Saturday, June 06, 2009

Go Green - Job Training With the Environment in Mind

Environmentally conscious companies are finding new and interesting ways to reduce their negative environmental footprint. Most have already adopted obvious changes. Recycling is a norm, the use of energy efficient equipment is common and many companies are making an effort to contribute to environmental improvements outside of the workplace. With those "standard" policies in place, those with a real commitment to the environment are looking at alternative ways to reduce their operations' environmental footprint. In the process, some are discovering that changes in their job training strategies can make a substantial difference.

Traditional job training consumes carbon-based resources at a breakneck pace while contributing to deforestation. Employees are shuttled between sites in cars and plane, burning untold quantities of fossil fuels in the process. That's not the only part of the process that falls well short of green. Job training typically involves reams and reams of paperwork. You can almost hear the diesel equipment ripping through a swath of previously undisturbed rainforest every time another stack of training documents comes back from the printer!

Blended approaches to training provide a more environmentally sound way to handle the training issue. By utilizing Internet-based training and job education strategies, a company can reduce its environmental impact substantially.

Allowing trainers and trainees to effectively communicate via the Internet eliminates the need for travel between job sites. Companies don't just save on fuel reimbursements, automobile rentals and airline tickets-they actually cut these environmental negatives completely out of the picture by adopting green job training strategies that wisely use net-based technology.

It may be a slight exaggeration to argue that blended learning approaches to green job training will produce a "paperless office". As we've learned over time, transitioning completely to electronic data distribution is extremely difficult. However, it is possible to significantly reduce the use of paper products in the training process when online education strategies are pressed into service. Web-based training is a smart conservationist move!

You might not think of job training as a focus area as you work to improve your company's environmental performance. A closer examination, however, reveals that the right shifts in employee education can produce exciting results with respect to environmental impact.

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