Back in 2007, before the great mortgage crisis, bank failures, acquisitions and the like, I worked for a leading U.S. bank with more than 50,000 employees, “Fair, Caring, Human, Dynamic and Driven” as their core values in an award-winning IT division with more than 2000 technology professionals nationwide.
During my tenure at the bank we were using nearly 70,000 PCs and laptops, tens of thousands of servers, cell phones, BlackBerry PDA’s, etc., had four data centers (later merging them down to two) as well as technology in each of our branches (about 2100 of them nationwide). As you can imagine, our electricity usage alone was huge and we knew we could gain some important budget savings and have a positive impact on the environment if we just started thinking and acting more GREEN.
Our CEO brought up the idea of starting a Green initiative within the bank and the CIO (my boss) jumped at the chance to lead this. The first thing she did was reach-out to her Senior VPs to try and recruit people in Technology who would actually run the program. I was trying to climb the corporate ladder and just about to enter Bainbridge Graduate Institute’s Sustainable MBA program. I knew taking a leadership role in this Green Tech program would enable me to have a more immediate positive impact. I could think of no better way to act locally than to help my own company become more sustainable . . . so I volunteered to get the Green Ideas and Green Technology Program started. Now I’m going to share our lessons learned so you can get your own program started faster and with more success!
The Nine ‘Green Ideas Program’ Success Keys:
1. Support from the company’s executive level: As I explained earlier, my bank’s program had support from the CEO and the program was being led by the CIO; you’ll want to gain this kind of support too if you want your Green program to have any chance of longevity. Without “C-level” or Executive Committee support, you risk having the effort de-prioritized without warning. There is nothing more demoralizing for the leaders involved and the general employee population.
2. A budget and a process to allocate funds for green investment: One of the biggest lessons we learned is that many green ideas (especially those related to technology) require an upfront investment. In our case we were limited to only implementing ideas that paid back on their investment in that calendar year, or required no investment whatsoever (besides perhaps some internal labor). Obviously this was not ideal because some of our best ideas (with the greatest benefit to the environment) were not implemented due to initial cost. It may not be feasible to “pre-estimate” exactly how much budget you’ll need . . . every company will be different; but it is important to lay that groundwork, gain early support for “a budget” and then, when you go back to the Executive Committee for approval later they won’t be surprised.
3. A strategy to phase-in employee involvement: The more people involved immediately the better right? Well, not exactly. Broadcasting to all employees that you’re starting a Green Initiative and you want each of them to share their ideas is like dropping a lighted match into a pool of gasoline . . . BOOM . . . a huge burst of energy, thousands of ideas from everyone, hundreds of duplicates; overwhelm because you can’t track all of them; followed by general disillusionment when everyone’s idea isn’t selected and immediately implemented and finally general employee disinterest because you’re too overwhelmed to communicate about progress, implementation takes much longer than you anticipated, and people think the program has died. The lessons learned here are numerous (and I’ll admit – it is a tricky and a difficult balancing act); but generally you want to:
a. Identify what areas you think you’ll want to focus on first (e.g., laptops, network, monitors, data centers, servers, etc.) and then what groups within your IT division could most affect change.
b. Start with a smaller group – we did this by first building out an advisory council of about 10 subject matter experts (SMEs) who had the ability to take action in their particular departments (their respective SVPs granted that authority).
c. Recruit carefully within the ranks. Follow the chain of command so each SVP, department and group leader is sold on the concept, buys-in and agrees to support it by donating a person and part of their time. If you try and recruit by going around a manager you’ll end up with leaders who feel “slighted” and could try and sabotage the program.
d. Design and test your “Idea Intake” process with the advisory council. Even your first ten people will likely generate 50 or more ideas in one brainstorming session.
e. Answer the questions: How will you capture all the ideas? (We developed our own Microsoft Office SharePoint Site). How will you prioritize (what are the criteria for prioritization)? Who will help the idea author determine the cost/benefit, best solution, implementation timing, SVP sponsor, etc.? (Also, consider running a second pilot by announcing and collecting ideas from just one division.)
f. You want to have this entire process figured out, tested and ready before you open the flood-gates with an All-Employee announcement.
4. Weed out duplicate ideas: As you sort through your idea list, be sure to identify duplicate items – keep the version that was submitted earliest. Enhance the description of that early idea if later versions describe it better, and be sure to notify each idea author of the duplicate situation . . . letting them know which idea you plan to move forward with (so they can track progress and “share a sense of ownership” of the idea.)
5. Prioritize the ideas: Use the criteria you developed in the pilot(s) to prioritize the ideas. (We prioritized them based on a combination of scores across: CO2 savings, $$ budget reductions, and investment cost . . . but use whatever combo is best for your company.) Be sure to share how you are prioritizing with everyone so they feel it is fair.
6. Show momentum with some quick early “wins”: Your Executive Committee will be anxious to hear about your progress. Be sure to have some early successes in your pocket or you risk losing their support.
7. Provide frequent, but meaningful communications: The employees will also want to hear about the program’s success and progress; but it’s important not to flood them with emails. (We handled this by producing bi-weekly Intranet articles that gave updates on specific Green ideas and project status. Links in the article enabled readers to drill in deeper for more detail or visit the idea submission and tracking site. We avoided using email to the general population because they were already getting too many of them.)
8. Keep the new ideas flowing: Demonstrate that you are indeed acting on ideas, making implementation progress and getting results. Recognition for the best ideas is another way to keep interest high. At the bank, we selected the top-three ideas each quarter and awarded the authors and implementation teams with prizes.
9. Trumpet the major successes to your customers: Be sure to share your best Green success stories with your external customers too – so they know what you’re doing.
Following these key lessons learned will help you avoid many of the early mistakes we made and should give your company’s new Green Ideas Program a fighting chance to make a real difference in the world!
Next time . . . I’ll start sharing some of the bank’s more successful green technology ideas and how we implemented them.
Posted by Todd Rawlings 
Todd Rawlings' Blog 