Tag: durability

Green skills training: a look back at the Digital Learning Club on June 8, 2023!

 

On Thursday June 8, Go1 brought together its customers for its Digital Learning Club in Paris. Twice a year, this event brings together our corporate customers to share news and learning experiences, as well as best practices.

This edition theme was “How to engage learners & train the workforce on green skills“. How can employees be guided towards greater ecological awareness? How can we recruit and retain employees who are increasingly interested in these issues? How can we make the practical link between HR and CSR? These questions were at the heart of our exchanges, and were the subject of a panel discussion with experts.

 

Speakers’ panel: how to engage employees in green skills?

Stéphanie Osmont, La Poste Group Director of Social and Environmental Innovation, Julie de La Sablière, President of Little Wing, and Christian Nouel, chairman of the Fondation Croissance Responsable, took part in our Digital Learning Club panel discussion moderated by Amélie Barloy Lancrenon, Director of Partnerships and Content at Coorpacademy by Go1.

During this exchange, the panelists shared their ideas on greening employee skills and, more generally, discussed the challenges of transforming companies to achieve their sustainable transition objectives.

 

Three key points stand out:

All concerned: CSR is everywhere

La Poste is committed to “crossing the 50,000 Frescos mark internally by the Paris Olympic Games”, explains Stéphanie Osmont. This example of the number of employees to be targeted as part of the Climate Fresco training was a reminder that communicating around precise, measurable objectives is a crucial lever in the sustainable transition of companies.

The Climate Fresco (“Fresque du Climat” in French) is a French tool which objective is to raise employee awareness of the challenges posed by the climate emergency, teaches about the solutions available and encourages participants to get moving, so that everyone can play their part, both personally and professionally. This type of event is one of the building blocks of a company’s commitment to social responsibility, which is increasingly moving away from a silo-based CSR policy towards a genuine commitment to social responsibility.

 

The committed company: a clear demand from employees

Companies have had to change many times in recent history, proving that their transformation is far from impossible. When companies adapted to the digital revolution, the challenge was to create as much alignment as possible between employees’ personal and professional lives (adoption of everyday tools, reskilling in most professions…).

Julie de La Sablière draws this parallel to explain that, in the same way, companies need to take the measure of their teams’ demands and expectations with regard to the ecological transition. The first step is to listen to them, which is still not done systematically enough. Yet there is a strong expectation and desire not only for training, but also for “power to act” within one’s organization. While one in 2 working people feel that their skills are not up to the ecological challenges (Unédic with Elabe), all employees today see the value of training in these issues. The expectation is real.

His advice to company directors? “Make strong decisions and give employees the means to take action: to do this, you need to align management teams, put in place the right training solutions, but also and above all support employees in taking on board these issues, which are often very anxiety-provoking when they are not turned towards action.”

 

Leading by example: the duty of major groups

For Christian Nouel, this parallel between digital transformation and the sustainable transition of companies is also interesting from the point of view of the place of the law in these processes. Where the law lagged behind the Internet, it is now an essential pillar of sustainable transition, forcing companies to rethink their strategy and adapt their governance.

It is also necessary to create a group effect, so that large companies enable smaller ones to achieve the sustainability objectives assigned to them by law and regulation. In this way, the ecosystem needs to show solidarity and get moving, around ambitious, shared objectives. To achieve this, Christian Nouel insists on the need to adopt “a totally holistic vision”.

 

 

Green Skills Pack: heading for sustainable development week!

After a networking lunch featuring Go1 CEO Andrew Barnes, the Digital Learning Club resumed with an interactive quiz hosted by Nandi Dossou, Head of Customer Success & Support at Coorpacademy by Go1, and won hands down by our corporate client LCL!

This was followed by a presentation of our “Green Skills Pack”, tailor-made for our customers. The heads of our Customer Success team, Capucine Forbin and Morgane Poilleux, explained how to take advantage of Sustainable Development Week this September, but also how to promote the ecological transition every other day of the year. Employee engagement is ensured by dedicated events and interesting, entertaining content, which we organize into playlists designed to help you achieve your green skills objectives.

