Sustainability x Employees: Ideas to motivate, create urgency, and inspire action

Ever since my first steps in the world of ‘making sustainability happen’ in the corporate world, one of the questions I get most frequently to hear is: ‘how is that relevant to [insert as you like: me | our CEO | our employees | our factory staff | our end consumers | …].

It is a valid question. But also a question that expects the person being asked (me, in this case) to have ‘ready made options’ in the back pocket.

Statistics – for example those released by the EU’s ‘citizen support for climate action’ – clearly show that individuals are concerned and clearly perceive the challenges around climate change and the SDGs as pertinent. And that they are trying to contribute to change, but also they do feel a bit helpless.

But having a directly and personally relevant answer to a question such as the one above, is evidently a hard ask.
For one, any ‘ready made’ solution is not quite so ready made and requires a) resources targetted to the audience and b) someone in the know to deploy them.
For the other: there are not all that many solutions ‘out there’ that are suitable to the ‘Jane Does’ of everyday people – easy to understand and yet scientifically accurate.

Looking across the spectrum, there are in essence 3 types of approaches available:

• Well illustrated and visually attractive presentations,
• Gamification approaches, and
• Last, but not least, resources that help take relatively easy and simple steps that, cumulatively, make a difference.
  These latter ones are some answers to ‘what can I personally do concretely?’

In the following a list of tools and approaches I am aware of that fall into one of these 3 categories.

Important: A big thank you and shout out to Xavier Criel from X4Resilience for opening his archive and allowing me to use some of his wisdom when creating this list.

Presentation-style

• The Climate Reality Project is Al Gore’s effort o try and educate both leaders and the masses. His world-wide community of trained ‘Climate Reality Leaders’ have access to the famous climate reality slide deck (the one from ‘An Inconvenient Truth’), and willing and able to present to audiences from school kids to board room.
  The community has translated the slides to many languages from the original English and Spanish versions.
• Sustainability Illustrated offers short engaging videos as well as cartoons to learn about and teach the principles of sustainable development. The goal is to change the world by making the best sustainability knowledge out there available to all for free in a fun and engaging format. Available in French and English.

Gamification-style

• Sustainable Development Geek is a card game designed to get people talking about serious topics in a fun way. It is grounded in the belief that successful development requires questioning, discussing, and improving our ideas, rather than finding the “right” answer.
  Original developed my the Swiss Government, it is available in German, Italian, French, as well as English and Chinese.
• SDG Pyramid Playcards is specifically suited for children. SDG Pyramid Playcards is created with the intent to create and promote awareness of SDGs and to internalize these goals to the world through the three harmonies. It takes advantage of the fact the 17 SDGs can be rearranged in to a 3-layered pyramid.
• The Climate Fresk is an innovative, efficient and accessible tool to understand the scientific bases underlying climate change. In a playful 3-hour workshop participants start to understand in a scientifically accurate, yet accessible manner, the complexities of the climate system and the cause-effect chain of Climate Change. Originally created by a French university professor, by now a global community of Facilitators offers workshops in 50+ languages. Both offline and online versions exist.
• The ‘Fresk Friends’ is a broad range of Fresks that, leaning on the concepts of the Climate Fresk, have developed their own tools and workshop on relevant topics. Topics covered include Circularity, Biodiversity, Digitalisation, a low-carbon life and many others. Most of these tools are currently only available in French, although new, and in particular English, translations are being added by the day. Both offline and online versions exist.
• 2Tonnes is immersive workshop to explore the future and act together for climate. The goal: 2tCO2e / year Per person In 2050.
  Aimed at both novices and experts on the subject of climate change, it is also a real serious game, designed to bring people together and debate together, so that everyone can have fun and express their opinions. The tool is available in English and French, both in offline and online version.

Inspirations to change – one step at a time, communities make a difference:

• ‘Count Us In’ is building the world’s largest community of people and organizations taking practical action on climate change. They have partnered with the Climate Pact to help Europeans take a step to reduce their own carbon footprint – from talking to friends, walking and cycling more, reducing food waste, to insulating a home to save energy.
  Individuals and communities will be able to track how much carbon they’ve saved, come together with their friends or colleagues to reach carbon saving targets, and challenge others to get involved.
• The European Climate Pact is a movement of people united around a common cause, each taking steps to build a more sustainable Europe for us all. Launched by the European Commission, the Climate Pact is part of the European Green Deal and is helping the EU to meet its goal to be the first climate-neutral continent in the world by 2050.
• Take the Jump encourages everyday citizen to try six shifts to protect our earth, and live with joy. Clear, constructive, impactful and most importantly: doable.