4. Get Involved What local initiatives can you get involved in to better your community? Some examples are sponsoring a local sports team, giving your employees time to volunteer with a local organization aligned with your values, or donating merch to an organization in need. Your impact locally will have the most immediate return – and you know the saying: Act local, think global. 5. Check In When was the last time you sent out an internal employee satisfaction survey? This is a great tool that not only ensures any HR initiatives you have planned will land well, but also helps you prioritize what’s most important to your workforce. 6. Encourage Speaking of employees, encourage anyone on your team who’s passionate about sustainability to start an internal CSR committee or task force. Folks who are passionate about this really want to help, and research shows that this is an increasingly important topic to the generation currently entering the workforce. 7. Review Review your recycling, waste and packaging programs. Can you transition to digital documentation to go paperless? Where can you reuse packaging more efficiently? Is there an opportunity to eliminate single-use plastics in your office or lunchroom? Even encouraging more recycling through education can be very impactful. Reach out to your local municipality to confirm exactly what can and can’t be recycled so that you can share that knowledge with everyone from your shipping department to your accountant. 8. Create We all work in marketing, right? Build a cause-related marketing campaign by offering a set percentage of your sales to support charitable organizations that are aligned with your company mission and values. Ensure you educate your team on the thought process behind your decision so that they can properly pitch it to clients and speak about what you want to accomplish with the campaign. 9. Expand Increase your reach by hiring and recruiting from underrepresented groups. Look to job boards or websites that attract a range of diverse job seekers to give you a competitive edge. 10. Avoid Reduce any potentially deceptive advertising and commit to ethical marketing practices in your sustainability claims. Simplify your clientfacing communication to highlight your wins rather than sharing vague long-term goals, and invite conversation instead of making standalone statements. 11. Provide Educate your clients on the benefits of ecofriendly and sustainable promo items, which ties back into asking your suppliers questions about their CSR/ESG initiatives. 12. Solicit Ask for feedback. This can be as formal as engaging a third-party auditing company or using one of the many assessments available online (notably, the B Impact Assessment is a great tool, and free) or as informal as putting the question to your team in a group discussion. Elizabeth Wimbush is the director of corporate responsibility and sustainability at PPAI. PPAI • JANUARY 2024 • 37 Responsibility | Voices
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