Tomorrow is Earth Day.  In honor of it, today, Ben & Jerry’s is having Free Cone Day.  (Okay, it’s more than likely just a coincidence, but the company is very environmentally conscious, and I’d be remiss not to show my support for that by eating some free Chunky Monkey.)

In actual honor of Earth Day, however, CareerBuilder released the results of its latest survey, which found that one in ten employers say they’ve added environmentally focused positions to their companies in the last 12 months.  

In addition to creating “green” positions, companies are also showing their commitment to the earth by creating “green” programs that get current employees involved.  Seventy percent of employers have implemented programs to increase environmental awareness companywide in the last year.

According to CareerBuilder’s press release, the most popular “green” programs (according to responses from over 2,500 hiring mangers nationwide) include:

• Recycling (50 percent)
• Using less paper (45 percent)
• Controlling lighting (44 percent)
• Powering down computers at the end of the day (30 percent)
• Purchasing office supplies made from recycled materials (27 percent)

Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder’s vice president of human resources, attributes the increased popularity of green jobs and green programs to companies’ desires to become more environmentally conscious and reduce their carbon footprints.

I suspect it also has to do with the fact that more companies are catching on to the fact that eco-friendly initiatives can also be good for the bottom line (check out what BusinessWeek and USAToday have to say about the topic) – even, according to Time, helping them weather the economy.

Not to mention that going green also helps companies boost their employment brands, attracting what’s become an increasing number of environmentally conscious job seekers. (See how it works for Portland employers in this Workforce article). 

As a bonus, being green is also an element of corporate social responsibility, which human capital consultancy Towers Perrin found to be one of the most important drivers of employee engagement in a recent study.

What sort of initiatives has your company taken recently – or plan to take – to become more environmentally friendly?  How are you involving your employees?  And what sort of an impact is it making – either on the business or among employees?