HOW ORGANISATIONS CAN Join

When you register your organisation on daysofchange.org you will be led through an easy step by step process to set up your profile and your pledges. For most organisations it will take a matter of minutes and can be summarised in four key steps:

1. Appoint a key point of contact to manage the program
2. Have the key contact person create a profile page for the organisation
3. Have the key contact person create tailored pledge cards for staff and members
4. Send an email to staff and members inviting them to participate in the program

Of course, there are other things an organisation can do to maximise the benefits gained from their involvement in the daysofchange.org program, however these represent the minimum requirement.

Nominate a Key Contact Person

Simply nominate someone within your organisation to become the key point of contact for the daysofchange.org program. This would typically be someone who has responsibility for sustainability or environmental initiatives within the organisation. The time commitment is minimal and for smaller organisations could be as little as a few minutes.

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Create an Organisation Profile Page on daysofchange.org

The key contact person will create a profile page for the organisation on the innovative daysofchange.org social networking website. The profile page includes information such as:

• The organisation's logo;
• A brief summary of the sustainability initiatives already underway within the organisation;
• The organisation pledge card, showing the sustainability commitments and programs that the organisation either already has in place, or is committing to have in place;
• Optional pledge cards for staff and members listing the actions that the organisation is suggesting that staff and members of the organisation could take to support the organisation's efforts in this regard;
• Information on how many staff and members are involved in the Days of Change program;
• Links to relevant sustainability documents;
• Photos or videos of sustainable activities in which the organisation is involved; and
• Basic information about the company, including numbers of employees and business units.

It is possible for the key contact person to create profile pages for each business unit of the organisation. This will enable leaders within the organisation to be able to see how effectively the employees of the different business units are engaging in the program and what sorts of actions they are undertaking in the workplace.

Profile pages are public, so anybody who has access to the internet could search for the organisation and see what it and its employees are doing in the area of sustainability.

In some cases, organisations will be able to simply replicate information already publically available on their own websites, however Days of Change provides a mechanism for driving traffic to those websites.

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Create Tailored Pledge Cards

Once the key contact has created the profile page for the organisation and any business units, the next task is to create tailored pledge cards for the overall organisation, for staff and for members.

Organisation Pledge Card

The organisation pledge card records the commitments that the organisation is making in relation to sustainability.

These pledges can either reflect existing commitments and targets, or they can represent new commitments and targets. Organisations are encouraged to take credit for any existing or past successes as a way of profiling these to other organisations and to members of the community.

The key contact person will be able to create the tailored pledge card for the organisation by selecting from a large range of generic, pre-defined pledges. :

• Upgrade 50% of lighting to more efficient globes
• Encourage employees to participate in a local clean-up event (Australia Day big cleanup etc.)
• Prepare a waste management plan (with education programme)
• Upgrade 20% vehicle fleet to more efficient models including hybrid or alternative fuel vehicle(s)

To provide maximum flexibility, the system also allows for user-defined pledges to be defined.

Staff Pledge Card

The optional staff pledge card lists those actions selected by the organisation that employees can do on an individual basis while at work that will contribute to the overall sustainability goals of the organisation.

The key contact person creates an employee pledge card simply by selecting the actions that are most appropriate for the business and that will contribute most towards achievement of the overall organisation goals from a large number of predefined actions that can be taken by individuals within the workplace.

For example, staff pledges include:

• Attend training/information sessions on sustainability practices
• Use teleconferences or web conferences rather than traveling for face-to-face meetings
• Turn all computers off at the end of each business day
• Reduce paper copy: use electronic distribution to avoid unnecessary document printing, and set copier and printer defaults to two-sided

As with the organisation pledges, staff pledges are completely tailorable.

The key contact person can create different employee pledge cards for different organisation units.  This is particularly useful when there are different workplace settings - office, workshop, showroom, retail outlet - where pledges that are appropriate in one setting may not be relevant in another.

Member Pledge Card

Organisations are able to create pledge cards for members where that is appropriate.

The key contact person creates a member pledge card simply by selecting the actions that are most appropriate for members to undertake that would support the sustainability goals of the organisation.

For example, if an organisation is running a local community event, then the member pledge card might include a pledge for members to participate in this event.

Member pledges are completely tailorable.

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Inviting Staff & Members to Participate

Once the profile page and pledge cards have been created the key contact person will send out an email to all staff and members inviting them to participate in the daysofchange.org program.

This email will typically include information on why the organisation is involved in the program, including the overall organisation pledges.

Ideally the email would also include a message from the CEO or other influential leader encouraging employees and members to participate.

Lastly, the email will contain a link that staff and members can click on that will then allow them to create their own personal profile page on the daysofchange.org social networking website.

The staff or member pledges that the organisation has specified will automatically be added to their personal pledge card where they will then be able to select the pledges that they are prepared to undertake.

While it might seem logical that staff or members should do all of the selected pledges, not all pledges will be applicable to all employees or members (some employee might not work in an office, for example).  Furthermore, research shows that allowing people to voluntarily select their own pledges greatly increases the likelihood of success, in comparison to having their pledges chosen for them by management.

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