ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Saturn Corporation's Spring Hill manufacturing plant's experience with worker participation in environmental activities. It describes the evolution of Saturn's environmental management programme since the opening of the plant in the late eighties. The chapter draws the concept of habitual routines. It discusses the elements of Saturn's participative management system that have helped to support employee involvement in waste reduction. Environmental routines can be developed early in group life or brought into existing routines later on. C. J. G. Gersick and J. R. Hackma suggest two ways for routines to be established early in group life: creation and importation. The environmental staff taught an environmental training class during the initial training session for each team member, as well as more advanced 'waste reduction' training class, the completion of which could count towards the annual training requirement. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of this case for firms attempting to integrate secondary tasks, such as environmental performance, into existing job roles.