Our course with the C3D (Collège des Directeurs du Développement Durable), “Understanding the ecological crisis“, was the most popular course in the Coorpacademy by Go1 catalog this month!

 

Thank you all for your active participation and for sharing your ideas at our Digital Learning Club!

 

5 good CSR practices to remember

 

According to an IFOP study published in 2021, 84% of respondents believe that sustainable development should be a mandatory course in all vocational and higher education programs. 

Today, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a strategic issue for companies. It is a crucial ingredient in the recipe of a company that is committed and concerned about its environmental, social, and economic impact, yet it is often relegated to the background. In this article, we propose an action plan in 5 key points to effectively engage your employees in an environmental approach!

 

Make your employees aware of environmental issues 

The environmental issue is nowadays at the heart of people’s concerns. Your employees are therefore more and more sensitive to these issues.  Nevertheless, the issue of climate change is not new, and if it is so difficult to change things, it is mainly because the work is dizzying: we can quickly feel overwhelmed. Thus, one of the keys to implementing an effective CSR strategy is above all to make employees aware of the complex challenges of the environmental issue. How can we do this? One way that has recently emerged and is gaining momentum is through the “Fresque du Climat”. “To act on climate change, we must first understand it”. Here is the conviction that the French association created in 2018 displays. It then proposes a cooperative and playful workshop that aims to raise public awareness of climate change. Being able to be carried out on-site or remotely, the “Fresque du Climat” is based on a game of cards proposing causes and consequences, and whose players must connect them. This allows everyone to link the causes and consequences of climate change and thus, to better understand the extent of the problem.

 

Develop the skills of the teams on the solutions to be implemented

Once they are aware of and ready to fight climate change, it is necessary to deepen the knowledge of employees, particularly in the search for solutions. Thus, increasing the competence of employees on environmental issues is crucial to implement short-term solutions and to already outline the long term. This can take several forms. First of all, you can extend the awareness phase with brainstorming and situation workshops to find solutions. This allows you to apply the knowledge learned and to identify the processes to be transformed. Moreover, each industry, each department, must find adapted solutions, and this can only be done through the first concerned: employees. Finally, to ensure that your commitment to the environment is not confined to a single day, it is important to guarantee continuous training on these subjects, which are evolving at lightning speed. This is why we also recommend integrating an online training solution that will allow you to train your employees on these issues daily. If digital learning is an indispensable tool to train all employees massively and quickly, it is also more engaging and fun, thus promoting employee interest in training.

 

Define a group of committed employees to promote the company’s CSR culture and involve all employees

To imagine a different way of doing things and transform the company, it is necessary to spread the CSR culture within the company, at the heart of each business. The multiplicity of actions to be taken is such that all employees must be involved in this approach. Thus, stakeholder management is essential to the success of this mission. On a more global level, we note that networks of companies committed to the social and ecological transformation of the economy are increasingly being formed. These initiatives, such as the Impact France network that recently participated in Cop26 or the Makesense organization that creates tools and programs for collective mobilization to take action and build an inclusive and sustainable society, give everyone the power to act. Thus, within the company, it is also useful to create groups of employees who wish to commit themselves to the ecological transition of their company. As pillars of the CSR strategy, they will help to mobilize teams around common objectives to instigate change and develop a collective dynamic.

 

Make the CSR strategy an integral part of the company’s overall strategy

An effective CSR strategy can only work if it is a long-term commitment for the entire company. Whereas in the past, a foundation or a donation could be enough to show their credentials, it is now essential for companies to adapt to new legislation such as the low-carbon objective proposed by the Paris Agreements. Therefore, it is essential to think of CSR strategy as an inseparable element of the global strategy. This is necessary so that the company can adapt upstream and take up the major challenges of tomorrow, instead of reacting on the fly (literally and figuratively), once it is too late. The idea is to banish greenwashing and accelerate a profound transformation of corporate activities. From then on, the CSR strategy must be supported and promoted by the whole company, starting with the top management. In concrete terms, the entire company must be involved because every decision and every action plan must be thought through by including CSR objectives and by establishing measures on the resulting impacts.

