How to Embrace Greater Sustainability with Your Association

How to Embrace Greater Sustainability with Your Association

If your association has surveyed younger members and prospects lately, you may have found that they value sustainability more than other groups. We’re not talking about longevity here — although that will be improved by appealing to up-and-coming membership demographics.

What sustainability means to the next generation is being environmentally friendly and thinking about the planet when making operational decisions. Here’s how you can add more sustainability to your association.

 

Offer Online Options for Events

If you’re like many organizations, you’ve probably already started offering more virtual events and hosting meetings online. Between covid, the difficulties of air travel, and members watching their budgets, this just makes sense.

But virtual events also offer greater sustainability. You can leverage this when promoting conferences. Miss the camaraderie of in-person annual meetings? Consider a happy medium, where you split up into regional groups and host some sessions together online.

 

Go Paperless

If your bank and your credit card company can get rid of excess paper, so can your organization. The first step is to think about all the places where you print items — it’s probably more than you think.

Next, make a list of how you can replace hard copies with email versions, digital downloads, and the like. If members want manuals or materials you publish, is it possible to make them digital with an eco-friendly print-on-demand option?

One thing organizing experts agree on is that there will never be a perfect time to go paperless. You have to separate yourself from the backlog of hard copies and plunge in, figuring out how to scan and archive old paper copies as you go.

 

Reduce Disposable Goods

Eliminating unnecessary paper is just a start. Where else could you reduce materials that are being tossed in the trash?

Think carefully about conference swag and similar gifts that might involve:

  • Cheap overseas labor (or even child labor)
  • Heavy carbon footprints to transport
  • Toxic or non earth-friendly materials

Catering and meals also tends to involve a lot of disposable items. Can you give members high-quality coffee thermos cups to eliminate paper versions? How about serving food with less packaging?

Do you really need all those banners and promo materials that have a short shelf life? Can you replace them with reusable ones? If you Google “[item] + sustainable,” you’re likely to find some better alternatives.

 

Host an Earth-Friendly Challenge

One way to get your membership involved in your sustainability efforts is to make it a contest. Hold an association challenge to see who can come up with the best ideas to make the organization more earth-friendly.

The board of directors could vote on the winner, or you could put it to the membership to select their favorite suggestions. The winner could receive free membership for a year or gratis admission to the next conference.

 

Reduce Office Energy Consumption

If you maintain physical offices, have you recently done an energy audit? Ways to reduce energy consumption (which will also lower your overhead) include:

  • Switch to LED light bulbs, which last longer and use less power.
  • Automate HVAC and lighting to eliminate waste.
  • Use energy-efficient appliances and office equipment.
  • Make sure energy isn’t lost to leaky windows, open doors, etc.
  • Add solar panels to go off the grid and self-power electricity.
  • Use low-flow bathroom fixtures and kitchen faucets.
  • Invest in easy-to-use meters to track energy consumption.

You could also give employees work-from-home options or give incentives for the use of public transportation, walking, or cycling to the office.

 

Consider a Virtual Office

If you really want to take association office sustainability to the next level, think about switching to a virtual office. A virtual office offers many benefits:

  • Significantly lower overhead
  • Happier employees with no commute time
  • Staff free to focus solely on work tasks
  • Ability to hire employees globally

If you’re not sure if a virtual office will work for you, your group can ease into it with a hybrid office schedule: two days a week, for instance, the office is staffed, while during the rest of the week, everyone works remotely.

Another option is to avail yourself of the services offered by Jaffe Management. We provide both full and partial association management services, including a fully equipped headquarters office. Additionally, we assist with:

  • Organizing internal meetings and events
  • Membership administration
  • Website design and maintenance
  • Social media accounts and newsletters
  • Member communications
  • Financial services
  • Leadership and volunteer development