How to Create a Green Team at Work

Want to make your workplace a little greener? Consider creating a green team at work!

A green team consists of a group of employees who are actively engaged in advancing sustainability within their company. This can be done by finding creative solutions to environmental problems in the workplace.

The best part about having a green team at work is bouncing ideas off each other. With more people to collaborate with, there’s a higher chance of green changes being made in the company.

Here’s how to create a green team at work.

form a group:

In order to begin, you need a group of people willing to make change happen, right? 

Start out by collecting a group of individuals in your company who have expressed interest in the topic of green living or sustainability.

Ideally, it would be fantastic to have one member of the team be from the executive staff – this way you have access to the management team so progress can be made quickly. 

Related: 10 Tips for Staying Zero Waste at Work

The size of the group can vary, but ideally, it shouldn’t exceed more than 12 people. This number might be small for very large organizations, but it’s difficult to get things accomplished if there are too many people weighing in their opinions. In this case, the smaller the better!

Besides having a member from the executive staff, you should also have members from different divisions of your organization. Having one person from human resources, sales, accounting, manufacturing, operations, etc is a really good idea.

You can designate these members, but it’s best to get volunteers because those people will be the most passionate and engaged in making your green team work.

establish commitment and meeting times:

Once you have a good group in place, decide how many times you’ll meet. There should be a strong sense of commitment from everyone in the group to show up and take the team seriously.

Also, the executive team must commit to reviewing the suggestions with the intention to take action. This is why it’s really beneficial to have a member of the executive staff – the last thing you want is every idea your team comes up with being rejected by management.

Your team should meet on a regular basis - monthly basis is a good place to start. You can also have year-end and year-beginning celebrations to boost morale and set green goals. Think of it like your office’s New Year’s Resolutions!

assess your company, set goals and get creative:

Your first meeting should be about discussing where your company currently stands in terms of being green. What is your company already doing that may be considered “green”? Where are there areas for improvement?

It may help to define what “green” even is to your team members so you’re all on the same page. Explain that there are different facets to being green, such as reducing waste, energy conservation, reducing water waste, etc. 

After you assess where your company stands, it’s time to make a list of goals you want to accomplish this year. 

Here are some ideas you may want to pitch:

• Get compost bins on the site

• Promote better recycling habits in the office

• Encourage zero waste habits within the company

• Get real mugs for the coffee room

• Reduce paper usage in the office

• Setup a “free” box for used books in the employee lounge

• Hand out reusable totes, straws, water bottles, cutlery, or travel mugs to employees

• Create a blog or newsletter about sustainability you can share with employees

• Pick up litter around the company’s building area

• Start an environmental tip of the week in the company’s email or to share in meetings

• Host a green living event to boost environmental awareness within the company

• Reduce energy

• Extend product durability

• Reduce packaging waste

• Increase the amount of recycled content in the products your company sells

Some of these suggestions may not apply to your company like if your company doesn’t create physical products. However, there are some broader ideas that could help green the company overall.

Brainstorm together and talk about the steps needed to achieve those goals. To start, try not to get too over the top – set no more than four goals at a time so you can properly focus your attention on completing them.

Once you’ve set some goals for your group to achieve throughout the year, have everyone report back at the next meeting to deliver progress. You should assign group members tasks to complete in order to get the ball rolling.

I recommend starting small and fixing the basics first. This includes recycling programs, spreading basic environmental awareness to employees, etc. These will take less time and money.

It’s also a good idea to talk about budgeting with your team. If you have some big goals down the line, chances are they will cost more money.

make suggestions to your company:

There will be things you want to change within your company which will probably mean talking to the executive staff.

It’s always a good idea to be prepared, and it never hurts to make a nice presentation.

Your presentation should include a clear and simple definition of the action taken, benefits (both quantifiable and intangible) the company would receive from implementing the action, an outline of costs, a summary of risks, and how the action will be tracked and reported.

So, for example, let's say you want to reduce paper usage in the office. Here’s how you could present that to the executive team:

• Action: Reduce paper usage in the office by only printing necessary documents and setting printers to default to two-sided printing.

