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How to improve your organisation’s climate competence

Spark
November 21, 2022
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The sustainability criteria that society puts on organisations have tightened over the past few years; there have been new changes in legislation, in addition to which customers and financiers demand climate action. At the same time, climate expertise has become a competitive advantage for companies.

Climate competence is vital for organisations for several reasons. By investing in climate competence, the management can help ensure that organisations are well-equipped to take climate issues into account when making decisions, comply with climate regulations and work effectively with stakeholders to reduce their climate impact. The more the employees understand how different climate actions impact the overall picture, the better the companies' chances of getting customers and investors on their side.

However, developing climate competence takes time, effort and money, which can be difficult to justify when other priorities compete for attention and resources.

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How can the management justify investing in climate competence?

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With climate change becoming an increasingly pressing issue, it is crucial to make informed decisions about how an organisation can reduce its emissions. There are a few reasons. Firstly, climate competence can help organisations act proactively in climate-related decision-making.

Second, climate competence can help organisations understand and comply with climate-related regulations. As more and more countries introduce climate legislation, it is increasingly important that organisations know the requirements well to avoid penalties.

Climate competence can help organisations improve climate-related communication. At a time when consumers are increasingly interested in sustainability, it is crucial to be able to communicate your organisation's climate actions effectively and correctly. 

Finally, climate competence can help build relationships with key stakeholders. For example, by collaborating with climate experts, organisations can better understand the needs and concerns of those stakeholders most affected by climate change.

Organisations benefit from creating an environment that encourages learning about climate change. Climate information should be easily accessible, and employees should be offered opportunities to participate in climate-related discussions and debates.

Organisations should also aim to encourage climate innovation. This means creating an environment where employees can freely propose new ideas and solutions with which their company can reduce emissions.

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges of our time, and organisations must take steps to improve climate awareness within their ranks. By implementing the above mentioned measures, organisations can ensure that they are better equipped to respond to climate challenges while maintaining a competitive edge.

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‍How can sustainability managers improve their organisation's climate competence?

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  • Digital content can be customised, but designing something suitable for different people takes time and effort. Digital content that can be shared quickly is suitable for situations where you want to raise awareness. E-learning courses related to sustainability are ideal for raising awareness.
  • Events, theme weeks, or days around topics or challenges can be a good idea to engage with employees. However, these require more work from the sustainability team and are less scaleable than digital content.
  • With the help of training, you can go deeper into a specific topic. If the staff turnover is high, however, the trainings need to be organised regularly, and it quickly becomes expensive.
  • Sharing employees' skills in different forums. This is often used in the technology industry to share knowledge about new tech, but the forums could just as well be used to share sustainability learnings.
  • A new way to boost climate competence is through climate applications like Carbon Donut, which have become common in recent years. The application goes with you wherever you go, you can return to it always, and common operating models can be implemented faster than without it. Spark Sustainability's Carbon Donut offers a solution beyond sustainability e-learning platforms that enables the set-up of team challenges and tracking employees’ climate actions, thus engaging employees in their company’s climate work.

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Spark Sustainability uses data on climate emissions to engage employees, partners and customers in their climate work. We allow employees to contribute to their organisation's climate work in their workplace and offer digital tools highlighting the benefits of climate-smart products.

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Sources

Tagged:
Climate change
Climate action
Climate competence
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