How to maximise the impact of sustainability training in your business

There is no blueprint for how to make sustainability work in your organisation, nor is there a roadmap of how to get there. In the words of an employer at an event, I recently attended, “if there was one [roadmap] it would be wrong”. However, I’ve put together some tips and guidance to support you in embedding sustainability within your organisation:

Have a clear vision and purpose. Give your workforce something to buy into. Make your case with clarity and conviction and be clear about what you want the training to achieve, whilst also being prepared to listen and learn from your workforce. This will help you to identify the right type of training for your organisation.

Look for advocates within your organisation. For example, some employers have “green teams” – colleagues from across the business who are interested in sustainability and driving positive change, rather than it being their employed role. They might be great candidates for training first before rolling it out more broadly. If appropriate, get the most junior levels of your organisation involved – quite often, they will come up with new ideas and approaches. You might find that they ask challenging questions, but that’s great and should be encouraged!

Break down the message. Climate change is a complex and politically charged topic, one that can be difficult to understand and difficult for people to buy into or engage with. At NCFE, we’ve chosen to focus on two of the pillars of sustainability where we can help to make a difference – social development and economic development.

Help colleagues to understand the external landscape. We know that government policy can be difficult to digest – depending on the size of your organisation you might have to report on your carbon emissions (SECR) or adhere to procurement rules. It can be difficult for individua