Why is this important?
Whilst ambitious organisation-wide targets are key to significantly reducing an organisation’s climate and environmental impacts, employee awareness and buy-in is crucial to make their implementation a success. Lack of staff awareness and buy-in on environmental topics within an organisation will often lead to inertia in its overall environmental action and innovation. In combination with other measures, awareness-raising activities contribute to creating the necessary cultural and mindset shift to make impactful changes happen.
Awareness-raising practices – whether communication, trainings, workshops, or volunteering activities – also help employees understand the reasons why they are asked to change behaviour, practices, and ways of working. Research has further shown a positive correlation between employee awareness and green innovation performance.(1) Furthermore, awareness-raising activities in a professional context can lead to questioning and changing private lifestyles, thereby creating a virtuous cycle.
What's the solution?
Internal awareness-raising measures should be tailored to the specificity of a given team’s culture and ways of working, the overarching goal being to support organisational changes to meet ambitious climate and environmental targets.
To promote environmental awareness in the workplace, designate a responsible person or department, such as a sustainability coordinator or HR. Regularly assess and monitor staff awareness and office environmental performance and share results with employees to further motivate them to take action. Form a “green team” of motivated staff to lead initiatives and bridge communication between staff and management. Implement organisation-wide training sessions, workshops, and community activities, which can also function as team-building exercises. Use onboarding periods to inform new employees about the organisation’s environmental commitments and best practices. Establish sustainable office practices and provide educational resources. Utilise internal communication to share resources and celebrate successes. Carefully choose communication channels, relevant themes, timing, and potential incentives, among others.(2)
Lastly, allocate an adequate budget to support environmental initiatives and improvements.
In order to better engage employees, it is further critical to be transparent about an organisation’s impact, actions taken and to communicate on progress as well as set-backs. Management should also be open to suggestions from staff and the green team and take their role seriously.
Point of attention
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Point of attention
Individual behavioural change alone is insufficient for achieving ambitious climate and environmental targets unless it is integrated within broader structural and cultural transformations of an organisation. For real impact, these individual efforts must be supported by systemic changes in policies, infrastructure, and organisational practices. Additionally, fostering a culture that prioritises sustainability can amplify individual actions, ensuring they contribute meaningfully to comprehensive climate solutions.
Key actions
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#1 Designate a responsible person
Designate a department internally responsible for awareness-raising measures (e.g. the sustainability coordinator, HR, communications). In regular team meetings, dedicate a short amount of time for updates and presentations on environmental challenges.
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#2 Collect and monitor data
Assess the level of awareness of teams before and after awareness programs to monitor their effectiveness in behaviour change (ie. through surveys). Monitor environmental performance, including at the office (e.g. paper, water, energy, waste, plastics) and disclose results to employees where possible.
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#3 Set up a green team
Seek out motivated staff members and form a group in charge of leading employee-led initiatives and to serve as a link between staff and management. Leverage the green team to identify opportunities for potential awareness-raising measures, to spot areas for improvement, and to ensure broader employee participation. Allocate working time green team members can spend on this assignment.
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#4 Implement trainings and activities
Organise organisation-wide workshops (ie. Climate Fresk), webinars, and learning modules. Consider hands-on community initiatives, such as clean-up days. These activities also serve as team-building exercises.
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#5 Leverage on-boarding
People tend to be more receptive to change during transitions. Use employee on-boarding or job changes to communicate about your organisation’s commitment, good office practices and environmental activities the organisation supports. See textbox on behaviour change.
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#6 Align good office practices
Set up sustainable practices in the office (ie. recycling, composting, energy-saving), supplemented by a display of educational resources.
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#7 Communicate internally
Leverage internal communication to circulate relevant, multi-media resources. Regularly communicate about results. Celebrate success.
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#8 Decide on a budget
Agree upon a sufficient budget to fund environmental trainings, team initiatives, research and development, and improving good office practices, among others.
