Companies Like Yours That Embrace Sustainability Have an Edge
You’re proud to be a values-driven company, and you know that investing in sustainable practices is good business. Good for the planet. Good for customer loyalty. Good for recruiting and retaining talent.
Putting ideas into action, you may have engaged a sustainability consultant to help you choose a renewable energy partner and analyze company travel. You may have installed LED lights, motion detectors and temperature controls. You prevent phantom energy loss. You recycle religiously. You actively support bike-to-work day. And Earth Day. And National Volunteer Week.
We respectfully submit that there’s an important program that may have been overlooked.
The Benefits Gap
Employee benefits programs vary widely from company to company. Some companies stick to traditional benefits like insurance and a tenure-driven PTO program. More creative organizations offer a wider array of programs such as wellness plans, healthy snacks, bus passes, sabbaticals and the like. A handful of forward-thinking companies take benefits further with programs like unlimited vacation, pet insurance, and green commuting incentives (bike, bus, carpool to work). Often, benefits initially considered leading-edge become mainstream as talented employees begin to expect them as part of the employment benefits package.
These are all great ways to build employee loyalty. However, in spite of good intentions, employee benefit programs are often disconnected from the company’s sustainability mission and values. As a result, the company’s programs are only partially woven into the employee experience — the company’s sustainability initiatives are distant from an employee’s everyday work life and even further disassociated from their personal habits. For example, employees may enjoy the free muffins and bagels on bike-to-work day but they don’t go home and talk about how the company’s new temperature controls will reduce its carbon footprint. More to the point, the company’s new temperature controls at work don’t inspire employees to turn their thermostats to 68 degrees in February and wear a sweater at home.
So how can budget-conscious, climate-conscious small and mid-sized businesses bridge that gap and help employees knit sustainability values into their everyday lives? How can values-driven businesses leverage employee benefits programs to help them meet the challenge of attracting and retaining top talent?
Start a New Tradition: Add Carbon Credits to Your Mix of Employee Benefits Today
Carbon credits (each equivalent to one carbon offset) are a surprisingly affordable benefit that bring you and your team closer to climate action programs that matter, at work and at home.
For $240 you can offset an employee’s personal carbon footprint for an entire year.* A big bang for your buck.
A carbon credit employee benefits program is an affordable way for a company to demonstrate that it cares about its team inside and outside the office. By enabling employees to select the specific carbon offset programs of their choice they become more involved in, and aware of, environmental issues and how they can be part of the solution.
How Does It Work?
It’s super simple. The company purchases an annual gift card for each employee on the Carbon Credit Cart website for $240 — enough to offset the average annual carbon footprint of a U.S. person (16 metric tonnes of carbon*). The employees can browse the site and use the gift card to purchase carbon offsets for the specific program or programs that appeal to them most — whether it’s protecting nature preserves in Malawi or supporting landfill gas (LFG) collection and destruction systems in Mexico.
Upon completion of the employee’s carbon credit purchase, the employee will receive an official certificate that lists the program selected, the number of carbon credits purchased, and the serial numbers of the retired carbon offset units.
We encourage you to take a fresh look at your employee benefits program and see how a carbon credit employee benefit program can help you more fully realize your company’s values and commitment to climate action. It’s another tool in your toolkit to recruit new talent, increase team loyalty and morale, and help Mother Earth.
If you have questions or want to learn more, please reach out to us at hello@ecosoul.io.
*The $240/employee/year assumes that the carbon footprint for a US resident is approximately 16 metric tonnes at an average price of $15 per metric tonne. One carbon credit equates to one metric tonne.