The Kenexa Green Business Study finds that 71% of employees in the UK feel their organisation has green/environmentally-friendly business practices.
This compares to India (85%), Germany (73%), France (72%), Canada (70%), Spain (64%) and the US (63%).
“The findings demonstrate that, even in a time of fairly substantial economic challenges for most organisations, many are still practicing green or eco-friendly efforts,” said Dr Anne Herman of the Kenexa Research Institute.
Further analysis of the data shows that organisations in the US lag significantly behind organisations in the UK, Germany, France, Canada, India and Spain in terms of formally outlining their environmental position, providing a clear description of the organisation’s environmental objectives, having genuine efforts for protecting the environment, and encouraging their employees’ creativity to find ways to protect the environment.
In a somewhat different pattern, however, employees in US organisations reported feeling more pride in working for their organisation when the organisation was employing green business practices (57%) than did employees in the UK (51%) and the other countries in this study (49% average), except for those workers in India (80%).
Further, employees in the US (54%) and in India (71%) reported more favourable responses toward their organisation’s efforts to prioritise their environmental practices in how they operate, than in the UK (51%).
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“Although there appear to be opportunities for organisations to improve their environmental focus relative to organisations in other countries, employees who work in organisations that do focus on environmental initiatives and actions report stronger pride in the organisation,” said Dr Herman.
“This shows that organisations, even while facing challenges through the state of the economy, can reap the rewards of being environmentally conscious.”
