Earth Month Challenge: Co-Create A Sustainable Future

Climate change is one of the most pressing problems facing our world today. It affects everyone – from families worrying about their children’s futures to global economies. So, it is in the interests of everyone that we pursue systemic change that averts climate catastrophe and unlocks the potential of green growth.

April is Earth Month. In this week’s Innovation Hour, we challenge you to think about how you can be part of the fight against climate change personally, as a business, and in your community

What’s Innovation Hour?

Sometimes, it can be easy to fall into a comfortable box at work – you focus on just your work and stay only inside your bubble (ex. HR, tech, research, client outreach, etc.). Obviously, focusing on your work is by no means a bad thing. But when you only think and communicate only on topics within your bubble 40 hours a week, 50 out of 52 weeks a year, it can really stifle a person’s curiosity and creativity.

So we started hosting Innovation Hour, a bi-weekly hour dedicated to our entire team exploring new topics, exercising our innovation muscles, and widening our perspectives. We’ve covered a wide scope of topics: a TED Talk on creative confidence, climate change, living wage, and more. Our Talent, Culture, and Performance Strategy was actually born during an Innovation Hour session!

As we’ve shared what Innovation Hour is with our friends and clients, we’ve been met with resounding excitement and interest. To help you host your own Innovation Hour with your teams, we’ll be sharing prompts and resources to help kick off discussions. We can’t wait to hear where your team’s creativity and passion takes you!

Innovation Hour: Scenario

How might we commit our businesses to a net zero impact and reduce our environmental footprint both now and in the future?

It can feel overwhelming when you’re trying to set environmental goals for your organization and come up with a roadmap to achieve said goals. Circumstances can change and your once trusty roadmap might no longer be up-to-date.

Here are some questions to help you and your team start setting goals and sketching out a roadmap to success:

• Where do we want our environmental footprint and stance to be in 5 or 10 years? What can we do to challenge ourselves as an organization and as individuals?

• How do we scale our business in an ecologically responsible way?

• If we move to a hybrid work model, how much say does the work we do from home influence our personal choices? (e.g., what we print, how we recycle, how we go from place to place).

• As our work model evolves (e.g., fully remote, hybrid, etc.), we have the opportunity to be intentional about our operational expenses both financially and environmentally speaking. How do we want to consciously build our budget in the future?

• How can we contribute to sustainability efforts by educating and engaging our community?

Innovation Hour: Tools

To kickstart your team’s ideation session, watch this TEDx Talk.

Want to share this Innovation Hour with your team? Download our free interactive high-resolution card with all the session info on it! Interact with the embedded links and resources within the card.

Innovation Hour: Extra reading

Enjoying this week’s topic and want to dive in deeper? Here are some other articles we found interesting and were inspired by:

The investor guide to climate collaboration: from COP26 to net zero