Written by Charlotte Duckworth

How do you engage your people in climate action?

11th November, 2024 •

Taking action to address our climate crisis is not just a moral imperative – it’s a strategic business advantage. Companies that actively manage and plan for climate change see an 18% higher return on investment (ROI) than those that do not, and an astounding 67% higher ROI than those that refuse to disclose their emissions. Climate action isn’t just good for the planet; it’s good for business.

Many forward-thinking organisations know the importance of transitioning to a sustainable economy. However, all too often these sustainability strategies and emissions targets are crafted by a select few and then inefficiently trickle down to the broader team. This approach can make it challenging to foster a culture that genuinely supports climate action.

Why does employee engagement in climate action matter?

“Great things in business are never done by one person;

they’re done by a team of people”

~ Steve Jobs, Apple founder ~

To achieve your sustainability strategy, the business needs to engage each team, bringing them on the climate journey, because ultimately, they will be the ones who do the day-to-day work to deliver on these goals. We need them to believe in it!

Engaging employees in climate action not only advances your sustainability goals but also strengthens your recruitment and retention strategies.

71% of employees view environmentally sustainable businesses as more attractive employers, giving your organisation an edge in attracting top talent and value-aligned customers.

And studies also show that nearly 90% of employees involved in sustainability initiatives feel more connected to their organisation, which boosts their job satisfaction and loyalty.

How can you engage your employees in climate action?

When we talk about our journey toward sustainability, there’s always the risk of info overload. After all —what does a gigatonne of energy really mean, anyway? On the flip side, sharing damning stories about the climate crisis can definitely fire people up to take action, but it can also bring up feelings of fear and helplessness.

To take effective action, your sustainability journey has to be embedded in the workplace and the daily habits of everyone who makes up the organisation. This involves moving past the lure of what is convenient and easy and instead making decisions aligned to your business culture and values.

1. Embed sustainability in your purpose and values

Many employees are growing wise to the ‘greenwashing’ practices of organisations. If you want to stand out, you have to make your commitment clear.

Crafting a vision

An articulate vision is central to your sustainability goals, providing direction for the entire team. This vision offers clarity on ways of working, decision-making, and ultimately ‘how we do things round here’.

Define your values

To take this a step further, you can define your organisation’s values to incorporate your sustainability commitments. At Higson, one of our six values is ‘To create a positive social and environmental impact’. We practise and live our organisational values through tangible actions tied to our annual business strategy and goals.

To instil ownership and a sense of purpose, it’s important that individuals are given the opportunity to feed in and contribute to defining and reaching these goals. Co-curating a plan of how to support your charity partners, for example.

Create a business sustainability plan

Organisations should have a business sustainability plan that communicates where you are at the moment, your carbon footprint and comprehensive reporting on your Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

From here you can provide transparency about the direction and goals of the business including:

The goals you want to achieve
Actions you’ll take to achieve your goals
Ways to track your progress

This way your team has more clarity on how they can help to achieve your organisational strategy and awareness of how they feed into these goals.

Apply for B Corporation accreditation

One way of demonstrating your sustainability commitments is through a certification. B Corporation is one example of a community of organisations making a legal commitment to prioritise people, planet and profit. This movement creates opportunities to engage your teams in climate action, beyond your organisation to a network of others. It’s also a great place to source sustainably certified suppliers and providers – have a look at the B Corp directory!

2. Educate and empower your teams

If the team is to implement your sustainability strategy, we need everyone to be on the same page about the climate crisis. This means creating opportunities to learn.

Enable knowledge for all

Hosting fun, interactive workshops and training sessions is one of the best ways for people to develop knowledge on climate change. The most important thing is to make sure they are interesting and exciting (no boring lectures here!) so that people leave the session feeling empowered and motivated to take action.

Become Carbon Literate

The Carbon Literacy training course, certified by the Carbon Literacy Project, is one example of effective training. The sessions share the foundations of climate change science, with great insight on what’s happening globally, and locally, to then initiate meaningful and motivating actions as a team. At Higson we run climate training, so if you’re interested in learning more then get in touch!

Curate a learning journey

There are constant, new developments when it comes to our climate crisis, and it’s important to have different ways that people can stay informed.

There is so much we can do, but a couple of ideas include to:

Celebrate action days throughout the year, to bring the climate crisis front of mind. Eg.
- Earth Day (22nd April),
- Earth Overshoot Day (it moves, see 2024 below!),
- Carbon Literacy Action Day (14th November)
Use channels on Slack, Teams and other platforms to collate information and updates. Team members can then present back a summary for wider discussion
Gamify action with team challenges and leader boards, linking to different themes such as recycling, shopping, transport with great apps to help: JouleBug and Pawprint

3. Influence personal lifestyles

To embed new ways of thinking, habits and actions we can create opportunities for individuals to engage in sustainable practices both at home and at work.

Empower friendly commutes

Going remote, or providing support and encouragement for a low-carbon commute can significantly reduce your carbon footprint (See below source). As a business you can reflect this in your travel policy, promoting the train (rather than plane) and providing time in lieu for both business trips and personal holidays. We do this at Higson and you can read more about it here!

Fund thoughtful celebrations

When you celebrate as a team, can you reflect your values in the way you organise events. This might include having a vegan menu, reusable utensils and thoughtful recognition – this could be spending time together over coffee, volunteering or making something!

In summary

Our sustainability commitments need to be visible, central to your messaging and core to who you are as a business. To engage your teams to take pride in, contribute to and deliver on your sustainability strategy, consider these three key themes:

Embed sustainability in your purpose and values – Communicate your sustainability commitments through your vision, with tangible actions as part of your strategy
Educate and empower your teams – Give everyone the knowledge they need to be able to meaningfully contribute to your success
Influence personal lifestyles – Through encouraging daily practices that are low carbon, you can positively influence individuals’ choices both at work and at home

At Higson, we run workshops and training programmes to generate climate action, we are certified carbon literacy trainers and passionate about catalysing a positive environmental impact. If you are interested in hearing more, please get in touch!