Green is the new black today. We live in a society where the clamor for going green is getting more belligerent than before. Be it green buildings, green products, green processes, green systems and green jobs, the list is endlessly long. And if this is not enough, HR departments in many companies are increasingly greening their processes. Juxtaposing green and HR process may sound like an oxymoron to many. But the reality is, going green holds out a great promise for HR. This article discusses how HR can greenify its process and reduce the carbon footprint at the workplace.

It may sound boringly clichéd, but green is the new black. To be more prosaic, green is the new seductive buzzword. Look left, right and center, someone or something is being billed as ‘environment-friendly’. Going green is currently high on the list of priorities of everyone—be it politicians, left and right wing environmental activists or business leaders. Companies are hitching themselves on to the green practices in their zeal to shore up their image, ratchet up employee morale and drastically shave their costs. World over, companies’ policy contours are increasingly being shaped by environmental agenda. It is not uncommon to see companies bruiting platitudes such as sustainable development, environmental management and reduction of carbon footprints. Words with green suffixes such as green jobs, green buildings, green products, green processes and green systems have become the stuff of corporate folklore today. The trajectory of this green development can be ascribed to many reasons. One, all over the world, businesses are transmogrifying from industry-centric economy to talent-driven economy. Businesses are also in the throes of entering green economy where customers and employees’ ever-shifting expectations and constant unfolding of environmental changes are forcing its leaders to address ‘green issues’ head-on. Secondly, CO2 footprints are easy to reduce during a recessionary phase, but the same may be searing when the business picks up its growth momentum and revs up its production. Conventional wisdom would have it that in a recessionary phase, the company would place heavy emphasis on cutting down on wastes and stretching its resources optimally. As the growth momentum perks up, companies may look to ‘going green’ even while attacking costs and cutting carbon levels. In the recent years, the businesses and departments are increasingly under pressure to ‘join the Green Club’ as they battle with the daunting task of attacking costs, reducing wastes and paperwork and conserving energy.The overarching question that begs an answer is “Does HR have a role to play in this green mumbo-jumbo?” and “How does green fit into the jigsaw puzzle of HR exercise?” The answer is emphatically yes if the survey conducted by SHRM in 2007 is anything to go by. One half of the HR professionals participated in the survey concurred that their organizations have formal or informal environmental responsibility policy in place. And 43% of the HR professionals in the survey reported that HR department is involved in their organizations’ environmental responsibility policy.

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