• Benefit: Reduce the cost of paper and ink by X amount of money. 

• Outline: Savings of X amount of money.

• Risks: Some resistance from employees who are used to doing things a certain way.

• Tracking: Paper use will be tracked and reported quarterly.

This is a basic example of how you can present your suggestions to your company. If you’re having trouble calculating costs, Teach Me Finance might be able to help with that.

create backup plans:

Let's say a goal doesn’t pan out, or something doesn’t go quite like you hoped – will you decide to just give up on it? Truly, it’s best to have a plan B ready, just in case.

As you implement your green projects, make sure your team and the executive committee are fully aware of all possibilities which include risks and downsides – not just upsides.

Something could go wrong – maybe you won’t get those compost bins set up right away or meet your recycling goals. It might take some time to get these things passed and that’s OK. Most things take time so be prepared for pushbacks, but keep going. You got this!

celebrate your achievements:

Probably the best feeling is when something you’re perusing comes into fruition. Celebrate that success as a team together! 

You can announce your successes in the company email, newsletter or blog so all your fellow employees see it too. 

Consider even having a mini party to celebrate your wins – just remember to use reusable utensils, cups and plates! Always keep your green message in mind.

Related: 5 Tips for a Zero Waste Party

Will you be starting a green team at work? What are some green initiatives you hope to implement? 

Guest Post: Ariana Palmieri is the founder of Greenify-Me.com, a blog dedicated to zero waste living and sustainability. Her work has been featured on MindBodyGreen, Green Matters, The Penny Hoarder and several other publications. Get her free e-book "10 Ways to Reduce Trash" by signing up to her newsletter and learn how to reduce your waste today.

Recycling 101 - 5 Easy Things EVERYONE Needs to Know!

I want to demystify recycling once and for all. Recycling rules can get pretty complex when we get down to bottle caps and clamshells because what your recycling program accepts can vary depending on the city, county, and state.

But, there are some overarching themes that most everyone will share when it comes to waste and recycling so all of us can get on the same page and increase our recycling rates as a nation!

This post was sponsored by Waste Management! For more information please see my disclosure page.

I had the awesome opportunity to go back to the Waste Management Phoenix Open. I went for the first time last year and it was incredible! It was honestly one of my top highlights of 2019 so I was pretty pumped to be back

This year I attended the event with Shelbi from Shelbizleee and we had a total blast - especially speaking on the dumpster couch.

The 2020 Vision Sustainability Forum was awesome! My personal highlights included John Kerry's keynote and the packaging policy breakout session where we tackled how to move people from indifference to caring about solid waste, recycled materials, increasing recycling rates and so much more.

Another major highlight for me was the behind the scenes tour AKA The MAGIC of keeping a 700,000 person event completely zero waste! My favorite part was doing the waste audit.

We went through a few recycling and compost bags to see if there was any contamination that needed to separated.

Overall, the contamination rates were pretty low. In one large bag, we found on average five pieces of contamination like a few plastic bottles or beverage containers in the compost bin.

Don't worry, every single bag is hand sorted by Waste Management to ensure nothing goes to landfills and that all of the recycling and composting streams are pure!

know what goes in your bin:

Pure recycling and composting streams are SO important. Did I stress that enough… SOOO important!

One of my key takeaways from the Waste Management Phoenix Open was the emphasis on recycling right. The main hashtag for the event was #RecycleRight and trying to educate the public on what actually goes in the recycling bin.

There are a few main reasons people don’t recycle right:

1. wishcycling

2. lack of education

3. laziness

And, I have a way to combat all three!

Up first I want to tackle wishcycling and will get into the other two under the heading ‘talk to your neighbors!’

Wishcycling is when you start wishing and hoping and thinking and praying that what you put in the recycling bin will magically turn into a new product.

I think this belief stems from our perception of recycling.

Many of us think that recycling is charitable. After all, it’s been drilled into our heads from a young age that recycling will SAVE the world!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kathryn Kellogg (@going.zero.waste) on Jan 30, 2020 at 7:43am PST

But, the fact is that recycling is a business. At the end of the day, these recycled products have to be turned back into raw materials for other companies to purchase and use in the creation of new goods.

