Sustainability in Action
Vegetation and Pest Services Green Team
 economically sustainable
 environmentally friendly
 socially sound
Summary
Vegetation and Pest Services’ (VPS) business has become more focused on sustainability,
thanks to the formation of the “Green Team” in December 2003.
The Green Team has introduced initiatives including office recycling, green office audits, a
worm farm and improved soil additives for landscaping, that have improved environmental,
economic and social aspects of VPS’s work.
The Green Team shares ideas and information to make Vegetation and Pest Services’ daily
business and activities more sustainable.
The team is made up of representatives from across the business, who act as ‘sustainability
champions’, disseminating news from the Green Team to the rest of VPS and bringing ideas
from any of the staff back to the team for consideration.
The team takes an informal triple bottom line approach, making sure that each proposal is
economically viable before getting the go ahead. Senior management make final decisions
with recommendations from the Green Team.
Project priorities tend to focus around opportunities to reduce chemical and fuel use.
Sometimes added social benefits can be found, for example, increasing staff comfort and
convenience on the job above and beyond the normal Workplace Health & Safety
requirements.
The Green Team’s long-term aim is to facilitate a change of attitude and behaviour among the
whole of VPS, so that all staff are thinking and acting to achieve greater sustainability.
One of the Green Team’s major strengths has been its ability to gain little wins and, through
small, incremental steps, to engage people willingly in the sustainability agenda.
Project description
VPS established the Green Team to incorporate sustainability into their core business. In
addition, the team acts as an advocate group, spreading the word about sustainability and
influencing cultural change throughout the whole of VPS.
The team is made up of representatives from each operational area of VPS who meet monthly
to discuss sustainability issues.
Some of the initiatives are office recycling, green office audits, a worm farm, improved soil
additives for landscaping and a trial of a new biodegradable chainsaw bar lube oil. The team
considers how each new suggestion would address environmental, economic and social
elements before deciding if the project should go ahead.
Each team member is responsible for communicating to their area the meeting outcomes and
for bringing suggestions and feedback from their areas back to the Green Team.
Sustainability strong points
One of the team’s main strengths is the ability to balance both environmental and economic
considerations in the decision-making process, as demonstrated in the examples below.
Economic sustainability:
While the team does not use a formal triple-bottom-line assessment, each initiative needs to
be economically viable before the decision is made to go ahead with it. For example, using
a biodegradable chainsaw bar lube oil would be better for the environment but, at the
moment, the cost is much higher than for the normal lubricating oil. As the Team do not have
financial delegation to make the final decisions on projects, the Team took the case to the
VPS business manager). The manager, together with the Team, decided to put the project on
hold for six months, then evaluate whether the price has come down enough to make this a
more viable option by then.
Good ideas that don’t get the go ahead are not forgotten but kept on a follow-up list. The
Team are also mindful of the new Sustainable Procurement Strategy being developed, which
will have a bearing on how they decide on which products to use.
Environmental sustainability:
One of the environmental challenges for the Green Team is how to reduce the amount of
potentially harmful chemicals released to the environment while still achieving sound
vegetation and pest management. The team considers innovative solutions, alternative
products and practices. The other main environmental issue of concern is to reduce the
amount of fuel used, which would have air quality, greenhouse gas and economic benefits.
The Green Team also has a role in educating the other staff on how they can contribute to
sustainability both at work and at home and engaging them in sustainable actions such as
recycling and the ‘green office’ audit.
Influencing behaviour change:
This initiative has benefited by having strong champions to drive the sustainability agenda
throughout the wider VPS community, and a team of like-minded committed people.
The philosophy has been to:
• start with simple answers and small-scale wins that get people feeling good about
themselves and their contribution to sustainability
• pass on knowledge to the whole of VPS via the Green Team
• make it known that anyone can have their ideas heard through the Green Team and make
a difference.
• encourage people to get personally involved by taking small steps at home and making
sustainability part of their everyday thinking.
Support for innovation:
An important part of getting creative ideas to the Green Team table is peer recognition and a
culture of not punishing failures. This approach will hopefully pave the way for more ambitious
ideas later on.
People with ideas to improve sustainability need to know that their colleagues and managers
will support them. Having a good corporate sustainability policy to refer to would offer
assurance and validation for new ideas.
Target areas:
This project responds to Council’s Sustainability Target Areas:
• Resource efficiency through strategies to save fuel and chemicals used
• Biodiversity conservation through reduction of harmful substances released to the
environment and elimination of weed species
• Community engagement by involving all VPS staff in the aims of sustainability and
encouraging them to live the principles at home as well as at work.
Project history
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One of the team members has had a personal interest in environmental science and was
keen to apply some of his skills with VPS. The manager knew that the current practices
were worrying because of large use of fuel and chemicals. In December 2003, the “Green
Team” was founded to introduce sustainable practices into VPS core business.
A team member was requested from each of the four operational areas and one from
business support who they thought would be supportive and be the “Green Champion” for
their area.
The first task was to compile a register of all the initiatives VPS were currently doing that
contribute to sustainability.
Current processes were then assessed to identify where they could improve and an
Action Plan drawn up. Action items are fed into the Green Team meeting minutes.
Outcomes
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Recycling
“Green Office” Audits
Worm farm - provides soil additive for landscaping from worm castings
Biodegradable chainsaw bar lube trial
Input into the new City Business Depot – eg solar panels, rainwater tank
Responsive reactions from staff throughout VPS, coming up with ideas and starting to take
on board a personal responsibility for their day-to-day activities.
Project Strengths
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Simple, effective process
No extra budget was required to set up the Green Team, just time for regular meetings
Ability to get little wins on the board quickly, which helped to get people enthusiastic
Careful choice of projects – good early assessment to be sure of success and that they are
spending time wisely
Decisions made with both environmental and economic objectives in mind
Good management support
Good understanding of the culture of VPS and how to appeal to staff
Led by people passionate about sustainability.
Project Breakthroughs
Initially the team was expecting resistance from some staff, but this didn’t happen. This was
perhaps because staff already had understanding of how plants and animals work in the
environment and extending that thinking to broader sustainability is not such a great leap from
there.
Project Challenges
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Influencing behaviour change is a challenge, getting people to change old habits. Scott has
tried to adapt the Workplace Health and Safety model of ‘behaviour-based safety systems’
that is successful in improving staff safety at work. This technique focuses on why people do
the things they do.
Challenges for the future:
Reducing the high fuel use through some creative measures e.g. different models of tree
maintenance to reduce vehicle use, pro-active models rather than reactive models to get best
efficiency
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Making the case for new ideas that need a bigger financial outlay.