Which interventions are most effective?
The IPCC dedicated a full chapter of its 6th assessment report on which role social norms, culture, and individual choices play in mitigating climate change.(9) Among others, the IPCC reviewed behavioural interventions to reduce individual energy consumption. The below list provides a summary of key interventions that can serve as a proxy for any type of activity that aims to change individual behaviour. The IPCC report also points out that in many instances these interventions are more effective when combined with monetary incentives.
The below list is based on information from the IPCC Report Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, chapter 5 (10) and the Futerra briefing “People Power & the IPCC”.(11)
Dropdown
1. Make sustainable choices the default option
The sustainable choice should be set as the standard, not the exception. For what is under their control, organisations should set these default options (e.g. reducing animal-based proteins in the canteen, incentivising soft commuting options). Such actions are likely to also influence personal behaviour of employees.
2. Leverage change/transitions
Research has shown that it is easier to change behaviour during transitions. Consider how this can be integrated into employee awareness programmes, e.g. by including elements in on-boarding trainings.
3. Provide timely feedback
Feedback interventions have proven to drive significant reductions in energy use. Organisations should aim to provide real-time and personalised feedback, with social comparisons where possible. Such regular feedback serves as reminders to act upon our good intentions.
4. Make information intuitive and easy to access
Information should be rendered accessible, intuitive, and translated to the appropriate language. This should be done alongside feedback interventions (i.e. energy efficiency labelling or information diffusion on existing alternatives).
5. Make behaviour observable and provide recognition
Social influence and public recognition hold a significant impact on reduction efforts. To incentivise behaviour change, organisations should install reward systems and community interventions recognising exemplary practices.
6. Influence social norms
Social norms are perceptions of what “other people commonly do, think or expect”. Norms are difficult to change, but changing norms has a huge transformational impact. Reflect upon the social norms in your organisation and how they can be influenced.
7. Make consequences tangible to people
Reframe the impact of climate change and environmental degradations to highlight personal impacts, instead of global or abstract consequences. For example, instead of communicating on the melting of arctic ice sheets, focus on impacts that affect employees, for instance, health, wellbeing, local impact of extreme weather events, etc.
8. Obtain a commitment
Individuals are more likely to act when they publicly committed to do so.
To consider
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Potential co-benefits
- Increased employee engagement, motivation, and retention.
- Positive image and marketing as a well-aware organisation.
- Good practices applied by team members in their private life.
- Positive impacts on employee health and wellbeing when changing behaviour (e.g. soft mobility, plant-based proteins)
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Success conditions
- Alignment between organisation-wide targets, good office practices and continuous progress on overarching targets.
- Accompanying awareness-raising with specific training, as needed.
- Organised structure of awareness-raising processes.
- Communication and awareness-raising activities adapted to the organisation’s culture.
- Strong engagement of a few team members (e.g. as part of a green team) and a cooperative team culture.
- Management takes feedback and suggestions from staff serious and acts upon them (or provides feedback why it chose not to).
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Prerequisites & specificities
- Allocation of a budget for awareness-raising trainings, activities, information diffusion, etc.
- Data and information on the organisation’s carbon footprint, targets, existing efforts, and progress.
- Individual behaviour change complements organisation-wide measures.
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Potential risks
- Short-term costs, primarily from time commitment and representation within personnel.
- Greenwashing and lack of strong enough influence on actions and projects.
- Implementing programs or communications which are ill-adapted to the given team’s communication or work styles.
- Rebound effects, i.e. savings from switching to soft mobility are invested in a long-haul flight.
Tools and good practices
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List of trainings and resources for awareness raising, Climate Action Accelerator, 2024
This document provides a list of tools and trainings for internal awareness-raising for different purposes and audiences.
Find out more -
Carbon Trust, Creating an Awareness Campaign Guide, 2013
Provides tips to guide organisations throughout the implementation of an awareness program, from planning to monitoring.
