People as the Engine of Climate Impact

How to build buy-in and deliver results

A whitepaper by Sustainers

Ir. S.H. van Hiele & Msc. B. van der Putten

 

The Urgency of Employee Engagement

A small habit, enormous impact. Since 2016, the use of plastic bags in the Netherlands has dropped by more than 80% — a behavioural change that required virtually no effort, yet saves as much CO₂ annually as nearly 100,000 flights from Amsterdam to Paris. This illustrates how powerful everyday behaviour can be in tackling climate change. Employees are crucial in this effort: they are the engine of every organisation, making daily choices that directly or indirectly affect emissions — from travel to energy use, procurement, and waste.

According to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), behavioral change can realize up to 40–70% of the world's potential CO₂ reductions (IPCC AR6 WGIII, 2022). The greatest untapped potential lies not in technology, but in people.

If we truly want to make a difference, we need to empower everyone. That starts with awareness of what CO₂ actually is, followed by insight into how to reduce your own emissions. But knowing alone is not enough: people also need to be prompted to take action.

This whitepaper explores how simple interventions can drive large-scale behavioural change — and how this makes your organisation stronger, saves money, and makes it more attractive to (young) talent.

 

How Do You Get Employees on Board?

Getting people moving requires a smart approach. Forcing rarely works for fundamental change; inspiring and facilitating does. Research from the behavioural sciences shows which 'levers' you can pull:

 

• Let people generate their own ideas. This increases ownership and motivation: self-generated actions are better executed and sustained (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Self-Determination Theory).
• Give people freedom of choice. Free will activates intrinsic motivation, while compulsion can trigger resistance.
• Create a sense of belonging. Let employees carry out actions individually or in teams as part of a larger whole. This creates positive social pressure and a sense of togetherness.
• Make it tangible with numbers. People have little intuition for kilograms of CO₂. By translating CO₂ emissions into euros, kilometres driven, or trees planted, it becomes more understandable and concrete (Milieu Centraal, 2023).
• Lower the threshold. The easier an action is, the greater the chance someone will participate. Every small success reinforces a 'green identity', which in turn motivates further action (Cornelissen et al., 2008).
• Measure and improve. Data on progress provides insight and motivation. This makes areas for improvement visible, as well as successes.

 

How Do You Build Collective Momentum?

Individual actions matter, but together you achieve much more. This is where the concept of the social tipping point comes in: according to research published in Science (Xie et al., 2011), you need on average just 25% of people actively demonstrating different behaviour to tip a group towards a new behavioural pattern. This means that if one in four employees participates enthusiastically, a snowball effect can develop across the rest of the organisation.

Breaking through what might be called the 'responsibility shuffle' — where individuals, companies, and governments point fingers at each other — only succeeds when employees see that their own organisation is genuinely taking steps. It is precisely that shared goal that makes individual actions meaningful, and gives people the sense that their effort is not a drop in the ocean, but part of a collective movement.

Success Factors for Collective Action

• A clear structure — so that everyone understands who does what.
• An inspiring vision — that resonates with employees and brings them together.
• Identification — people need to be able to recognise themselves in the organisation and its sustainability ambition.

 

Together, these elements form the foundation for setting collective behaviour in motion. Whether it involves a department, a company, or an entire supply chain: working together feels more powerful and motivates people to act.

 

The Undercurrent, Identification and Credibility: Essential Links

To make collective action sustainable, you must work not only on visible actions but also on the undercurrent: the invisible beliefs, emotions, and cultural patterns that determine whether change takes hold. Many people are willing to act sustainably but feel held back by unspoken norms or group behaviour (Kegan & Lahey, 2001). Making the undercurrent discussable is essential for lasting behavioural change.

Identification with the organisation also plays a key role. According to Deloitte (2023), 42% of millennials and Gen Z employees are prepared to leave an employer who does not take sustainability seriously. Sustainability is therefore not a luxury, but a prerequisite for attracting and retaining talent.

When employees recognise themselves in an organisation with clear sustainability ambitions, that strengthens their loyalty. Moreover, a credible sustainability approach reinforces the organisation's narrative: not empty promises, but concrete actions. This strengthens a culture of transition — an organisational climate in which learning, improving, and experimenting with sustainable solutions is the norm. This creates a flywheel effect in which more and more people are inspired and encouraged to join in.

 

CO₂ Insights: More Than Just CO₂

Now that we understand how to engage individuals and collectives, what exactly is expected of employees? Simply put: act on the most important climate themes that affect your organisation. On a personal level, these include choices around transport, energy, goods, clothing, food, and waste. In a business context, they often relate to energy and raw material use, procurement, supply chains, and stakeholder buy-in.

Why It Works

Many actions are straightforward and cost almost no time. A small adjustment in behaviour, or choices based on new knowledge and data, delivers a great deal:

• CO₂ reduction, directly measurable based on data
• Cost savings, for example through lower energy consumption
• Health benefits, for example by cycling instead of driving
• Time savings, such as less congestion or parking stress
• Learning by doing, creating sustainable habits

 

And because CO₂ is often invisible, simple 'CO₂ insights' help people understand how much impact they are making. Think of CO₂ calculators or dashboards that display personal or team results. This makes climate impact concrete and motivating.

 

The Power of Gamification: Motivating Without Mandating

Stimulating sustainable behaviour in the workplace requires not just knowledge, but motivation. This is where gamification offers a solution: the application of game elements such as challenges, points, badges, and leaderboards in a non-game context. When well-designed, gamification can activate people in a low-threshold way to change their behaviour structurally. Without gamification, participation can sometimes feel more like an obligation.

