Greening the workplace: conceptualising workplaces as settings for enabling sustainable consumption

Abstract

This conceptual paper contributes to management studies on workplace-related proenvironmental behaviour (PEB) by combining approaches from social practice theory (SPT), the settings-based approach to health promotion as well as the literature on organisational learning. From these perspectives, sustainable consumption at the workplace is seen as being embedded in daily routines which are rarely reflected upon and cannot easily be changed. We argue that companies-instead of focussing on individual attitudes and knowledge of employees-should enable them to experiment with sustainable consumption practices, provide supportive organisational and material structures, and integrate their experiences and needs in a continuous process of co-designing such an "enabling setting". We present an analytical framework that can be used to identify weaknesses of existing entrepreneurial strategies to promote PEB among employees and to conceptualise comprehensive strategies for "greening" the workplace.