Find out more -
The Climate Fresk, 2024
The Climate Fresk is a three hour game-style workshop which aims to raise awareness of the fundamental science behind the causes and consequences of climate change. The Climate Fresk has 1.7 million participants as of 2024, is available in 162 countries, and practiced in over 45 languages.
Find out more -
Global Footprint Network, What is your Ecological Footprint?
Tool using a questionnaire to calculate individual ecological footprints, enabling greater self-awareness and transparency.
Find out more -
Infographics on IPCC Reports, 2024
Provides a synthesis on climate change causes, processes, and solutions in the form of an easy infographic. This is supplemented by a series of links to other infographics, including ‘The science of climate change’, ‘Stopping climate change’, among others.
Find out more -
The Climate Game: Can You Reach Net Zero by 2050?, 2022
Interactive game with questions to test users’ understanding of climate change. Provides concrete solutions and explanations to environmental problems based on answers.
Find out more -
Cooleaf, 30 Ways to Make Your Workplace Culture More Eco-Friendly, 2019
Thirty concrete tips on the steps necessary to develop a sustainable office culture. Option to sign up for a ‘demo’, enabling a tailored programming aligned with the any organisation’s specific targets.
Find out more -
How to answer your colleagues’ questions about climate change, 2019
Guide that debunks common myths about climate change to help spur informal conversations in the workplace.
Find out more
Further reading
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The Network for Business Sustainability, Employee Engagement and Going Green, 2021
List of 10 ways to grow a more ethically and ecologically responsible team through employee engagement.
Explore here -
European Climate Pact, Instructions for applying nudges in schools in order to fight climate change: #nudgeforclimate, 2022
Practical guide on how to apply nudges in the education sector, aiming to involve members through adaptable methods, concrete actions, and online engagement.
Explore here -
IPCC, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, 2022
Study performed by the IPCC which provides background information based on scientific evidence. Chapter 5 in particular delves into behaviour change, lifestyle, and practices, all examined under a quantitative lense.
Explore here -
Futerra, People Power & the IPCC, 2022
This slide deck presents an analysis of the IPCC’s 6th assessment report, specifically focusing on the role individual behaviours and lifestyles in climate change mitigation. Explores topics of nudging, norm-setting, culture change, digital facilitation, and provides an accessible summary of the IPCC work.
Explore here -
Kit to learn about climate change, Le Résau Action Climat, 2024 (in French)
The kit has been developed to support any type of organisation or individual in raising awareness on the topic of climate change and how to take action. The kit comes with a ready-to-use slide deck and an accompanying booklet for facilitators.
Explore here -
Video: How to communicate on climate change, University of Geneva, 2024 (in French)
Video of a plenary discussion examining the most effective means and tools of communication for encouraging environmental action.
Explore here
Sources
(1) Q. Wu, S. Xie, et al., ‘Effects of environmental awareness training and environmental commitment on firm’s green innovation performance: Empirical insights from medical equipment suppliers’, PubMed Central, 2024, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(2) Carbon Trust, ‘Creating an awareness campaign guide’, Carbon Trust, 2013, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(3) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’, Cambridge University Press, 2022, p. 528, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(4) Carbon Trust, ‘Creating an awareness campaign guide’, Carbon Trust, 2013, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(5) The Choice, ‘Environmental awareness : a new essential skill for employees’, The Choice ESCP, 2021, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(6) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’, Cambridge University Press, 2022, p. 532, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(7) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’, Cambridge University Press, 2022, p. 529, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(8) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’, Cambridge University Press, 2022, p. 506, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(9) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’, Cambridge University Press, 2022, 549, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(10) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’, Cambridge University Press, 2022, chapt. 5, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
(11) Futerra, ‘People Power & the IPCC’, Wearefuterra, Available here, (accessed 19 July 2024).
Featured
Green office – Individual level
Green office – Organisational level
Credits
Cover photo: Cottonbro Studio/Pexels