Learn about the significance of sustainable workplaces for a carbon-neutral future, driven by technology and learning, from Thirumala Arohi of Infosys.
In the last few decades, there has been growing awareness about the dangers of climate change caused by the rising levels of greenhouse gases. As a result, enterprises are including environmental best practices in their operations. Creating workplaces that meet sustainability goals can go a long way in achieving a carbon-neutral future.Â
Enterprises at large are contributing by ensuring eco-friendly campuses and buildings. But only when every single contributor to a business’s ecosystem makes sustainable practices a way of life will quantifiable change occur. This is what we define as true workplace sustainability. Â
The three pillars of workforce sustainability include the organization, the business ecosystem, and, most importantly, people.
Organizations Use Technology to Meet Their Sustainability Goals
Most, if not all, changes are driven by technology. For example, in Europe, industrial ecosystems are encouraged to leverage digital innovationOpens a new window to increase the production of green technologies. Enterprises are improving operational efficiency, energy reduction, and fleet optimization to decarbonize the industrial process.Â
Summarizing the role of technology in sustainability, Glickman and Kavanaugh, in their book, Practical SustainabilityOpens a new window , say with the explosion of new digital technologies such as big data and machine learning, the scope to solve environmental problems becomes much larger. The book recommends a framework that focuses on building a regenerative future and circular commerce. It recommends employing technology to understand and contextualize the world through data-driven insights and ensure that sustainability initiatives focus on elevating the human experience.
See More: Start Small: A Case for Incremental Change in Sustainability
Business Ecosystem as a Sustainability Driver
Committed enterprises actively practice sustainability by extending expectations to their eco-system of customers, vendors, and partners. To take Apple’s example, it commits to be 100 percent carbon neutralOpens a new window for its supply chain and products by 2030. This extends to Amazon, which has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2040Opens a new window , and many other large enterprises.Â
While these commitments from the largest companies in the world are promising, they must have a thorough plan in place to ensure compliance. This is where many large enterprises will turn to technology consultants. Businesses will increasingly need to consult technology consultants to properly outline sustainability best practices and tailor learning programs on sustainability for vendors and partners to achieve the ambitious plans they have committed to.
The central force in sustainability practices is people because technology is only a tool in the hands of people. When the workforce uses it effectively, it results in dramatic changes.Â
To ensure that workforce sustainability is not just a high-level vision but a practical approach to business processes, the workforce must be trained and aware of the need for sustainability. This is where the learning department plays a crucial role. Â
Why Learning & Development Is Crucial to Sustainability
Sustainability should be an integral element of all training – whether related to technology skills, professional skills, or leadership development. Every leader in the organization must be trained to imbibe the value of practical sustainability in their daily work and people interaction. The learning department can create campaigns and act as a powerful influencer in driving behavioral change in employees to align better with sustainability practices. Leaders can be trained to act as change managers to lead the shift to new sustainability-centric processes and best practices.
People, be they employees, customers, suppliers, or business partners, can play an influential role in making a shift from performance to fulfillment. Changing from generic learning to personalized learning can go a long way in helping employees understand the various elements of a sustainable organization. Keeping pace with the work from any time, anywhere model that the pandemic brought about, the function of learning also has moved beyond the physical classroom to any time, anywhere hybrid learning, helping reduce carbon emits.
The learning and development teams invest in technologies and create smart ecosystems, ensuring the learning offerings are tailored to each role. The training enables employees to spot those areas of improvement or change they can bring to their jobs to align with the broader organizational goal for sustainability.Â
See More: Using Data to Drive L&D Transformation
For example, a well-trained engineer will learn how to optimize and reduce the lines of code to reduce the power wastage required to run longer processes. Operations teams could learn to leverage or reuse existing assets rather than build new ones. Designers and developers could create sustainability solutions using AR, VR, and digital twins that reduce the use of scarce physical resources.
The learning and development function can also champion and implement organizational knowledge management practices. Creating a knowledge ecosystem can encourage employees to share and learn from colleagues about new ways of being more eco-friendly.Â
Organizations must provide learning and development to employees and all the stakeholders who have a role to play that impact the environment.
A leading US bank, for instance, was looking for a learning experience platform to enable its workforce to build emerging technology skills. A digital learning platform for employees aided the bank in integrating disparate knowledge and ensuring the stability of E2E environments. Study materials and online and offline Big Data learning courses strengthened effective talent management and encouraged high motivation in the workplace.Â
Moreover, a prominent pharma company hosted Big Data on Cloud to modernize its IT landscape, enabling researchers to access data quickly and reform dynamic analyses. They leveraged digital technology for human connections and adopted a modern learning platform to train employees on multiple digital technologies. Their digitized learning landscape for new-age technologies facilitated collaboration, gamification, practice and knowledge discovery.Â
Building a Regenerative Future
Digital transformation has enabled the democratization of technology, where employees have access to IT systems to create new solutions and drive values. Their actions influence the environment. With learning and development, employees can be more aware of their responsibilities towards the organization and the world.Â
In the future, it isn’t the largest or the fastest organizations that will succeed. It will be those continuously adapting to change who can thrive and contribute to a sustainable world.Â
How can technology and learning initiatives promote workplace sustainability and help build a regenerative future? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!
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