Are you ready to close the engagement gap? Keep reading…
Despite growing pressure to act on climate change and social responsibility, many organisations struggle to turn commitments into real change. The problem isn’t a lack of ambition or want to contribute, it’s a disconnect between strategy and people.
At Reset Connect London 2025, Europe’s largest sustainability ecosystem and green investment event, we had the privilege of exhibiting and speaking on a critical yet often overlooked aspect of sustainability success: employee engagement.
Our session, “Effective Communication – The Key to Embedding Sustainability Across Your Workforce”, tackled a pressing issue:
78% of employees want to contribute to sustainability but only 12% feel equipped to do so – (Gallup, 2024)
So why does this huge gap exist? There are many answers but one thing we’ve seen along the way is that, too many businesses focus on reporting, top-down and external messaging to key stakeholders all the while neglecting the most powerful driver of change, their people.
We have reached a critical point regarding the environmental and societal issues we face today. Awareness and concern is increasing, yet understanding remains low. People want to better understand how they can be part of the solution but the knowledge and know how isn’t consistent and accessible. For business, sustainability can’t be treated as policy it needs to be treated as a cultural movement – this is a humanity challenge after all.
During our talk, we challenged the audience to rethink sustainability as a competency, not just compliance. Transformation and progress happens when employees at every level understand their role and feel empowered to act.
We explored:
The business case for engagement including, talent retention, profitability and brand reputation
Why traditional comms fail, and how to make sustainability relatable
Our proven 4-step framework which enables understanding and collective action
CLARIFY - Cut through jargon and compliance-speak. If employees don’t understand it, they won’t act on it.
CONNECT - Align sustainability with what people truly care about, both professionally and personally.
CAPTIVATE - Use gamification, bitesize learning, and storytelling to make sustainability engaging. If people enjoy something, then they will want to be involved and contribute.
CREDIBILITY - Link actions to measurable outcomes (there is a lot you can be measuring) to build the business case for change.
Who needs to lead the change? Sustainability teams can’t do this alone, success requires collaboration across:
L&D - Designing scalable upskilling programs
HR - Embedding sustainability into roles and performance
Marketing & Comms - Ensuring internal engagement drives authentic external storytelling
If your sustainability strategy isn’t gaining momentum, ask yourself:
Do employees truly understand their role in our sustainability goals?
Is your agenda clear and accessible?
Are you making progress, or just ticking boxes?
What if unlocking your employees’ potential was the missing key to faster progress?
Are you making engagement engaging?
The businesses that thrive in the sustainability transition won’t be those with the most ambitious targets, it will be those who engage their people effectively to support their agendas and create progress.
Are you ready to close the engagement gap?
