Sustainable

Living a more sustainable life requires us to change our behaviour, make ongoing commitments and sometimes make sacrifices – but despite all this, it’s not always easy to see the rewards of our hard work.

When we recycle or use the circular economy, the planet and the headlines don’t change. We’re still hearing that climate change is going in the wrong direction, despite the collective action we are all taking. And that’s why we’re starting to see more people experiencing sustainability fatigue.

What is sustainability fatigue?

Simply put, sustainability fatigue is a phrase that describes how people feel when, despite making choices that are better for the planet, they constantly see negative environmental news and start to think the changes they are making aren’t making a difference. So they start to make less effort or even give up altogether.

The challenges of sustainability fatigue

Sustained behaviour change is not easy

Humans are psychologically wired to value the things we already have more than those we don’t have. When it comes to encouraging people to embrace more sustainable lifestyles, asking them to let go of something they’re emotionally connected to is a challenge.

Making changes might not be cheap

Humans are facing a dilemma; they want to make changes that positively impact the environment but can’t always afford to do so. With 21% of people saying it is too expensive to make changes, this could be stopping people from living their lives as sustainably as they would like to.

The extent of change required is overwhelming

As people ocellate between taking proactive action and feeling overwhelmed by the lack of progress, it’s no surprise that climate anxiety is rising – more than 80% of British adults say they have some level of concern about climate change. These feelings of concern are as real as climate change itself, so it’s no wonder people aren’t sure where to start, what to believe or where to focus their action.

Whilst people may be facing these challenges in their personal lives, sustainability has scaled the corporate agenda. And many businesses are doing more than ever to have a positive impact on the environment. But have you considered how your communications could provide support to your employees’ personal sustainability journeys?

Strategies for engaging employees with your sustainability communications

1. Change the tone

Remember, people know what’s going on, and many are already anxious. This is especially true for the younger generations who are starting to enter the workforce, with 31% of 16-24 year olds saying they are very worried about climate change. It’s time to try ditching the doom and gloom and lightening up communications, balancing important information with a little fun to raise awareness.

Strategy: Try interviewing your subject matter experts with quick-fire questions or turning educational communications into a quiz-style interview. Giving a voice to real people around your business can help make changes feel achievable and realistic – people need to hear the authentic truth about how colleagues who are similar to them have managed to change their behaviour.

2. Get (and keep) talking

It’s more important than ever to keep the conversation going. Communication can reduce anxiety by reassuring employees that your organisation is taking sustainability seriously. Keep employees consistently in the loop with the progress you’re making and bring to life all the achievements (and failures) big and small.

Strategy: Consider whether you could help your Head of Sustainability or key subject matter experts to publish a diary, vlog or blog to continually share their updates.

3. Get competitive

As humans, we all fall for a bit of gamification, in and out of the workplace. With 82% of employees say that game elements help provide a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their workplace, gamification can be about more than just a bit of fun.

Strategy: How about challenging different offices, locations or departments to see who can collect the most recycling, reduce their digital storage by the most or carry out the most volunteering?

4. Empower your employees

Enabling action is a great way to reduce anxiety and get change happening. How you empower your employees will depend on the kind of organisation you are, but remember your front-line workers might have the answers to make big changes.

Strategy: Try brainstorming ways your employees can practice more sustainable activities at work, from switching off lights to having a digital declutter, give them tangible things they can take action on and possibly implement at home too.

5. Start a movement

Building a growing community of employee advocates and champions is a great way to build up momentum. With 66% of employees rating employee resource groups as an effective way to foster a sense of community, this can provide an opportunity for employees to bond and engage, as well as taking the benefit of taking positive action.

Strategy: Sustainability employee resource groups or Green Teams are a great source of new ideas, from how to reduce waste to setting up recycling hubs, and internal employee swap shops to creating an onsite vegetable roof garden.

If you’re in search of ESG communication experts to engage employees with sustainability communications, then look no further – you’ve found us! We would be delighted to hear from you to explore the possibility of partnering together.

Businesses that embrace sustainability can build trust with customers and stakeholders, improve their reputation, and foster a positive work environment. However, despite the growing importance of sustainability, many businesses are struggling to meet their goals. One key reason for this is that they often fail to properly engage their employees and take them on the sustainability journey.

