5 green employee benefits (and the organisations offering them)

Have you ever had fun doing something that’s good for the planet? 

Sometimes it can all feel a bit heavy and doomsday thinking about the state of our forests and the melting ice caps. Thankfully, going green is now becoming more of a laugh; there are lots of innovative new ways to lighten the mood and do good for the environment at the same time - and sometimes they even come included as work perks! Hurrah!

From enjoying a jolly e-bike ride on your lunch break instead of staring at the walls of a train, to enjoying some greenery in your home office, to munching on some surplus food that would otherwise have been thrown away, there are lots of environmentally friendly employee benefits out there. 

And thanks to a new-found collective interest in progressive work environments, these types of benefits are becoming more and more commonplace. In fact, they’re something that a large majority of the winners of our annual Escape 100 list (the top purpose-led 100 organisations to work for in 2022) offer their employees, and we’re seeing more organisations every day upload jobs to Escape the City with ingenious planet-saving employee benefits. 

So what takes your fancy? Take a look at these earth-saving employee benefits, and why not also see if you’re also interested in the purpose-led organisations offering them?

Delicious surplus and organic food 

We all need to eat - and what we choose to fill our bellies with can have a huge impact on the environment. Too Good To Go, which came at no.3 in the Escape 100 2022, offer their employees 10 free ‘magic bags’ of delicious surplus food to help reduce food waste (which is one of the biggest contributors to climate change). Riverford Organic Farmers, another Escape 100 winner, also offers their employees free organic fruit and veg - you’ll never have to buy broccoli again!

Climate perks

What are climate perks, you ask? A number of organisations nowadays are offering a variety of climate-themed benefits that will help you live a more planet-friendly life outside work. One such benefit is offering employees extra days to be able to travel in a more sustainable way, avoiding air travel, and opting for trains instead. Hubbub, the environmental charity that ranked as no.25 in the Escape 100 list 2022, offers their employees 2 days extra leave to help you do this. Time to grab a book and settle in for your next journey.



Paid volunteering days 

What if you could volunteer for a planet-friendly cause, during your work hours, and still get paid for it? Paid volunteer days used to be a rare occurrence amongst more corporate environments, and are now fully making their way into the mainstream. Whether you prefer to choose your own project, or opt to volunteer with a partner of your company, taking this time out can have mental and physical health benefits for employees, too. Toast Ale, who came at no.14 in the Escape 100 2022, offers their team 2 extra days off to volunteer for causes they care about!

Plant subscription

Some employers offer subscriptions of your choice from a wide range of partners. In the case of Big Lemon, also one of the Escape 100 winners, you can choose one in particular that’s going to help green up your work space: a plant subscription. Why is having plants eco-friendly? They absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, overall reducing your individual carbon footprint.

Cycling benefits

While ‘cycle-to-work’ schemes echo back to times of offering employees free or discounted bikes so they can cycle to the office, many organisations still offer these types of benefits even if they are remote-first. This means that you still get access to a bicycle to use in your free time, for a cycle at lunch or weekend jolly! These Escape 100 winners, who offer a mix of office-based, hybrid and remote-first working environments, are a small selection of companies giving their employees bikes and bike accessories to reduce their carbon footprint: Beam, Oddbox, Mimica.

This is by no means an exhaustive list when it comes to purpose-led organisations offering soul-brightening employee benefits (not by far!). Check out more of the organisations on Escape the City that offer progressive benefits that stretch further than you’d ever thought possible. And if you see an organisation you like that isn’t hiring right now, don’t forget you can hit ‘Follow’ to get alerts when they post their next positions. Happy organisation discovering!