How to raise environmental awareness in the company? You have certainly started a CSR strategy… And perhaps that some measures require the involvement of your colleagues: soft mobility, zero waste approach, vegetarian menus in the canteen, etc. But here it is: caught up in their daily lives, employees do not always realize their professional carbon footprint! Fortunately, you can remedy this. In this article, discover 4 concrete actions to raise environmental awareness in the company… And learn how to mobilize your teams around the climate emergency!
1. Adopt 4 good practices for environmental mobilization
1.1 Seriously integrate awareness into your CSR strategy
First of all, let's remind you: environmental awareness is an integral part of a successful CSR strategy! It is about communicating your commitments and explaining their importance to all your stakeholders. Suppliers, subcontractors, partners, customers… These actors could concretely change their practices, thanks to your communication actions. Thus, you reduce greenhouse gas emissions from your scope 3 (indirect emissions, excluding energy)... Often, this is what weighs the most in a carbon footprint!
In short: by raising awareness, you multiply your own positive impact. A beautiful snowball effect!
💡 Also read: our climate commitment checklist for companies.
1.2 Continuously mobilize in the face of the climate emergency
Raising awareness about the environment is not a one-time mission, it's a habit to adopt.
We identify 3 essential pillars:
- Inform about climate issues and other pollution, explain why it is important… And why it affects us directly, too.
- Train in the solutions to be implemented to act against these issues.
- Mobilize continuously, regularly reminding of the climate emergency and our weight in it. It is about maintaining good habits!
Your environmental awareness strategy must therefore be thought out in the long term. Repeat the messages, from different angles and different media. This is the only solution for information to be understood and remembered in the long term.
1.3 Make the information understandable and interesting
3rd key to awareness: the clarity of the information shared.
- Put yourself in the place of the people to be made aware.
- Give examples from their daily lives or interests, to capture their attention.
- Speak to them in their language, their reference. Show how climate disruption affects them too.
- Share concrete information. Orders of magnitude to compare figures to their daily lives, applicable actions, impacts close to home, etc.
💡 To go further, discover our article on responsible communication.
Do not forget that you are raising awareness among citizens, not just employees. Thus, your examples should not stop at the office door. Refer to their daily life: family, leisure, etc. Find motivations there to protect the environment (the future of their children, snow in winter and a sustainable temperature in summer, etc.). Thus, their eco-gestures will not stop at the office door either.
1.4 Use games and conviviality
Go through games and conviviality in your environmental awareness.
- Avoid boring, cold and pessimistic conferences at all costs.
- Make ecology a pleasure among colleagues, a team building eagerly awaited! Games, challenges, cooperative workshops, etc.
- Favor direct contact, rather than emails or digital training.
Awareness comes through emotions! What better than conversations to generate joy, express fears and overcome blocks?
On this subject, we recommend Chouette Impact. It is an agency of committed team-buildings, which raises awareness about a positive, concrete and inspiring ecology. 3 formats are available to meet all your requests: escape games, large games (treasure hunt, eco’lympiades) and thematic workshops.
The escape game is an original format that allows you to combine awareness and fun. The thematic workshops deal with a specific theme of sustainable development, approached in detail and through play. In any case, the formats encourage taking action and allow everyone to have a good time.
At Sami, we tested the ecological escape game from Chouette Impact during our last seminar, tested and approved!
Practical information :
- Duration: 1h30
- Number of participants: Groups of 20 for thematic workshops, up to 300 people for escape games
- Material needed: tables and chairs
- Formats: in-person or remote
- Languages: French, English
- Catalog price: starting at 50€HT per person
- How to organize it: https://chouette-impact.fr/
1.5 Focus on the essentials
Above all: do not drown your teams under a ton of information.
Favor the most impactful eco-gestures, and set aside micro-actions - more responsible for mental load than a reduction in carbon emissions.
- The most impactful actions are: reducing meat consumption in the canteen, adopting soft mobility for your employees, choosing reconditioned computer equipment, extending the life of equipment, reducing heating or air conditioning.