As organizations adapt to combat climate change, the focus must shift inward – towards internal culture and how employees embrace the necessary changes to minimize their impact on the planet. Fostering a sustainability culture isn’t just advantageous; it’s a powerful opportunity for positive change, both within the workplace and beyond.

While many businesses acknowledge the need for environmental action, creating real passion among employees requires something more. We need to create a culture of sustainability.

Creating Green Monday – a collective sustainability learning opportunity

At Something Big, we’ve been on a long sustainability journey. Bolstered by our B Corp status, we’ve measured carbon emissions, offset through carbon avoidance projects, embraced sustainable suppliers and production, increased our carbon literacy through tailored employee training, celebrated the circular economy and initiated easy recycling for our team. And we have of course been taking our customers on this journey too.

To kick off 2024 on a green note, we transformed Blue Monday into Green Monday – a day dedicated to embracing positive environmental change. We ran a series of engaging and interactive sessions covering a variety of sustainability-related topics, from making our personal finance greener to understanding how to recycle tricky items, leverage the circular economy and reducing our food waste, even getting going with planting our office garden. For lunch, we rescued unsold food through Too Good To Go to share, introducing the idea of buying surplus food to many of the team. We finished the session with our ‘Pledge Tree’, which is now full of commitments inspired by our newfound knowledge.

But the impact goes far beyond Green Monday itself. Shared experiences not only deepen our understanding of the issues but also strengthen our team culture. Coming together sparks meaningful conversations and roots new ideas within the fabric of our team. It creates a foundation of shared understanding and a launchpad for continuous conversation. Internally run events and impactful communications have a lifespan that impacts culture in the longer term.

But what did Green Monday teach us about fostering a sustainability culture?

Creating a sustainability culture

Our journey with Green Monday unearthed valuable insights into fostering a workplace culture that prioritises the planet. Here are key takeaways:

• Keep it achievable: For Green Monday we curated a series of engaging sessions covering a variety of different sustainability-related subjects, but crucially we started conversations on topics that are within individual control. We steered clear of topics that require expensive or extreme lifestyle changes. Our goal was inclusion, and showing we can all make a meaningful difference.
• Keep it positive: It can be hard to talk about environmental destruction while keeping it positive, and inevitably falling into sustainability fatigue. We focused on fun, positive and personally beneficial behaviour changes, making the sessions insightful and interactive.
• Keep it safe: While no one can reasonably deny the impact of climate change, our knowledge of how to combat it and our understanding of our personal responsibility may vary. We made sure to keep a safe and respectful environment, creating an opportunity for everyone to feel safe and to learn from each other.
• Keep politics out of the conversation: While how you vote may be one of the most impactful ways of protecting our planet, ultimately to stay in our lane and keep the conversations inclusive, safe and fun for everyone, we were careful to stick to the facts and keep politics out.
• Make it measurable: We asked our team to complete a survey on how far along they are in their sustainability journey on a variety of topics. As we continue these conversations and learnings throughout the year, we will then be able to survey our team again and (hopefully!) show real impact. Our ‘Pledge Tree’ is also full of quantifiable goals, that we can look back on to show our impact.

If you’re seeking ESG communication experts to engage employees with sustainability communications, look no further. Talk to us; let’s make sustainability a focal point in your workplace conversations.

Reading anything about climate change can make us feel helpless and overwhelmed by the size of the challenges, but as a B Corp we believe in continuous progress and action over words. We’re delighted to share some of our learnings and tips to help others make everyday swaps and changes in the right direction.

Sustainable production purchasing

Here are three easy ways you can pledge to make your communications production more sustainable:

Choosing sustainable paper

To reach your audience and communicate in a way that is best for them, sometimes you need to print. If you make the right printing choices, the often-held belief that digital communications are greener than print isn’t always true. Where possible insist on FSC or PEFC-accredited paper sources, this means that production has supported responsible forest management, prevents illegal logging and protects wildlife and local communities.

Go local, where you can

When possible, try to reduce the air miles of your communications by insisting on local production. This may increase prices on some lower-quality products, but it can also come with the benefits of faster turnaround times, avoiding long shipping times.

Switch to B Corp or accredited sustainable suppliers

Whether it’s B Corp, Planet Mark, or ISO 14001, there are many verified accreditations that organisations can go through to prove their commitment to sustainability. Try to fill your supply chain with organisations who are committed to making a difference and taking sustainability seriously.