 

Objective: BCORP certification

The “B Corp” label is a certification granted by the independent NGO B-Lab. This label is awarded to companies that set extra-financial social or environmental objectives and that meet demanding criteria in terms of responsibility and transparency. To obtain this certification, 200 questions must be answered in five areas: governance, employees, communities, the environment, and customers. If you exceed 80 points, you can apply for certification. Why is this important? The “B Corp” label is an international movement that already brings together more than 4,000 companies of all sizes and sectors in 74 countries, including more than 145 in France. It is a sign of a committed company that wants to make a difference.

 

Want to go further? Discover our article on the skills you need to acquire to reinvent yourself!

Want to go further? Discover our article on the skills you need to acquire to reinvent yourself!

Protecting biodiversity: an asset for companies

CSR, Stakeholders and Jobs: Everyone’s Business

Sustainable transformation in 20 questions

 

2050: The HR Odyssey – Episode 2

 

Somewhere in the world, on a date you still don’t know about, we have located an advanced technology that allows us to get into the daily lives of employees. This fantastic journey through the experiences of different employees will take you to the edge of the Future of Work and allow you to see the challenges of business transformation. Today in our odyssey, discover the daily life of Helix…

“The verdict came down on Tuesday evening. A major French industrial company has just been found guilty of climate inaction due to the use of coal in its production. As a reminder, since 28 January 2037, all energy and heat production, including industrial, must no longer use coal. Indeed, for the past 15 years, fewer and fewer French people have been heating with coal. Thus, all industrial companies had to stop using coal before 2035. Following the law of 2037, companies that have not organised this transition will have to meet the penalties provided for. In total, the company will have to pay…”

Helix turned off his virtual reality headset where he was watching the day’s news. It was 7pm and his daily time was up. Beyond that, his consumption would have violated the law on digital sobriety. Helix thought about the coal story. As an environmental officer in a large financial company, he had had to fight in the 2030s to have the climate and biodiversity impacts of the projects he financed recognised in a broad and uniform manner. Indeed, at that time, when his position had just been created, he had initiated a large-scale awareness and information programme on this subject, to accelerate the ecological transition of his company. The project was a great success thanks to his organisation. He started the project with small communities within the company, and eventually reached the whole group, up to the crucial decision-makers who had to be convinced.

 

In retrospect, his company had almost gone under if he had not started this transformation project, and he even regretted for a long time not to have started this project earlier. Fortunately, his action had been successful. It had taken time, a lot of persuasion, and investing – perhaps losing – money, but it had been worth it.

 

For today, all private and public actors systematically take into account climate-related risks (anticipation of the effects of climate change, loss of value of an asset after its purchase due to climate policies such as fossil fuel assets) and associated opportunities (investments becoming profitable due to climate policies such as carbon prices).

 

Historically, the financial sector invested heavily in sectors that were based on fossil fuels and therefore harmful to the environment. In short, it had to fight to reinvest in more climate-friendly activities. Also, a major campaign to raise awareness of the financial risks of climate change had succeeded in swaying the still reluctant investors. These climate-related financial risks were multiple. First of all, there were physical risks, which could take the form of the destruction of asset stocks as a result of extreme weather events favoured by global warming. The year 2021 is a case in point: giant forest fires, floods, devastating cyclones, etc. These events have an impact on populations, economies and investment income. But these risks also impact many sectors and thus deteriorate income flows: weaker harvests due to heat waves, tourism revenues drying up if there is no more snow in ski resorts etc.

 

At least, if it had taken a long time, it was still possible. There were still stragglers, but now they were the ones being singled out. At the time, this was not the norm. In fact, he himself had pushed the project following a meeting with his banker one day in November 2029, who had recommended new responsible investment products.

 

“Remember when I started the Green or Nothing project?” he said to his companion who was preparing the meal. “It was a very important moment in my career. I look back on it and think that the investment was huge, but it was so beneficial. If we hadn’t anticipated market developments and regulations, we would have had to change in a hurry and in the end it would have cost us more. Maybe even the future of the company.

