Most UK workers are leaving green activities to others and lack faith in
their company's environmental policies, new research from Canon has shown.
Just five per cent of workers questioned are more environmentally conscious
at work than at home, where recycling and energy efficiency is common practice,
the research found.
Furthermore, only four in 10 believe that protecting the environment during
office hours is their responsibility.
Instead 30 per cent of respondents feel that company bosses should shoulder
the burden, and 16 per cent that it should be the government's responsibility.
"The green debate is not a new one and big businesses have acknowledged the
importance of a robust environmental strategy," said Andy Vickers, managing
director of Canon UK & Ireland.
"However, these results indicate that individual employees have either not
bought into their company's policies or perhaps don't believe they are genuine.
"
Worryingly, just over half of employees said that their company does not have
a green policy designed to reduce their environmental impact, and where one does
exist 42 per cent said that it is just for show.
And in a true sign of what Canon has dubbed "eco-apathy" one in 10 admitted
to not even knowing what a green policy is.
"These results do not paint a good picture in offices up and down the country
and it is shocking to see just how disinterested UK workers seemingly are when
it comes to doing their bit to protect the environment," said Vickers.
"Every office worker needs to understand their individual impact when it
comes to the environment and taking responsibility for improving company policy
needs to be a collaborative effort between company bosses and staff.
"Without effective communication of green strategy throughout an
organisation, more damage will be done than good."
Focusing on paper wastage, Canon found that office workers unnecessarily
throw away an average of eight pages of A4 paper every day.
This equates to approximately 120 million pages of A4 that do not need to be
printed every day. This could easily be cut in half by setting office printers
to default to double-sided printing, Canon said.
Do you agree?
Have your say on this article