
If you want to keep staff for the long haul, it’s important to ensure their work leaves them feeling inspired, engaged and rewarded. Luckily, says the Sustainable Restaurant Association, getting your team involved in sustainability initiatives is a great way to increase job satisfaction and motivation.
While staffing issues have been more challenging since the pandemic, the hospitality industry has long had problems with high turnover. Here’s where your restaurant’s sustainability work can play a big role — not only in keeping people on board but in building a workforce that is engaged, motivated and purposeful.
What do sustainability commitments have to do with team motivation?
These days, the sustainability of your business makes a big difference when it comes to both recruitment and retention. Research by IBM found that 67% of survey respondents were more willing to apply for jobs with environmentally sustainable companies in the first place. A large-scale study by Great Place to Work — analysing over 350,000 employee surveys — showed that those who felt their employers were making a positive impact on the world were:
- Four times more likely to say their teams ‘give extra’ to get the job done,
- 11 times more likely to say they plan to stay with their organisations for the long haul, and
- 14 times more likely to say they look forward to coming to work.
Much of this has to do with a feeling of purpose and direction. The impact of covid-19 led many people to re-evaluate what they want from their working lives — and, for many, the answer is purpose. Where people feel like their work has real meaning and is more than ’just a job’, engagement and retention soar.
Many of the studies around this focus on its importance for Millennial and Gen Z employees; according to 2025 research by Deloitte, roughly nine in 10 people from these generations consider a sense of purpose to be important to their job satisfaction and well-being. However, purpose does matter to older employees, too: in fact, Great Place to Work’s 2023 ‘Drivers of Retention’ survey found that finding meaning and purpose at work is the biggest predictor of retention rates across all generations — more than promotions, recognition or even wages.
Creating formal initiatives that get your staff involved in your sustainability work and encouraging them to make real contributions to your overall impact is a great way to build this sense of purpose.
Sustainability starts with your people
No sustainability programme will get far without having your team on board — and the success of your business itself will always be limited if your team isn’t thriving. Let’s look at how you can bring a sense of purpose to your team by embedding sustainability initiatives into their roles.
How to boost engagement through sustainability work
1. Install ‘green teams’ or ambassadors
The hospitality industry faces unique challenges in communicating sustainability initiatives: high staff turnover, diverse workforces and busy environments can render traditional communication methods ineffective. Without structured engagement, important sustainability efforts can get lost in the noise.
Whatever you choose to call them — sustainability ambassadors, sustainability champions, eco committees — green teams are a tried-and-tested way of getting your staff involved with your sustainability work. Green teams act as a bridge between leadership and frontline teams, translating sustainability goals into practical actions. When well-supported, they help make sustainability part of company culture, rather than an add-on or afterthought.
2. Include everyone
A diverse green team ensures broad representation. Avoid limiting participation to sustainability professionals; grassroots engagement is key. Include both senior and frontline staff to balance strategic oversight with practical implementation, and focus on long-term, career-driven employees to maintain consistency.
3. Set goals and reward progress
Setting team or individual goals around sustainability and offering incentives for meeting these goals can be powerful ways to encourage action. Team-based incentives work well to build a sense of collective responsibility, and encouraging participation through competition can be highly effective; this works especially well for measurable metrics like food waste reduction.
4. Keep learning!
Ongoing training and education will not only ensure your sustainability initiatives are well informed, but continuous learning is also an important part of building job satisfaction. Make sure your team is receiving enough training — we’d suggest at least quarterly sustainability training on specific topics — and don’t be afraid to bring in the experts when needed.
5. Make it fun, keep it easy
To be successful, your green team initiatives must feel accessible and attractive for employees, rather than simply adding extra pressure. Remember that this is part of the workload; it’s important to ensure your people have adequate time to dedicate to it. If sustainability work becomes just another stressful task on an already-long list, its impact on motivation is likely to be a negative one.
6. Give back to the community
Volunteering is another way of boosting enthusiasm, encouraging bonding and motivating your people while also giving back to the community — an important part of your sustainability work. Set aside paid volunteer days when you can engage in charitable work as a group, and allow your team to have input into what the activity looks like.
For more insights and stories from sustainable restaurants, hotels and bars across the globe, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn and sign up to our newsletter! If you’re interested in exploring what sustainability can do for your business, get in touch with our Head of Growth, Will Browning, at will@thesra.org.