to save money and drive efficiency. The green side benefits of using this technology, such as making it easier for home working and reducing paper usage, were also beginning to influence purchasing decisions. Some 44% of respondents said they planned to go green over the next 12 months while a further 20% had a three-year deadline.
However, there is plenty of room for improvement. Although more than half the respondents said they had a green policy in place, many expressed doubts about its quality and one in five weren’t even sure if their firm had a policy at all.
Similarly, although 41% of firms said their firms had a green tzar, that left more than half the sample without anyone pushing home the environmental message, either because this person didn’t exist or wasn’t making a visible impact.
