TEST, Hawaii — When a company, large or small, decides to assess and improve its environmental performance, having employees on board to support and extend the project can make the difference between success and failure.

Danielle Latta bought electricity from a green energy provider but didn't recycle and never thought about waste. The Dallas-area resident knew she had to change some habits when she learned more about the air quality issues facing her city.

"I suffer from allergies," she said. "On bad pollution days, it's really bad."

The realization occurred when Latta's employer, D Magazine, began exploring ways of becoming more environmentally friendly while preparing to publish its Green Report on the ways in which Dallas is softening its environmental footprint. A grassroots bottom-up employee program built upon education, empowerment and reinforcement helped to jumpstart and sustain the company's green initiatives.

D Magazine made changes, beginning with small steps: It instituted a mandatory recycling program, worked with its building management to incorporate energy efficient lighting and phased out paper plates and plastic cups in favor of reusable versions.

Latta, who joined her company's "green team," which was formed in August, began doing things differently, too, such as recycling at home, taking reusable bags to the grocery store and dry cleaners and keeping an eye on her energy usage.

"Education was a huge part of it," Latta said. "It made me want to make changes in my life."

Making a Personal Connection to Sustainability

Employees often connect to the broader concept of sustainability through the prisms of finances and health and wellness, said Judah Schiller, executive vice president of Saatchi & Saatchi S, a consulting firm currently working with Wal-Mart to help its 1.3 million employees become more personally sustainable.

"The majority aren't doing it to save the trees," Schiller said.

He offers an example of an employee he met who was overweight, ate fast food regularly and led a sedentary lifestyle. By gradually eliminating fast food from his diet, he saw the positive impact on his physical wellbeing. He eventually saw the environmental aspect, too: Eating less fast food meant less packaging and waste headed to the landfill, as well as fewer greenhouse gas emissions from the delivery and manufacture of the food or from waiting in the drive-thru lane to pick it up.