Sometimes it seems that the world is trying to tell you something. I finally got around to seeing the DVD An Inconvenient Truth
startling and depressing. Polar bears with nowhere to go as the ice caps melt, cities underwater and dramatic climate changes. Even though Australia is one of only two nations who did not sign the Kyoto agreement, we only represent 1.1% of the world’s problem according to Al Gore. The question I was left with is ‘what difference can I make?’

Our customers started asking us some months ago what do we have in our ‘carbon neutral’ range of gifts.

Last night on the ABC’s Four Corners program it was all about Global Warming and tonight on the ABC it was the Carbon Cops who are teaching families how to save energy. This average family was producing 60 tonnes of carbon each year in their newly renovated home, they had no idea. (The Simson’s would be in the same boat. We think we are energy efficient, we have low voltage lights, I don’t own a car, we turn off the lights at home and work. But now I’m not so sure.)

RedBalloon did a survey of our customer a few weeks ago to see what they were thinking…. And the message came back loud and clear, We all know that we could do more for the environment. Here is what we found.

• ? Over 90 percent of Australian workers think their offices could be doing more for the environment we surveyed 1,788 people across Australia & NZ from a variety of small, medium and large businesses to assess attitudes towards workplace responsibility in the face of heightened environmental speculation.

Currently, most workplaces (89 percent) have instigated a recycling scheme and over half have implemented energy saving (58 percent) or water saving (44 percent) initiatives – however, more than half of those surveyed believe these initiatives are simply a piecemeal, rather than a sustained commitment.

People are clearly committed to helping the environment. Whether you agree with the global warming debate or not, employees want to think they work for an organisation that cares, and so do customers to that end.

An overwhelming 85 percent of employees said they would support environmental initiatives initiated by management with almost half (43 percent) saying they would commit out-of-office hours to environmental initiatives supported by their workplace.

I suspect that the range of Environmental (Green) Gifts that we have come up with is only going to increase in the near future in response to what employees (and customers) are demanding of organisations. The point is that most people want to do something for the environment, but they don’t know what to do. Making it easy for people is the key.

I wonder how many organisations this financial year will give each of their people a Carbon Credit Voucher from RedBalloon to celebrate their results and as a token of their commitment to the environment.