- Actions of little relevance (even if they give a good conscience): deleting e-mails, turning off the lights, etc.
2. Inform through environmental awareness workshops in the company
Many fun workshops exist to mobilize around the climate emergency. They allow you to train your teams on ecological issues… Without reluctance or boredom! Bonus: a successful team building .
Yes, you recognized it: we apply the 4th principle of successful environmental awareness. Go through the game.
The best climate awareness workshops
Which workshops to choose? Here is our TOP 4!
- The Climate Fresco. A collaborative and fun workshop to popularize the causes of global warming… And its consequences. Faced with their awareness, participants together seek concrete solutions to reduce their carbon footprint. Note: you can even train some employees to organize Climate Frescoes, to make it a recurring event.
- The 2 Tonnes workshop. To achieve the COP 21 objectives, each individual should emit a maximum of 2 tonnes of CO2e per year. Today, in France, we are at… 11 tonnes! So, how do we do it? In this workshop, we think together about the solutions - individual or global - to reduce one's carbon footprint.
- Ma Petite Planète. A team challenge spread over 3 weeks, to promote taking action! The principle? Members must carry out actions in favor of environmental protection, and avoid polluting penalties. Teams take ownership of the subject and develop their skills, without even realizing it. Guaranteed excitement!
- The My CO2 intervention. An interactive conference to enable teams to address carbon issues. The content can be customized according to your sector of activity.
These workshops aim to be practical and action-oriented: from understanding the issues, we move on to concrete solutions. What daily actions to adopt? What habits to put in place? Each collaborator leaves with numerous ideas to apply, at the office or at home.
For whom, for what?
The Climate Fresco now comes in many themes. You can thus organize several frescos during the year, or propose specific frescos according to the services: Digital Fresco, Waste Fresco, Biodiversity Fresco, Mobility Fresco, etc.
Also think about training as many managers and board members as possible: today, it is unthinkable to make strategic decisions without integrating climate issues.
3. Implement a CSR strategy: awareness through example
This may seem surprising, and yet… To inform, you don't necessarily need to talk. The best environmental awareness: it's the example!
There is nothing worse than inviting employees to implement eco-gestures… While ignoring the company's polluting activities. This would be seen as moralizing and guilt-inducing speeches. Everything we want to avoid!
Start by implementing a good CSR approach: carrying out a carbon footprint, implementing climate action plan, etc. Inspire your teams by explaining your climate strategy.
Moreover, implementing a carbon footprint or a CSR strategy requires dialogue with stakeholders. Collecting CO2 emission data, negotiating good environmental practices… This is an opportunity to raise awareness among your partners, suppliers, and even your customers!
4. Communicate internally about your climate commitments
Now that you have a solid and ambitious CSR strategy, it's time to share it! Highlight your actions: what measures are being implemented? Why were they chosen? What are the results? Be transparent, if not exemplary.
- Do not hesitate to bring together a team of people responsible for raising awareness about CSR. A committed core to renew internal communication.
- Imagine poster campaigns, so that climate awareness is omnipresent. For example, in the canteen to highlight the vegetarian choice, near the parking lots to remind about alternatives to the car, on air conditioning or heating to encourage their reasonable use, etc. Use fun and clear posters.
- Send reminders by email. The digital format is ideal for sharing resources and deepening explanations.
- Involve teams in establishing the CSR strategy and its implementation. This allows employees to feel concerned by the low-carbon approach.
- Make your CSR actions visible. For example, by affixing a sticker on refurbished equipment, by regularly reminding about the soft mobility options available to employees, etc.
Above all, throughout this process: do not fall into greenwashing. Highlight your environmental actions honestly, without hiding the path that remains to be traveled.
You now know how to successfully raise environmental awareness in your company. Remember to inform in a clear and fun way, to mobilize your teams in the long term. Mark the year with workshops and games promoting action. And to align action with words…Discover our climate engagement checklist for companies.
Mission Décarbonation
Don't miss the latest climate news and stay ahead of regulatory changes
Les commentaires