The Count Us In Employee Challenge has launched, aiming to engage 100 million employees to take personal climate actions by 2025 – with a target of 1 million employees taking action by the end of 2021.
Nigel Topping, UK High-Level Climate Action Champion, and Count Us In supporter, launched the ambitious initiative. Accenture, IKEA, PwC UK, JLL, Dalberg, Reckitt, Arup, BT Group, Ramboll UK, KPMG, Atlassian, EDF, Coffee & TV, Landsec, Re_Set, Wholegrain Digital, Torchbox and First Milk alongside several other businesses are the first to join the collective effort to inspire 100 million employees to take practical climate action by 2025.
The collective impact of 100 million individual employees taking action will add up to a significant reduction in carbon emissions. Count Us In partner and carbon footprint experts Giki Zero predict that by 2025 the campaign has the potential to 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 2025.
This movement of committed employees will make personal changes that matter in their own lives, and crucially, also be leaders of change in their business and sectors, helping create a green economic revolution.
In the run up to COP26, 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. Not only are businesses responding to employee calls for climate action but they are leveraging their greater scope for influence and action by involving employees, who play a critical part in mitigating and tackling climate change.
Employee behaviour is part of every businesses’ carbon footprint, and their participation, innovation and ownership is 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.
Individuals can take practical steps in their own lives – like switching their home energy, walking and cycling more, eating more plant-based food, and speaking up at work – which, when added up, show that collective action will not only reduce carbon pollution but also drive the systems change we need. The actions are set out on the Count Us In and partner platforms.
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. The Count Us In Employee Challenge has been launched in partnership with A-World / ActNow, BrightAction, Do Nation, Giki Zero, IKEA Better Living and Joro, marking an important step in this direction.
Nigel Topping said:
Businesses engaging their workforces on climate action is a practical and meaningful way to accelerate and meet their organisational commitments to net-zero. Leading businesses from across the globe have come together to galvanise their employees on climate action. I encourage all businesses to join this challenge and start to make a difference today.
Philippa Spence, Managing Director of Ramboll UK, said:
Our people are passionate about taking Climate Action, both through their advisory and design work, but also in their personal capacities. We are proud to have joined Count Us In, which offers us a great way to work together to contribute to achieving a net zero, climate resilient future for all.
Kevin Ellis, Chairman and Senior Partner at PwC UK, said:
As part of our net zero commitment we joined Count Us In to help support our people to play their part in tackling climate change. The scale of the climate challenge ahead of us is huge. It impacts on every organisation, in every sector, in every country and so we want and need to go further – as organisations as well as individuals. Joining Count Us In is just one of the ways that PwC UK are driving net zero action and supporting the COP26 agenda.
Jo Hand, Co-Founder of Giki Zero said:
The combined personal carbon footprints of employees can be up to 10 times the size of the company’s own operational footprint. As a result, firms who help their employees cut a tonne or two from their footprint in just a year, on a multi-year basis, have really significant carbon savings potential. In addition, helping employees increase knowledge on sustainability is a crucial part of embedding sustainability across a business to enable the implementation of carbon reductions we need to see at corporate level during this decisive decade.
