Count us in

The most recent IPCC Report highlights that human activity has acted as a significant trigger to the climate emergency. Global temperatures, it warns, will rise above 1.5C over the course of this century - increasing wildfires, droughts, cyclones, flooding and other extreme weather phenomena, affecting our economies, livelihoods, and the wellbeing of our loved ones. This is why we must bring all hands on deck. And that is where the world’s employers - and their employees - have tremendous potential to inspire change.

In recent years, leading businesses have accelerated shifts in their operations, aligning with science-based targets and determining a path to net zero. Today businesses highlight that the scope for influence and action is much greater and goes beyond strategy and operations.

The old adage tells us that individuals hold no power in driving change at a scale. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, citizen action, when taken en masse, could directly reduce up to 20% of the overall global emissions. And the collective climate action of 100 million individual employees by 2025 could be at the forefront of this shift. According to Count Us In Partner and carbon footprint experts, Giki Zero, if 100 million employees took effective climate action by 2025, this could potentially match the carbon cuts required by the entire global shipping and chemicals industry to be on a Net Zero pathway by 2030, or the entire emissions of Switzerland from now until 2025¹.

But individual carbon cuts are only one of the advantages of employee mobilisation around climate action. Employee engagement is part of every firm’s carbon footprint, and their participation, innovation and ownership are essential for all businesses to deliver their net zero plans. By leveraging the existing community of the workplace, businesses are in a game-changing position to mitigate and tackle climate change. Engaged workforces increase the likelihood that businesses will be able to deliver their net zero commitments and transition their business to operate successfully in a net zero economy.

The Count Us In Employee Challenge marks an important step in the direction of this vision. Launched in partnership with A-World/ActNow, BrightAction, Do Nation, Giki Zero, IKEA Better Living and Joro, it aims to inspire 100 million employees - empowered by their employers - to take climate action by 2025. Businesses who have made net zero commitments are invited to join this initiative to showcase their commitment to both accelerate their ambitions and bring their employees along on the journey and can expect benefits such as:

• Public recognition for commitment to climate action
• Access to public campaigns, PR and external comms moments, and communication resources, to further boost their sustainability efforts
• Joining peers across sectors to exchange learnings and share insights around what works with employees
• Connection with customisable platform solutions to inspire and aggregate employee action (across sectors + geographies)
• Guidance and toolkits to drive participation through teams, competitions, incentives, and gamification.

So far, more than 20 leading businesses such as Reckitt, PwC UK, IKEA, Arup, and BT have joined the Employee Challenge. The group is expected to grow to at least 40 by the end of 2021.

In recent years a combination of ground-breaking grassroots movements, targeted advocacy campaigns and high-level advocacy have broken new ground, accelerating progress on climate change. To build on this progress, citizens, who are not activists, but who are worried by what is happening to our planet, our wellbeing, and a growing sense of our human fragility, must be engaged. And a global movement of committed employees making personal changes that matter in their own lives, could also crucially make them leaders of change in their organisations and sectors, helping create a green economic revolution.

To learn more about the Count Us In Employee Challenge, visit count-us-in.org/employee-challenge or contact Count Us In Partnerships Lead Ipsita Bhatia at ipsita.bhatia@leadersquest.org