 

“Yes, it’s true. In fact, it’s like when you go on holiday and I forget to pack for the weather. We end up going to all the thrift shops in town to find suitable clothes on the spot. It costs us more money and maybe even the sustainability of our marriage!”

 

“You’re stupid,” replied Helix, laughing. He went back into his thoughts. Tomorrow was an important day for him. It would be the 7th of November 2050, and COP 56 would be held. He was going to take part in it with a collective of employees, managers, ecological referents and biodiversity advocates to participate in the issues surrounding the ecological transition. These collectives, which appeared as early as COP26 in 2021 and consisted of about thirty people, are now indispensable and represent thousands of employees around the world. 

Back then, the credo was “It only takes 10% of the employees to change the whole company”, today we are very proud to be able to say “it is thanks to 10% of the companies that the world changes”.

 

Conclusion

By 2050, companies will have been turned upside down by the ecological transition. As a result of the consequences of climate change, they will have had no choice but to comply with new regulations, particularly in the most influential sectors. Carbon neutrality has been achieved for the majority of companies.

New jobs will have been created to meet these new requirements, such as the role of an ecological referent, who would ensure that climate and biodiversity impacts are taken into account in each project.

Finally, the consideration of environmental issues will no longer be isolated or carried by a few individuals. As a global priority, gathering around solutions to preserve the environment and fight climate change will be at the heart of the debate and will invite as many people as possible to participate. Non-governmental organisations, public institutions, the private sector and civil society are finding pragmatic ways of cooperating to find global solutions.

Ecological transition: what skills will be essential for reinventing ourselves?

 

Did you know that 70% of French people are pessimistic about the future of the planet, and for 93% of them, protecting the environment is an important issue, and almost half of them even consider it to be a priority issue. The barometer “The French and their carbon footprint” published by Odoxa on September 16, 2021 does not surprise us that much. The climate crisis is the fight of the century, and companies are increasingly taking up these issues – and that’s good! However, more than half of the French people questioned in this study believe that neither their companies (55%), nor the State and local authorities (60%), nor the inhabitants of their regions (61%) encourage them to reduce their carbon footprint.

 

To transform the company, turning off the lights behind you and making great speeches is no longer enough, you have to learn about the new issues and behaviors that the ecological transition implies, as well as understand the mechanisms! So, are you ready to develop the skills to last? 

Sustainable thinking

In order to last, we must be able to project ourselves into the future and therefore think sustainably. This skill, which was not defined until a few years ago, and which has just been integrated into the Coorpacademy catalog, is essential for reinventing a business model which takes into account the environmental stakes and limits which frame the activities of a company. By developing the sustainable thinking of your employees, you ensure the sustainability of your company.

To initiate the sustainable thinking of your teams, discover the course on “The circular economy: from the straight line to the virtuous circle” co-edited with MySezame.

The Circular Economy: From a Straight Line to a Virtuous Circle

 

Adaptability and resilience

According to the latest IPCC report, a rise in average global temperatures of more than 1.5°C would have disastrous consequences on ecosystems and natural earth systems. Megafires, rising waters, threatened species, droughts, destruction of ecosystems… The world of tomorrow will be nothing like the one we know today. Therefore, to exist in a world that is unknown to us, and unpredictable, the strength of adaptation and resilience are crucial skills.

Prepare yourself for tomorrow’s world by learning to evolve in a VUCA environment through our Coorpacademy course!

Operating in a VUCA environment

 

Creativity and innovation

The challenges of the ecological transition are numerous, and above all, new. From today, we are facing unprecedented ecological disasters, and the solutions are therefore in essence innovative. Therefore, in order to reinvent our ways of thinking, our behaviors and our economy, we must be capable of creativity and innovation. Thinking outside the box, being able to imagine a world totally different from ours and being able to implement new processes are essential skills to accompany the ecological transition.

Discover the Creativity and Innovation course to develop an atmosphere conducive to brainstorming and to fostering an atmosphere of innovation!

