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Kevin Z. failed to look over his shoulder the day he chucked his empty Coke can in the office trash bin.

Little did he know he was being watched. It wasn't a moment before a particularly zealous environmentalist sauntered up behind him, rescued the can from the trash bin and made a show of moving it to a nearby blue box.

Then came the guilt trip.

"They get pretty stern, pretty serious about it," he says of the green meanies at his downtown Toronto ad agency. "They like to look you in the eye and make you feel really guilty."

Mr. Z, who asked that his last name be withheld for fear of backlash from the green crusaders at his workplace, is a victim of eco-bullying, a curious brand of sanctimonious shaming that simmers below the surface in the modern workplace.

Employees who can't or won't adopt green policies at work are made to feel guilty by colleagues who recycle religiously and tote their lunches in cloth bags. Some eco-bullies stake out the photocopier and cluck disapprovingly when a co-worker doesn't print double-sided. Others shun colleagues at the lunch table for guzzling bottled water.

As green committees and eco-policies become more prevalent in the workplace, it's easy for the office bully to latch on to the green cause and target people who aren't following, says Valerie Cade, a workplace bullying expert in Calgary. "If somebody doesn't see their idea the way they do, they could use bullying techniques and start targeting people or groups in order for them to conform," she says.

"People will say, 'Oh, you're throwing away that pop bottle?' There's the sarcastic humour, sarcastic put-downs. They're all disguised to send a very passive-aggressive message."

But those who choose to shame say it's done lightheartedly, and taunts are always aimed at people who are likely to get the joke. In some cases it can be one of the most effective ways to get people to change their habits, says Eric Randall, president of Next Level Games in Vancouver, which has introduced mugs in place of paper cups and uses eco-friendly cleaning supplies.

"It's always in jest. Our company's very open, and so at the morning meeting I would kind of make fun of one guy who forgot to turn his computer off [at night]," he says, adding that he's friends with a good number of the 100 employees in his office. "A lot of companies wouldn't get away with that."

Most companies with successful green initiatives agree that guilt trips won't make Joe Cubicle switch his computer off at night or cut down on paper.

"We didn't try to ram it down [their] throats," Mr. Randall says. "They don't want to do it not because they're bad people; they just haven't taken the time to read up and be aware."

David Chernushenko, an Ottawa-based environmental speaker, recognizes that some people are more motivated to change their habits than others, but he's quick to add that a passion for the environment shouldn't morph into pushiness in the office.

"You can get quite a toxic workplace when people feel like there's kind of a green police going around," he says. "A green group of people, as well-meaning as they are, have to be careful they don't appear that way."

Imposing green ideas without consulting the rest of the company is one mistake an enthusiastic green committee can make.

The green committee at Omicron, an architecture and engineering company in Vancouver, switched printer settings so that everything would automatically print double-sided - a move intended to cut paper usage by half. But a miscommunication with the accounting department ended up causing more waste and initially ruffled a lot of feathers.

"Unfortunately they rolled that out at month's end. We had invoices with one client on one side and one client on the other side," said Natasha Bentley-Williams, a financial manager in Omicron's accounting department. "It was just that initial frustration of getting that sorted."

Some green efforts are met with resistance, with employees sending strong signals that they won't be pushed into a completely green lifestyle if they don't want to be.

April Dunford of Nortel's green council in Toronto said the team toyed with the idea of banning bottled water, but held back after a casual office poll found half the employees weren't interested.

"Some people were saying they were worried about what they would offer a customer or visitor. They thought it was unprofessional to not have bottled water in the building. Some people said they didn't like the taste of the filtered water," she said. "I was surprised on that one because ... I know other buildings and facilities that had banned bottled water and it's not a unique idea. And yet that didn't seem to work here."

Ady Steen, an account manager at a downtown Toronto branch of the uber-green Citizens Bank of Canada, says he never reads the recurring e-mails urging employees to enter contests prompting them to become ever greener.

"We get nagged a lot," he says. "I'm just not interested. I understand the importance, but I'll do my own thing, thank you very much."

Mr. Z says he recycles at home and doesn't think his peers should force him to bring his green habits to work. And he could do without the cleanup crew following him around.

"It's like, 'Where's that memo I asked for earlier today? Why are you recycling my garbage when you have to give me stuff?' " he says. "We pay certain individuals to do certain things and not to recycle for us."

And does he allow comments such as 'You know you're killing trees' or 'Did you know that's recyclable' to get him down?

"No, I just laugh."