Embarking on a green initiative can be a great boon for your industry, your factory, and your workers – if it succeeds. Nothing feels more frustrating than setting high expectations and working to meet them, only to feel yourself falling further and further behind.

Here are some reasons why your green initiative might be under-performing your goals, and how to resolve this.

You Have Kept Workers in the Dark

Part of succeeding in the “greening” of your factory involves getting everyone in the organization on board with the plan. This means unveiling your core initiatives complete with actionable steps that involve the entire organization.

Adding incentives, perks and recognition for key players won’t hurt either. By inviting everyone to join together to succeed and rewarding those who go the extra mile, you may just find yourself back on track in no time at all!

You Aren’t Clear About The End Game

The best way to determine if your green initiative is working is if you set very clear, measurable goals and a set timetable by which you plan to achieve them. Bringing in an oil and gas energy consulting firm like Opportune can help your team gain clarity about the most important and impactful green initiatives, and what is being changed or improved in your factory specifically.

Whether this means converting your facilities to clean energy sources, retiring old fleet vehicles and bringing in more sustainably designed trucks, planting trees in communities where your operations do business, or beginning a water recycling program, knowing by when, how much and how you will achieve these goals can make a huge difference in whether you actually achieve them or not.

You Haven’t Looked beyond Your Factory Walls

Part of establishing an effective green initiative is taking a look at your operations from start to finish, including suppliers, vendors, partners, and contractors. It won’t do much good to “green up” your factory if your brand and reputation is associated with vendors and companies that do not hold those same values.

By setting standards that govern who you do business with, and what you expect from your partners, your green initiative is reinforced from the inside out and the outside in.

Clear vision, careful planning, open communication, attention to detail, recognition and rewards, strategic choice of business partners, and quality control of results can all pave the way for a successful, impactful and longstanding green initiative. When done right, a green initiative success will improve your factory’s output, brand, and reputation.

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