So, if these streams aren’t clean and pure, there’s no way that’s going to happen.

Make sure that you pay extra close attention to what you put in your recycle bin. These are the most common items accepted in recycling programs across the United States

1. aluminum cans and tins

2. rigid plastic #1

3. rigid plastic #2

4. paper

5. cardboard

6. glass bottles*

*It is becoming more difficult to recycle glass. It’s a very complex issue. Glass breaks which can often contaminate paper streams, endanger workers at the MRF, and it’s just really heavy to transport to glass recycling facilities. Many of the facilities that handle glass aren’t operating anymore and I go over this more in my blog post Which is Better for the Environment Glass or Plastic?

If you are recycling ANYTHING other than those first 5 materials, check with your local waste hauler’s website to make sure that the item you want to recycle is actually accepted in your curbside recycling bin.

keep it clean and dry:

So, now that you’re putting the right things in your recycling bin, are you putting them in the right way? Another form of contamination that can happen, especially with single-stream recycling, is when the recyclables are dirty.

Repeat after me, “My recycling should be clean and dry!”

You can’t recycle half-full plastic bottles of water or soda. You also can’t recycle a half-eaten tub of peanut butter.

Your recycling needs to be clean and dry. Now, your recyclables don’t have to be absolutely spotless, but they need to be relatively clean so when all of those products are turned back into raw materials the businesses who buy them will be buying a quality product.

If we want to see more items made from recycled materials, we’ve got to make sure we’re making that an easy choice.

Paper is one of the most fragile items in your recycling bin. It can’t be wet or soiled with food waste. So, if you’re about to toss a yogurt container or soda can in your curbside bin, you should ask yourself, “Will this get on any paper?”

If you have a tub of peanut butter, carton of oat milk, plastic bottle, tin of beans, or can of soda, you name it the process is the same.

Once you’re finished with it, add a little bit of water, put the lid on, and give it a good shake to loosen up any remaining food particles. Rinse it out, tap out any excess water and then you’re good to put it in your recycling bin.

And, make sure that you’re putting your recyclables lose into your recycling bin. Do not put your recyclables in a plastic bag!

talk to your neighbors!

A lot of people don’t know what’s recyclable, they just guess. So, this is the important part where you come in! Most neighborhoods have meetings to go over things.

See if you can talk about recycling at the next one. I’ve created a few print outs to help people visually digest this information much quicker. One in black and white and one in color so you can encourage everyone to put these on their fridge or next to their recycling bin.

And, if you’re out taking your trash out, strike up a conversation with your neighbor. Most people want to recycle properly they just aren’t very educated.

Ask them about recycling. I find the best way to lead into this conversation is with a fun fact or a news story like, “Did you hear that China is no longer accepting most of our plastic? Yeah, now only plastic #1 and #2 is recycled! Crazy right?” or “Did you know that not all plastic is recyclable!? Look, here’s a plastic #5 item and it looks like it’s recyclable because of the chasing arrows, but it’s not.”

You should both get to chatting about recycling and hopefully, the result is a cleaner recycling stream.

Now, if your neighbor is just lazy and doesn’t care, that’s a different thing altogether. One of the best ways to activate people who don’t care is to gamify the system.

⁠We're already seeing the beginning of gamification like when drivers get scored on their driving (many electric and hybrid vehicles do this) people start driving better and more consciously. ⁠

When people get electric and water bills showing how they're doing in comparison to their neighbors they save more electricity and water whether they're interested in saving resources or not simply because they want to WIN the game. ⁠

Waste Management is using these principles to gamify waste. If you're not doing a very good job of recycling, they'll place a frowny face tag :( on your bin with instructions on how to recycle right. ⁠And, at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, they had an amazing installation with a basketball game.

There were two hoops one for compost and one for recycling, and each basketball had an item on it like an aluminum can or an apple core so even if you made your basket if the wrong material like an apple core went in the recycling bin you lost points.
⁠
Subtle games like these are a way of increasing overall consciousness whether you truly care about the planet or not. I’m very excited to see how gamification can be harnessed in the future because I’m convinced it is one of the best tools we have.

support recycling systems:

When we look at the recycling slogan or hierarchy of waste we have reduce-reuse-recycle. Many of us skip reduce and reuse altogether and jump straight to recycling which is another blog post in and of itself, but I digress.

