Working together to create change can be a great way to build a stronger corporate team.
With Earth Day on April 22 (and many activities extending throughout the month), it is a great time for your employees to come together. Environmental-focused activities can help your team members bond over making a difference, and your company can actively support your community and the earth.
Here are eight easy activities you can plan for your workplace around Earth Day.
- Pick up trash
Picking up trash is a go to activity on Earth Day. Whether your team cleans up around your building or heads out to a local park, taking time out of the day to clean up the community can have a huge impact. At minimum you need garbage bags for your staff to collect garbage in, but it is also a good idea to get gloves and tools for picking up trash to keep staff safe. If working near the road, you may also want to get some safety vests.
To help increase the amount of trash that’s picked up, inject some healthy competition to see which team (or team member in smaller groups) can collect the most bags full.
- Host a team building event with an environmental twist
Team building events can help businesses gain huge benefits, from nurturing communication, building workplace trust, improving collaboration, increasing productivity and reducing conflict in the workplace. That’s why Teambonders has designed a range of corporate team building events, both in-person and virtual, that your business can use to build stronger team bonds. You can even include your own environmental twist!
- Challenge workers to go garbageless
If you are looking for something a bit cleaner, challenge your staff to go garbageless for a day (or even a week). Ask them to bring garbageless snacks and lunch. Your workers may be surprised to see just how much garbage their daily snacks and lunches make. Some staff members may even decide to make a permanent change.
- Ask staff to find an eco-friendly way to get to work
Challenge workers to find ways to get to work without everyone driving. This may mean walking or biking to work or coordinating carpools with workers or friends.
- Support a local business
Have a restaurant with locally-sourced foods cater a lunch for your staff and talk about the impact of shopping local. Take it a step further and encourage team members to go local when making purchases for the company.
- Share environmentally friendly tips
Ask staff to share tips for going green and being environmentally friendly. You can get together over lunch to brainstorm, send out an email, or start a shared document where team members can put their best tips. Tips to get ideas flowing could be natural alternatives to everyday cleaners, a reusable product to replace everyday disposable items, a low water way of doing laundry, etc.
- Plant a company garden
Community gardens are increasing in popularity. They’re an amazing way to bring people together and show the power of growing your own food. So, why not start a garden at the office where staff can grow herbs, fruits and vegetables. Once the food is fully grown, you can have a team meal, let employees bring food home with them or host a cooking team building activity in the office.
- Give employees options
If you can, try to offer a couple of different ideas for going green this Earth Day. Team members may have different constraints that make some tasks hard to do. This can make staff feel left out or isolated from the group because they can’t do what everyone else is doing. By giving staff options, they can select the activities that work best for them while still bonding with their team.
Change happens when we take small steps to make a difference. While some of these activities may seem low impact, working together towards a common goal can play a big role in changing mindsets and improving teamwork.
Earth Day is a perfect excuse to get out as a team, but team building can happen any time. For help organizing your next team building experience, contact us today.
