Marketing & Comms

Staff Buy-In on Corporate Sustainability Goals

Samuel Douglas · 3 Aug 2026

Getting my team on board has stalled with our company's new environmental targets, we have set some ambitious goals to reduce our carbon footprint by the end of the year. We do not seem to be making progress as quickly as I had hoped, and I think it is because staff do not see the direct impact of their actions on the company's overall sustainability. As someone who is passionate about this cause, I want to make sure we are doing everything we can to make a difference, so I was wondering how other companies are approaching this issue, what strategies have they used to get staff buy-in on corporate sustainability goals. We are specifically looking for ideas on how to make these goals more relatable to individual employees' daily tasks and responsibilities.

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4 replies

Riley Fox · 3 Aug 2026

I've seen companies struggle with this when their sustainability goals aren't properly tied to individual performance metrics, which can make it tough to hold people accountable. We've had some success with using tools like SAP's Carbon Footprint Analysis to track progress and set specific targets for each department, maybe that's something you could look into.

Damian Diaz · 3 Aug 2026

I've found that staff buy-in on sustainability goals can be tough to measure, and I think we need to consider that progress might be happening in small, everyday changes that aren't always visible, like people turning off lights or using public transport to get to work. We've seen this at our company where a simple switch to digital documents has reduced our paper usage by 20% in just 6 months.

Savannah West · 3 Aug 2026

Honestly I think one thing to consider is the potential backlash if we don't meet these targets, we cannot afford to have our competitors pointing out our failures to reduce carbon footprint. From a financial perspective, I've seen companies like BP and Shell get slammed for missing their sustainability goals, and it's not just the environmental impact that's a concern, but also the hit to our brand reputation. We need to make sure we're setting realistic targets and have a plan in place to mitigate any potential risks, like a budget buffer to absorb any unexpected costs.

Ann Cole · 4 Aug 2026

Having been through a few restructures, I can tell you that we once tried using a 6-month feedback cycle with regular updates on our sustainability progress, but it didn't quite engage our staff as we'd hoped, probably because it felt too long-term. We've since switched to using a tool like SurveyMonkey to get more regular, informal check-ins, and I've seen about 40% of staff participate, which is a decent start, but I'm still not convinced we're doing enough to make it stick.