We also only focus on one aspect of recycling…. the part where we put the items in our curbside bin.

How many of you actively look and buy products made from recycled content?

This was another key point driven home at the Sustainability Forum this year. Companies are just not buying raw recycled materials at the pace they should be buying them.

As consumers, we need to not only buy products made from recycled content we also need to voice our opinions. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a law dictating that all products should be made of at least 30% recycled content?

How do you think that would change the face of recycling and move us closer to our goal of a zero-waste world?

The second part of recycling is making sure that we’re supporting these materials all the way through their lifecycles so we can move to a circular economy and write waste out of existence.

I love the example below where wine glasses from the previous Phoenix Open have been turned into drinking glasses!

tl;dr / cheat sheet:

WHAT GOES IN YOUR RECYCLING BIN

1. aluminum cans

2. rigid plastic #1

3. rigid plastic #2

4. paper

5. cardboard

6. glass bottles*

*For glass and anything else not on that list make sure to check with your local waste management facility. But, if you’re only putting those 5-6 items in the bin, you’re doing a great job.

Other Notes:

• Recyclables should be clean. Give them a quick rinse before placing in the bin

• Recyclables should be dry. Make sure to tap out any excess liquid

• Recyclables should be loose in the bin. Do NOT put them in plastic bags!

I would like to thank Waste Management for sponsoring this post and inviting me for the second year to the Waste Management Phoenix Open! I had an absolute blast and learned so much from the Sustainability Forum.

A Romantic Vegan Dinner for Two

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! I wanted to create a romantic dinner for my sweetie so I scoured the internet trying to find a few vegan dinner meal plans.

I wanted something that focused on in-season produce and had at least three complementary courses, but I couldn’t find a thing!

So, I decided, if I couldn’t find it - I’d make it and help anyone else that might be looking for that perfect plant-based romantic dinner.

In my mind, three courses is what separates a regular dinner from a romantic dinner. There’s just something extra special about preparing an appetizer and a dessert to go with the main dish. It elevates it from every day to not-so-everyday.

This meal plan is going to be a choose your own adventure! I’m going to include a few recipes for appetizers, mains, and desserts, but they’ll all coordinate together beautifully.

appetizers:

spinach and artichoke dip + crostini:

I have always loved creamy dips and spinach and artichoke is one of my favorites! This recipe called for the artichokes to be drained, but I personally like to buy artichokes packed in olive oil and I add a little bit to the mixture. I also like to save that olive oil and use if for cooking other dishes.

I can buy those artichokes in a glass jar or can often find them at the deli section of my grocery store and get them to go in my own mason jar.

Pair this dish with crostini, one of my favorite zero waste snacks! It’s so easy to find baguettes without any packaging or only in a paper bag. Slice them very thin and roast for the perfect cracker substitute. You can get more info my blog post 6 Recipes for Stale Bread.

stuffed mushrooms:

This starter course is one of my personal favorites. I like to buy really small brown button mushrooms cause they’re just so perfect to pop in your mouth!

I prefer to half the recipe and only make six. I serve with a side of homemade pesto sauce because I love sauces. If you make the whole batch and have leftovers, they reheat nicely in a toaster oven.

I also have great luck with finding mushrooms unpackaged in the grocery store. Bring one of your cloth produce bags so you can stock up and keep things zero waste.

If you’re curious about reducing your plastic and packaging around your groceries check out my guide The Ultimate Guide to Zero Waste Grocery Shopping.

photo and recipe from Neurotic Mommy

curried carrot soup:

I think this is my favorite soup of all time! I regularly eat this soup for lunch… I’m actually eating it for lunch right now.

This is the recipe that I use, but with a few tweaks. I use all olive oil, I add in one peeled and cubed granny smith apple with the carrots, and I just buy regular loose carrots and chop them into smaller pieces, instead of chicken stock I use vegetable stock and instead of sour cream I like to use cashew yogurt!

