The social value of conservation initiatives in the workplace

In this study, we explored how top-down biodiversity-friendly initiatives (management of the outdoor areas, communication campaign with signs, exhibitions of nature photography) at work (power plant in rural France) can influence employees' biodiversity-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors, using a before-after survey. We showed that the influence of such initiatives in the workplace can have small but significant impacts on awareness and behavior of employees in their private everyday life. By implementing new settings in the everyday life of the employees, the studied company (the French electricity company EDF) may have defined new social norms in the workplace. Thus conserving biodiversity in workplaces may mutually benefit conservation directly through preserving local biodiversity and indirectly by influencing and strengthening people's relationship to it.