The biggest challenge we face

Failure to mitigate climate change and failure to adapt to climate change top the 10-year risks in the World Economic Forum’s 2023 risk report. Experts have climate action as by far their top priority in Globescan’s 2023 analysis of the most important current Sustainable Development Goals. Extreme weather events are the new normal.

Our focus at Corporate Culture is on behaviour change, which the IPCC believes could reduce GHG emissions by between 40% and 70% by 2050. Behaviours include saving water, saving energy, switching to electric vehicles, reducing meat and dairy consumption, recycling more, reducing food waste, bicycling more, using public transport, and adapting how we heat our homes. Our track record is second to none, including the original strategies for the UK’s Recycle Now and Love Food Hate Waste programmes.

The case for reduce, reuse and recycle was made decades ago. Yet unnecessary wastage of valuable, energy-intensive resources and materials is a behavioural problem that persists. Often, the challenge for organisations looking to boost recycling or waste reduction rates is in getting cut-through with increasingly hard-to-reach audiences. We see that challenge through a behavioural lens, with a deep understanding of what motivates people to act and adopt positive habits that last. Based on this insight, our strategies, campaigns and behavioural interventions have helped deliver massive increases in the amount the nation recycles, and significantly reduce the amount of food and other resources it wastes.

It’s clear that people and organisations need to take a more sustainable approach to the use of water and energy resources. At Corporate Culture, we’ve had decades of experience helping organisations in all sectors to engage their colleagues, customers and citizens in energy and water reduction activities, from small-scale interventions to long-term regional and national platforms. In all cases, our strategic and creative recommendations are based on the latest behavioural science, and an innate understanding of the barriers to and motivators of change.

One of the biggest contributors to our individual and collective carbon footprints is transport. The sector accounts for around 37% of all global CO₂ emissions, and passenger cars alone contribute >40% of that total. Getting people to embrace lower-carbon forms of travel, such as switching to an electric vehicle, or swapping the daily car commute to the train, bike or bus, is also one of the tougher behaviour change challenges. But we have just the ticket.

Global meat and dairy production causes huge environmental damage and accelerates climate change. An estimated 60% of all mammals on the planet are now livestock. Supporting such large-scale production places huge demands on water resources, destroys vast areas of rainforest and other important biomes, and generates a quarter of all global GHGs. Clearly, anything we can do, individually and organisationally, to re-evaluate our relationship with meat and dairy will benefit the biosphere. We can help you develop the strategic and creative approach to tackling one of the most pressing but deep-rooted behaviour change challenges.