Gamification works because it appeals to the three basic psychological needs from Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000): autonomy (I choose for myself), competence (I can do this), and relatedness (I am part of something with others). Field research shows that gamified apps in the workplace demonstrably lead to more sustainable actions, especially when participation is voluntary and goals are clear and achievable (Morschheuser et al., 2022).

A systematic review by Kirchner-Krath et al. (2024) confirms that gamification within organisations is effective when:

• participants receive feedback on their performance (e.g. via dashboards),
• they experience social pressure through team challenges or leaderboards,
• and the points or rewards are linked to meaningful impact.

 

The key word is voluntary engagement: gamification only works when people feel invited to participate, not when they feel coerced into 'mandatory fun'. In this sense, gamification is not a replacement for intrinsic motivation, but a smart way to reinforce it.

By deploying gamification strategically, you can make sustainability in the workplace not only more visible and measurable, but also more enjoyable, more collective, and above all: more effective.

 

Getting Started with Themes: Generic and Domain-Specific

Many sustainability programmes work with broad, generic themes such as mobility, energy, food, and waste. These themes are valuable and also form the foundation at Sustainers. But what sets Sustainers apart is the translation into domain-specific knowledge per job group.

What does a GP do differently from a construction worker? What are the climate-relevant choices of a pharmacist compared to a procurement manager? Which habits in the daily work of a hospital physician have the greatest impact on CO₂ emissions and costs? The answers to these questions differ enormously — and that is precisely why a one-size-fits-all approach does not work.

Sustainers maps out that specific context per sector and per role. This gives every employee an actionable perspective that directly connects to their daily work. No abstract goals, but concrete actions that fit what someone does every day — and where that person can genuinely make a difference.

Whether it involves healthcare professionals becoming more conscious about medical waste, construction workers reducing material waste, or office workers shrinking their digital footprint: the actionable perspective is always specific, recognisable, and immediately applicable.

 

The Sustainers Platform: Change as a Service

Sustainers is built on 15 years of experience in transition management within large organisations. All best practices from that field have been brought together in a single platform. This means you do not need large consultancy firms or extensive project teams to set sustainable behavioural change in motion. Sustainers delivers this as a service: Change as a Service.

For Leadership: A Clear Business Case

The journey starts with a baseline measurement. Through the lens of the executive, it becomes clear what the potential is: how much CO₂, cost, and waste can your organisation save if employees adjust their daily habits? That potential impact is specified per job group and translated into a concrete, manageable business case. This ensures a clear narrative for the top of the organisation from day one.

For the Sustainability Manager: Easy to Set Up and Steer

Based on the business case, the sustainability manager — together with Sustainers or independently — determines which actions and habits are deployed per job group. The platform makes it possible to set this up and roll it out in a decentralised way, without heavy dependence on external parties. Everything is designed to be measurable: progress on behaviour, CO₂ reduction, cost savings, and waste reduction is continuously visible.

For the Employee: Tailored, Motivating and Progressive

Individual employees receive tailor-made challenges, matched to their role and work context. The structure is deliberate and grounded in behavioural science:

• First, awareness: what is the impact of my behaviour?
• Then, knowledge: what can I concretely do differently?
• Next, skill: practising and applying in daily practice.
• Then, consistency: repetition until it becomes second nature.
• Finally, resilient habits: sustainable change that truly sticks.

 

Continuous feedback from the app keeps progress visible. Competition elements and group cohesion create social motivation without participation feeling like an obligation. The platform is available as an app, on desktop, and as a kiosk function on an iPad — accessible for every work environment, from office to construction site to care institution.

How Long Does a Programme Take?

Habits form somewhere between 30 and 66 days — depending on the complexity of the desired behaviour. That is precisely the scientific window described in the literature. A programme with Sustainers is designed around this: not a one-off action, but a guided transition from A to B, measurable across behaviour, CO₂, costs, and waste.

 

Conclusion: From Awareness to Action

Behavioural change is not a side issue in the climate challenge — it is the lever. Employees are the key to a future-proof organisational culture: they make decisions every day that have a direct impact on energy use, mobility, waste, and CO₂ emissions. With relatively simple interventions, companies can achieve enormous gains — for the climate and for their own operations.

As the plastic bag example shows, behavioural change does not have to be difficult. In fact, when well-designed, buy-in, motivation, and results emerge naturally. By giving people space, making successes visible, and deploying smart social and game elements, every organisation can set a sustainable movement in motion from within.

What Can Your Organisation Do Concretely Right Now?

• Map behaviour. Start with insight: where are the greatest behavioural opportunities within your organisation? Think about travel, heating, lighting, lunch habits, or digital hygiene.
• Make climate impact visible. Use CO₂ calculators, dashboards, or simple comparisons (such as trees or kilometres) to help people get a feel for their impact.
• Stimulate and facilitate. Choose voluntary participation, let employees generate their own ideas, and use teams to create a sense of belonging. Combine this with small rewards and recognition.
• Use gamification smartly. Activate behavioural change through game elements that motivate rather than oblige: challenges, badges, progress tracking, and team goals genuinely work — when applied meaningfully and fairly.
• Anchor the change. Ensure leaders set a good example. Link actions to an inspiring sustainability vision. Make the undercurrent discussable: why do we do what we do?
• Measure, celebrate, and improve. Share progress, celebrate successes, and learn from what does not work. This creates a culture in which sustainable choices become the norm and behaviour is the engine of lasting impact.

 

Whoever starts with awareness and action today creates an organisation tomorrow that is not only future-proof, but also more attractive to talent, more efficient in its operations, and stronger in its social position.

 

Ready to Get Started?

The knowledge is there. The approach is proven. All that is missing is the first step.

Request a demo and discover what the Sustainers platform can concretely mean for your organisation — or forward this whitepaper to the person in your organisation who needs to have this conversation.

It all adds up