Responsible production and consumption

Here are three straightforward strategies to minimize your communications consumption while prioritising sustainable production practices.

Look after your stock

It’s common for boxes of promotional giveaways to be sent off to events and never return, leading to avoidable waste. Plan ahead and establish a process to facilitate easy returns. This ensures that unused items come back into stock safely, ready to be reused for future events. If you’re managing a store of items, make a point of knowing what goes in and out so that you can protect stock and only re-order when needed. It’s useful to share the value of items with your stakeholders so they can better understand the budget impact of wastage.

Make your giveaways practical and useful

Make sure that promotional items are as useful, practical, and long-lasting as possible to prevent further wastage. Hopefully long gone are the days of frivolous gimmicky single-use giveaways. A simple way to check is to ask yourself ‘Would I use this?’ or ‘How long would I keep this?’.

Think differently about how you give things away

We’re all used to event goody bags and placing giveaways on chairs or at every table setting, but this can contribute to unnecessary waste. Attendees often leave items behind, which may end up in the bin or linger at the bottom of bags, eventually being discarded at home. Let’s commit to a different approach by offering attendees the option to choose whether they want to take the giveaway.

Try having a ‘goodbye’ table where people can choose what they’d like to take. This reduces the waste and makes attendees value the items they pick up more. You could also try gamifying giveaways, making attendees work to earn the ‘merch’ and in doing so increasing their connection with it.

If you automatically send items out to data lists, commit to reviewing your data more often to make sure you’re not sending items to out-of-date contacts.

Promotional merchandise can play a great role in building loyalty and has longevity in comparison to many other techniques, so it can’t always be something to avoid altogether but if you’re still producing single-use, plastic pens then it’s time to rethink your approach to branded merchandise.

Sustainable production swaps

Here are three sustainable replacement items you might be able to introduce into your 2024 communications plans to reduce less sustainable alternatives:

Notepads made with apple peel covers

Crafted from apple peel, vegetable fibers, and sustainable pulp, these Appeel notebooks feature FSC-certified ivory-tinted apple paper, providing a personalised touch.

Notepads made from stone

Opt for stone paper notepads for a 100% tree-free and water-resistant alternative, saving water in the production process.

Compostable pencils with seeds

Personalised pencils made from sustainably harvested wood offer a lead-free, graphite core. After use, these pencils can be planted to grow into various plants, adding a touch of sustainability to your giveaways.

We know how tricky it can be to align promo and print with your commitment to sustainability. Let us guide you to making more environmentally responsible choices.

In recent years, many of us have made a conscious effort to be kinder to the planet by doing things such as reducing our landfill waste, using less single-use plastic, and recycling more. But have you thought about the impact your digital activities are having on the environment?

We’re working to hard to make Something Big a sustainable business that has a positive impact on our environment and humankind. We’re not just doing what we can to reduce, mitigate or eliminate our impact on the planet, but as a B Corp creative communications agency, we’re also making it our responsibility to raise our voice and lead by example. You can see our previous sustainability campaign, tackling single-use plastic pens in the marketing industry here. 

With technology playing a huge part in our everyday lives, at work and at home, it’s become second nature to sign up for email newsletters, do a quick Google search when we’re curious about something, and save our documents and photos in the cloud. However, every one of these actions contributes to our digital carbon footprint. With our latest campaign driven by our Sustainability Champions, we have looked to encourage people to make more sustainable choices when it comes to their digital habits.

Tips to downsize your digital footprint

Did you know that sending just one email containing an image or attachment can produce up to 50g of CO₂? That’s the same as a light being on for 35 minutes. Or just two internet searches via Google can produce up to 15g of CO₂? That’s the same as the amount produced when you boil a kettle.

Here are some simple steps you can take to downsize your digital footprint:

• Regularly clean out unused files from your cloud storage and avoid storing the same file in multiple places.
• Consider using cloud storage providers that use 100% renewable energy.
• Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters.
• Keep mailing lists clean and targeted.
• Avoid sending unnecessary emails.
• Consider using cloud storage links for email attachments where possible.
• Only turn your camera on when it’s necessary and adds value to the conversation.
• Be specific with your search terms.

Read more about our sustainability commitments in our impact report ‘Growth redefined’.

If you’re looking to improve the impact that your business is making on the planet, get in touch to see how we can help.