CloudApps has launched a sustainability application to encourage employers and their staff to set corporate social responsibility (CSR) targets in the workplace.
The app can be used to create workplace challenges, leader boards, points and rewards, as well as social media elements that allow employees to collaborate and achieve personal targets.
The app is based around an organisation’s CSR goals. Employees can set a sustainability challenge for themselves, follow along with their progress, and share that progress with their colleagues.
It promotes engagement, collaboration and competition among teams, offices and individuals to decrease waste on non-salary employment costs, such as business travel, energy, heating, cooling, lighting, water and waste.
Peter Grant, chief executive officer at CloudApps, said: “It could be that a company has a sales conference in Los Angeles and they’ve got to move 5,000 staff there. That becomes a challenge of how to travel there the most economically, while emitting the least amount of carbon as well. It comes down to taking economy class, shuttle buses at the airport or using the public transport.
Employees are then rewarded at each level they reach on a leader board of bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Grant added: “Employers reward staff based on the type of behaviour they want to drive. The reward is based on the culture of the company. They could name an employee of the month, give the employee a day off, plant trees in their name, share money with them or link up to Amazon vouchers.”
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CloudApps manages all the details of the scheme, talking to the employer’s energy supplier and tracking their expenses.
The app is available via the iPhone and iPad, and as a desktop icon.
Social media offers numerous benefits for companies seeking both to increase employee engagement and become more sustainable. Not only does it allow easy tracking of environmental metrics, but the best platforms give employees a way to share ideas and encouragement.
There are some other platforms out there that help companies increase sustainability. There’s Scope5, which helps companies track CO2 emissions. AngelPoints gathers CO2 metrics for large, Fortune 500 companies. And earthbongo helps companies tell their sustainability and community involvement stories both through metrics and employees’ own words, pictures, and videos.