The barrier to workplace sustainability engagement isn't employee attitudes — it's access
A willing workforce and an unprepared workplace. That's the picture that emerges from EcoFocus research on employee sustainability engagement — and it points directly to an opportunity most companies are leaving on the table. Only 16% of employed Americans say sustainability is deeply embedded in their workplace's daily operations and decision-making. Another 25% say it's important and regularly discussed. But 41% describe a workplace where sustainability is either rarely mentioned or simply absent.
Training tells a similar story. When you look across all employed Americans — not just those already familiar with their company's environmental programs — fewer than half have received any environmental training relevant to their role. Only about one in six has received training they describe as comprehensive and genuinely helpful.
That gap matters, because the appetite is clearly there. Among employees at companies with environmental commitments, 71% say they are satisfied with their employer's efforts — suggesting that when companies do invest, employees notice and respond positively. The challenge is that most companies haven't yet made that investment in a visible, accessible way.
Employees don't need to be convinced. They need to be equipped.
This is exactly the problem GetGreen was built to solve. GetGreen is an employee sustainability engagement platform that helps companies turn workplace sustainability values into everyday action — through personalized challenges, team competitions, education modules, and real-time impact tracking. Talking Rain Beverage Company, makers of Sparkling Ice®, put the platform to work starting in late 2022. Their challenge will be familiar to many sustainability leaders: genuine organizational commitment to environmental values, but no clear mechanism for translating that commitment into consistent employee behavior across a distributed workforce. Working with GetGreen, Talking Rain built a program centered on everyday actions — commuting choices, recycling, food decisions — and made them social, trackable, and tied to real corporate impact. For every ton of CO₂ employees avoided through the app, Talking Rain matched it with carbon credit purchases. Individual actions triggered company-level investment. That connection proved to be a powerful motivator. The results from their first year speak directly to what the EcoFocus data predicts: when employees are given the tools and the opportunity, they engage.
A employee survey revealed something that mirrors the broader research finding: employees wanted to participate but didn't know how. Once the program made action simple and visible, engagement followed. For EcoFocus clients and partners, the Talking Rain story is a useful proof point: the survey data identifies where the gaps are, and platforms like GetGreen show what closing those gaps can look like in practice. The employees are ready. The question is whether the workplace is.
What's the Takeaway?
Workplace sustainability culture doesn't build itself. But the data consistently shows that employees are more willing than their workplaces give them credit for — and that when companies invest in the right tools and programs, engagement follows.