It’s just a few simple substitutions to make it vegan and keep it zero waste. You really don’t need to buy baby carrots….

I also like to serve with a dollop of cashew yogurt, a drizzle of oil (I’ve actually been using the olive oil I’ve saved from my last jar of artichoke hearts) and then top it with pepitas for crunch!

You could also roast a few croutons which would be excellent! You can find my crouton recipe in the blog post 6 Recipes for Using Up Stale Bread.

arugula and pomegranate salad:

I love this simple salad. The pomegranate seeds makes so festive for valentine’s day! I like to substitute the parmesan with homemade vegan cheese.

I also like to regularly eat this salad for lunch, add in quinoa, and falafel bites.

photo and recipe from Serious Eats

mains:

butternut squash risotto:

My husband does not like risotto and tbh, I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Risotto has always been one of my favorite dishes to make and I have such good memories ordering it out at one of our favorite Italian restaurants.

So, even though I won’t be making this for my sweetie, maybe your sweetie will enjoy one of my favorite recipes. I love how creamy this dish is and how beautiful it is to look at with the green and orange.

photo and recipe from the Live-In Kitchen

mushroom wellington:

This is a Christmas classic in my house. But, I personally think making individual wellingtons is more romantic! It’s like you made it just for the two of you so you each get a whole mini-wellington to yourself!

This is my favorite of the vegan wellington recipes because it so closely resembles the real thing with the duxelles. As a kid, I would just eat the duxelles and puff pastry because it was the best part.

photo and recipe from New York Times

cauliflower steak and gravy:

Cauliflower steak and gravy is one of my go-to Thanksgiving mains along with stuffed acorn squash which could also be very romantic for Valentine’s too.

But, this cauliflower recipe won it’s place in this roundup. Because I’m just a real big fan of cauliflower. I like how crispy it gets on the outside soft and tender on the inside, and when you drizzle it with that mushroom gravy Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Plus an entire head of roasted cauliflower looks really impressive. I do think this plate would look pretty naked without a side so keep it simple with something like roasted carrots, steamed broccoli, green beans, or some roasted sweet potatoes!

creamy garlic and white wine pasta:

I also had to include one creamy pasta recipe because, to me, nothing feels more indulgent than a creamy pasta. And, I definitely think Valentine’s Day is all about indulging.

This one just looks to be absolutely b-o-m-b and stars one of my favorite (and very underrated vegetables) the humble brussel sprout. Plus, these bad boys are jusssst starting to come in season. So, talk about perfect timing.

photo and recipe from Minimalist Baker

dessert:

chocolate truffles:

And, now we move on to my favorite, favorite part of the night - chocolate!! I mean dessert.

Now, after you’ve labored in the kitchen for this romantic meal, why not choose a delicious dessert that you can whip up fast. These chocolate truffles come together in a jiffy and the only skill you need is to be able to melt chocolate.

I started making these Valentine’s Truffles for Justin and few years ago and it’s one of my favorite little traditions.

double chocolate chunk cookies:

Now, I made these cookies for a cookie swap with my gal pals last Christmas and they were a hit! They’re vegan, gluten-free, and free of refined sugar but OMG they’re so good and that’s thanks to the Alter Eco chocolate which is one of my favorite chocolate brands.

If you’re feeling really strapped for time or burnt out in the kitchen, I’m sure you could even just split a bar of their Sea Salt or Dark Chocolate.

But, these cookies come together really quickly and store really well so you can snack on them all week long.

lemon bars:

Now, I know that there are some people who aren’t big fans of chocolate. I’m not sure who those people are, but they’re out there. They exist.

Since citrus is currently in season, then what better way to embrace the month than choose something that packs a sweet and acidic punch.

These vegan lemon bars look absolutely divine!

photo and recipe from Nora Cooks

I hope that you’ve found this helpful in planning your romantic vegan dinner for two! I’d love to know which recipes you’ve decided on? I will be making the stuffed mushrooms, the creamy pasta, and ending with chocolate truffles.

Check out my other post if you’re looking for more tips on How to Have a More Sustainable Valentine’s Day.