Steps toward sustainability that will benefit your business and employee health

As business leaders, we're often tasked with finding cost-effective ways to move the needle on carbon neutrality. We also want our efforts and improvements to support our workforce. The good news is that environmental responsibility matters to employees. 

Almost two-thirds (65%) of recent Reuters survey respondents said they were more likely to work for a company with strong environmental policies. Climate change, human rights and social equity are all issues of growing importance, especially for millennials, who now make up the majority of the workforce. Most U.S. workers find more job satisfaction in organizations where they can make a social or environmental impact on the world.

Read more: 9 questions applicants are Googling about remote work right now

When your business removes as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it produces, this achievement is considered net-zero emissions. Benefits from offsetting carbon include: 

• Lower operating costs: Measures to reduce carbon emissions, including investing in benefits that inadvertently lower carbon emissions, can lead to immense savings. 
• Higher revenue: Many consumers support climate-friendly businesses, providing an unexpected boost in sales and market share. 
• More loyal employees: A 2019 study revealed that 70% of Americans stated they would be impacted to stay long-term at a company based on their sustainability plan. 

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one way to be socially responsible and move the needle on carbon neutrality while benefiting the bottom line. Efficient practices can reduce operating costs while at the same time increasing employee satisfaction and productivity. To improve their business's carbon footprint, leadership teams often review emissions from employer fleets made up of cars, trucks and machinery. They look at reducing waste and dangerous chemicals. They adopt remote work policies. And while these are all important considerations, one effective way to create impact toward a net zero future that your leadership team may not have considered is simple yet powerful: helping your employees quit smoking. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year, the tobacco industry costs more than 8 million human lives, 600 million trees, 200,000 hectares of land, 22 billion tons of water and 84 million tons of carbon dioxide. Water and farmland that could be used for food in impoverished countries are used to grow deadly tobacco plants, with more and more forest land being cleared yearly.

Read more: How to track employee productivity without crossing privacy lines

WHO's report, "Tobacco: Poisoning Our Planet," shares that the industry's carbon footprint from producing, processing and transporting tobacco is equivalent to one-fifth of the carbon dioxide produced by the commercial airline industry each year. Helping your employees stop smoking is helping your organization become more carbon-neutral.

Tobacco cessation lends itself to reducing a business's carbon footprint, and quitting for good is one of the best ways someone who smokes can reduce their carbon emissions. One person who smokes can produce 22.4 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, which isn't even counting the reduction in health care waste that comes with treating tobacco-related illnesses. Hospitals generally create around 29 pounds of total waste per bed daily and, along with labs, emit about 4.4% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. 

Smoking and tobacco use impacts productivity and increases healthcare costs for companies. Here are a few more benefits companies experience when they offer smoking cessation programs to transform more of their workforce into people who don't smoke.

• Those who do not smoke take less sick time
• Lost work is decreased as a result of fewer smoke breaks
• Insurance premiums are lower, directly due to fewer smokers and indirectly from healthier workers

Provide those who use tobacco with the opportunity to quit. Adding a top-tier cessation program to your business' benefit offerings for eligible individuals and their dependents will help your business make a real, tangible impact on your carbon emissions without much effort at all. 
Offer programs with proven success and features to encourage participation and success. Programs work better when they offer personal counseling, biofeedback options like a mobile breath sensor that measures carbon monoxide levels in exhaled breath and plenty of access to helpful self-paced tools to support the journey of quitting. 

Options that cultivate success also provide online access via an on-the-go mobile app. It's also important to understand that tobacco use includes vaping and chewing tobacco, not just cigarette smoking. Make sure employees know this benefit is available, and the impact that they're reducing or quitting can have on not only your business's carbon footprint, but their individual carbon footprint as well. And consider offering rewards for their progress because your employees' success will be a win-win for them, your business, and ultimately, our planet.