If your company is like thousands of others, you have made the commitment to be more environmentally friendly this year. Now is the time to start implementing new green programs.

In a 2007 survey of 500 business executives by Grant Thornton LLP, 77 percent said they expect corporate responsibility initiatives to have a major impact on their business strategies over the next several years, and 77 percent anticipate spending more on environmental programs in the coming years.

According to the survey, two of the greatest obstacles to the successful execution of corporate responsibility programs are focus on short-term earnings and the cost of implementation. However, 75 percent said they believed that corporate responsibility programs could enhance profitability.

As an HR professional, you know that company initiatives like environmental programs can be vitally important to your job success. Not only do these initiatives please current employees, but they also serve as an effective way to recruit new employees.

In some companies, the Human Resources Department is in charge of many of the green initiatives for the company. If this is the case in your company, you are in a great position to suggest additional ways to make the company friendlier to the environment. However, even if you aren't in charge of the programs, you can make a few simple changes in your department to help the programs be more successful.

One easy way for HR to help the green bottom line is by increasing the number of employees that use Direct Deposit. Not only will it save your company money, it will help the environment.

According to the PayItGreen" Alliance, paper checks use over 674 million gallons of fuel and add more than 3.6 million tons of greenhouse gases/CO2 to the environment per year.

Much of this environmental waste is from checks used to pay bills, but checks for payroll, expense reimbursement, bonus and pension payments add to this number as well. This waste includes the energy and fuel used to cut trees, transport lumber and mill paper; the printing and delivery of checks to employees; and the energy used to tender, clear and settle check payments.

If it's possible, hand deliver payment stubs to your Direct Deposit users instead of mailing them. Or deliver them electronically. You save postage costs for the company and you also save the fuel it takes to deliver the stub from your company to the employees' homes.

Direct Deposit is the simple, safe and smart solution for your employees. Direct Deposit can provide far more control and timelier deposits, and help to protect employees' accounts better than manual deposits. Consider these facts:

" Using Direct Deposit will greatly decrease the number of people that see your employees' personal financial information. According to a Javelin Strategy and Research study, one-half of identity theft is committed by a friend, family member, in-home employee, neighbor or relative who collects information from private financial documents like payroll checks.

" According to a consumer survey completed in 2006, consumers who save money using Direct Deposit save $90 more per month than those who use another method to save, such as depositing checks or cash manually. Talk to your employees about splitting their Direct Deposit between checking and savings accounts.

There are many other easy ways that can help the HR department add to the company's green bottom line.

" Deliver new-hire information to employees on a computer disk or on the company's Intranet site. Of course, this doesn't apply to documents that you need signed, but it's a good option for documents like an employee handbook. This will save many trees, and it will save filing space for your employees.

" Implement a policy that the company will no longer provide disposable cups or bottled water to employees. Provide employees with personalized, refillable coffee cups or water bottles or ask them to bring cups from home.

" Install energy-saving smart strips in each office. These power strips automatically switch power off to electric devices that haven't been used recently including computers, printers, phone chargers and office lamps.

" Remind employees to turn their office lights off when they go home at night or even when they are just stepping out for a meeting. Also, remind the janitorial staff to do this after cleaning.

If you need additional information on how to convince your employees to use Direct Deposit, there are many helpful tools and resources on www.electronicpayments.org.