Creativity and innovation

 

Because the ecological transition is initiated through training, we recently launched a CSR focus animation on all our platforms, to ensure the development of skills in the fight against the climate crisis. Thus, all learners had access to 20 questions on sustainable transformation, to test their knowledge and get up to speed on the challenges of the ecological transition!

 

5 essential courses to sustainably transform the company through training

 

The ecological transition is an important axis of transformation for us, but also for the rest of the world. On the occasion of the Sustainability Week, which took place from 20 to 24 September 2021, discover the 5 essential courses to initiate the ecological transition of your company.

 

  • To learn is to understand

The causes of the ecological crisis are the first basics to acquire in order to understand the extent of the problem. Climate, pollution, biodiversity: the world’s ecosystems are in danger, and this is largely due to our social and economic system. The sustainable transformation of a company can only be effective if we also transform our personal and professional habits. The course “Understanding the ecological crisis“, co-edited with the College of Sustainable Development Directors (C3D), aims to provide the keys to understanding the ecological crisis, to enable professionals to understand the mechanisms at the origin of the ecological crisis, their interactions and their consequences.

Understanding the environmental crisis

  • Biodiversity, an often neglected natural capital 

After understanding the extent of the ecological crisis, it is important to identify what the ecological crisis is jeopardising. Businesses need biodiversity to operate smoothly and sustainably. Yet businesses affect it as much as they depend on it. Biodiversity is essential to the proper functioning of all ecosystems, yet it is threatened by the ecological crisis.  It is therefore time to act to protect it. Thus, the Coorpacademy course “Protection of biodiversity: an asset for companies“ transmits the best practices to preserve and enhance this natural capital, and allows all employees to be initiated into the challenges of the ecological transition.

Protecting biodiversity: an asset for companies

 

  • Transform in order to last

Are you up to date on the origins of the ecological crisis and its impact on biodiversity? It is time to learn how to transform the company. Our contemporary economic system, which is based on a model of infinite growth, is no longer viable. It is therefore crucial to understand how the company can reinvent itself to become sustainable? Thanks to the course “Preparing the company for the environmental transition“ co-edited with the College of Sustainable Development Directors (C3D), you will be able to guide the transformation through essential tools for the transition and by adopting the right reflexes in the face of change. 

Preparing the company for the environmental transition

 

  • From a straight line to a virtuous circle

To go further and really revolutionise the current economic model, we recommend the course “The circular economy: from a straight line to a virtuous circle” co-edited with MySezame. Indeed, if we evolve in a world of finite resources, it has its limits and we are beginning to see these limits. It is therefore time to rethink our linear economy in order to transform it into a virtuous and above all, sustainable circle. 

The Circular Economy: From a Straight Line to a Virtuous Circle

 

  • What does this mean in practice?

Once you have developed and tested your theoretical knowledge of sustainable transformation, it is time to look at CSR approaches. Starting a CSR approach depends on each company. Each company can act on its own scale and have a greater or lesser impact on its sector, but how do you start or transform your own CSR approach? To guide you, discover through the Coorpacademy course “Sustainable transformation: success stories and business cases“ 3 very different companies that have integrated CSR into their strategy based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. A course to give you the keys to action to positively impact society.

Sustainable Change: Success Stories and Business Cases

 

Large-scale training is essential to transform the company. By massively training employees on crucial sustainable development issues, and by raising awareness of the consequences that our human activities can have on ecosystems, we are gradually changing the rules of the game; and it is by sustainably transforming the company that we will be able to play longer. To go further, discover Coorpecology, the online training platform dedicated to sustainable transformation!

Are companies prepared to deal with short-term environmental disasters?

 

On Monday, August 9, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presented the first of three reports expected by 2022 as part of its sixth climate assessment cycle. This new report presents the current state of knowledge on the climate crisis, its origins, causes and impacts, and on possible actions to respond to the environmental emergency. The findings of this report represent a final warning to individuals, but especially to governments and businesses around the world.

 

“Life on earth can recover from major climate change by evolving into new species and creating new ecosystems. Humanity cannot.” – IPCC report

The urgency is not new, but it has never been so current.

