ICR Malaysia - Green office initiatives in Malaysia: Getting the basics right

Green office initiatives in Malaysia: Getting the basics right

Reproduced with permission from CSR Asia by Gabriel Chong

Here are some key lessons learned and shared by Malaysian companies who are ahead in the green office agenda:

•Changing values: Core to the success of many of these programmes was changing values of individuals to understand their impacts as an individual. Don’t just implement a programme; work with staff to understand why you’re doing it. You stand a much better chance success.
•Do away with rubbish bins: As a society we are addicted to just throwing things away! A company removed personal rubbish bins and replaced them with recycle bin in different departments. Now, to throw anything away, you actually had to get up and think about it before you throw it.
•Measure: Don’t just say you are doing; show you do by measuring and reporting how much your impacts are. Water, electricity, paper, fuel consumptions are areas that office based operations can easily monitor and improve efficiencies or reduce consumption.
•Carbon emissions: A review sustainability reports of Malaysian companies would suggest that companies are aware of their CO2 emissions judging by the number of tree planting activities that companies do as a way of offsetting their CO2 emissions. However, upon scrutiny, these companies plant trees with no knowledge of the emissions that their company emits in the first place! Without baseline knowledge, how do companies know they are actually offsetting their emissions and have they reviewed operational areas where emissions can be reduced in the first place? Start with measuring your emissions.
•Incentives, not subsidies: Working in a city that is addicted to cars, I’ve never heard of a successful car pooling scheme till a company shared their approach. As covered parking was limited, only those who car pooled are allowed to park under cover, and sometimes get their car washed!
•Address different departments: One size does not fit all in developing green office initiatives. The impacts of drivers in an office car pool and secretarial services for example are different, so they have to be looked at and addressed differently.
•Encourage working from home: With our technological infrastructure, this is possible and should be encouraged. Even the Malaysian government is getting into this through the introduction of a three-month trial Home Working Programme starting Jan 1, involving 35 draughtsmen in the Public Works Department.
•Push it further: Companies present at the workshop worked with their vendors to ban Styrofoam containers and plastics from their workplace canteens and corporate functions. Another looked at how their recycled materials were collected to ensure that it wasn’t being tipped elsewhere!

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ICR Malaysia - Green office initiatives in Malaysia: Getting the basics right