Goldman Sachs, NatWest, among 9 new corporates joining climate-focused employee engagement drive

Deloitte (pictured) is the largest new participating firm in terms of staff numbers

In terms of staff numbers, Deloitte is the largest of the new joiners, with more than 330,000 employees globally. The Big Four accountancy firm announced this August that it had partnered with WWF to deliver climate education to all workers globally.

Also joining the initiative are Boston Consulting Group, Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, Natwest Group, Scottish Power and Spectris, as well as Ooni Pizza Ovens and Kyan, which have around 250 and 50 staff respectively.

Count us In was launched this summer, under the Race to Zero campaign – an initiative designed to encourage the development and delivery of credible net-zero targets from non-state actors around COP26. All of the new Count Us In joiners are Race to Zero participants.

The overarching aim of Count Us In is to engage 100 million employees with climate action, delivering behaviour changes in the workplace and in their personal lives. The potential of these actions, the initiative claims, could deliver carbon reductions equivalent to the annual emissions of some nations – like Switzerland’s for five years.

Existing employee engagement schemes and platforms are participating in the initiative to support the businesses. They include UN ActNow, A-World, BrightAction, Do Nation, Deedster, eevie, Giki Zero, Joro and Joulebug.

The initiative’s principles are impact – delivering actions that drive a considerable reduction in emissions; influence – making businesses and policymakers pay attention, and involvement – actions which the broadest possible church of people can participate in.

Nigel Topping, head of the Race to Zero initiative, called the growth of the initiative “a powerful example of systemic change in action – individuals and organisations all playing their part to help create a zero-carbon world in time.”

Bloomberg LP’s global head of corporate philanthropy Jemma Read added: “It is increasingly clear that cross-society commitments and greater levels of collaboration are required to protect and restore our planet.

“Small individual actions – multiplied many times across an organization – soon start to add up, delivering meaningful and long-lasting change. We are delighted to join clients and partners to drive greater environmental engagement and local action.”

Learn more about engaging staff with sustainability

Employee engagement seems to be a key short-term priority for many of the UK’s sustainability professionals. Of the 161 professionals who responded to edie’s recent Net-Zero Business Barometer survey, more than two-thirds (67%) said they class staff behaviour change initiatives as either ‘very important’ or ‘extremely important’ to invest in within the next 12 months. You can read the results of the survey in full in our free-to-download report, sponsored by Inspired Energy.

Additionally, edie recently hosted a Masterclass Webinar on building a net-zero culture in your business, as part of the Net-Zero November Inspiration sessions. You can catch up with that session, featuring expert speakers from Ooni Pizza Ovens, Sodexo and Pawprint, here.

Sarah George