Established in 1988 at the request of the G7, the 7 richest countries, by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, the IPCC synthesizes and assesses research conducted in laboratories around the world. Its fifth report, released in 2014, had already concluded that the human influence on climate systems was clear. But the new report, the sixth since 1990, allows the organization to be even more incisive about the direct link between human activity and current global warming.

If these reports provide essential elements to limit the extent of global warming and the severity of its impacts, it is up to governments, businesses and individuals to collectively organize and take concrete action in the face of the facts highlighted.

What is currently happening in the world, such as the megafires all over the planet from California to the Mediterranean basin or Australia, are the direct consequences of climate change. And as the IPCC report concludes, directly linked to human activity. The consequences exposed by scientists for several years are a strong argument for action, yet this sixth report still has the effect of a bomb. Today, humanity does not have time for a seventh report, we already know the conclusions, but we can contribute to write a few lines, if we act now.

 

The ecological crisis: a risk for companies

In our model of infinite growth and exploitation of (limited) natural resources, only a radical transformation of our modes of production, consumption and lifestyle can limit the catastrophic consequences for which we are responsible.

“Our current mode of development, based on a linear economy, is not sustainable.” – Célestine Julien, Inter-Company Pathway Manager (GR20²°) at MySezame – In what world do we want to live in 30 years?

In business, environmental risk refers to the possibility of an accident occurring in a company, which would have harmful repercussions – direct or indirect – on the environment, people, company employees and the company’s objectives and reputation. Today, not only is this environmental risk unavoidable, but it also impacts the environment in which the company operates, i.e. the external factors that influence the proper functioning of a company, such as political, environmental, societal and economic aspects. The company’s strategy must then identify the climate emergency and evaluate how it impacts and threatens its activity. If the ecological transition is so necessary, it is because companies will not be able to exist in a world that is disappearing, or at least will not be able to survive if they do not accelerate their adaptation to climate change, the consequences of which we are already seeing. 

 

The IPCC report is clear. If global warming is limited to +2.0°C instead of +1.5°C, sea levels will rise by +30cm to +93cm, impacting more than 10 million people and the number of people affected by drought will increase by +410 million. Through these impacts, climate change is already influencing migration worldwide, and the United Nations predicts 200 million climate refugees by 2050. The impact of the migration crisis on the political and economic environment is obvious.

And internal consequences

Our modes of production are not sustainable. If the resources on which we depend are finite, it is not a shortage that we will face, but an impossibility to produce at all. Already following the pandemic, traders and businesses have faced a major shortage of raw materials, as in Canada where accumulated droughts and heavy rains have caused a drop in production and a rise in wheat prices. But in a few years, shortages may prove much more difficult to overcome. Reduced production, higher raw material prices, loss of personnel, the consequences of the ecological crisis on the production cycle is a risk that companies cannot ignore. 

Beyond the political, economic and logistical aspects, the ecological crisis also impacts a resource that is essential to business: people. On a personal level, we are all witnesses to this catastrophe, and we can sometimes feel even more helpless in the face of the emergency. Of course, we can each participate in the collective effort, but we are also aware that the emergency requires a radical and global change in our society. Thus, the anxious and cataclysmic environment in which we evolve every day with a feeling of powerlessness, has an impact on our personal well-being – not to say our mental health. In addition, the expectations of employees – and particularly of the new generations – have changed. To flourish, their work must have meaning and their values must be in line with those of the company.

The world as we know it today will no longer exist in a few years. To keep existing, companies will have to reinvent themselves, adapt and train in order to avoid the risks they face. If the ecological crisis has direct impacts on the company’s environment, it also has indirect consequences on its internal functioning. The strategy must therefore be aligned with this new reality, and the entire organization must adapt in order to anticipate certain now inevitable repercussions on their activities and businesses.

 

Because the problem is complex, the solutions will be in essence innovative. To act now, discover Coorpecology, the first training platform dedicated to the ecological transition. To quickly train all employees and give them the keys to build a viable future. Sustainable transformation can’t wait any longer, click here to learn more.

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