Nearly all workers (93 per cent) don’t know how their company’s sustainability strategy applies to their day-to-day jobs. The finding from a report by AimHi Earth has discovered over three-quarters of employees are unhappy about their bosses’ lack of climate action (77 per cent), exposing a lack of faith in senior business leaders’ sustainability efforts. Over half of those surveyed (52 per cent) think their employers are likely to greenwash.
Employees also feel unconfident when it comes to understanding and talking about the climate and nature crisis with over half (55 per cent) of those surveyed acknowledging they only have a surface-level knowledge of sustainability. Over two-thirds of these employees (70 per cent) believe their individual actions at work can’t have an impact on reducing emissions and protecting nature.
AimHi Earth was set up to accelerate the global spread of climate and sustainability knowledge and skills. The organisation’s live and online training is used by companies like Sky, CapGemini and Universal, as well as institutions like the British Olympic Association.
AimHi Earth’s research has found that its training also results in noteworthy individual behaviour changes, so far driving a halving (- 51 per cent) of many employee-related Scope 3 emissions.
Changes measured several months following training programmes with AimHi Earth, were surprisingly simple and widespread. Almost all non-vegan employees made changes to their diets (89 per cent), nearly half changed their energy providers (47 per cent) and nearly a third moved their bank accounts, investments or pensions to more sustainable locations (31 per cent).
Scope 3 emissions account for more than 70 per cent of many businesses’ total carbon footprints showing how important these emissions are to reduce. What’s essential to remember, however, is that individual change and system change are two sides of the same coin: the individual changes driven by their training programmes are therefore indicative of greater, more valuable systemic evolution.
Matthew Shribman, chief scientist and co-founder at AimHi Earth, said: “We all want a liveable future, with fresh air, clean water and healthy food on the table. So yes, it’s alarming that so many employees lack faith in their employers’ efforts to combat the climate and nature emergency.
“However, we’re now seeing rapidly growing demand for extensive climate and sustainability training from forward-thinking leaders. With the climate and nature emergency accelerating, these leaders understand that this kind of training is no longer a nice-to-have.
“Our data shows that our programmes rapidly upskill and activate professionals, to the extent that they change their own lives,” Shribman concluded: “Who better to transform organisations and systems than people who’ve transformed themselves?”
