Culture Change—You Need It So How Do You Know If You’ve Got It?

Achieving aggressive sustainability goals—whether within corporate operations or as part of a community’s quest for zero carbon emissions—is an enormous task.

In the early phases of any entity’s sustainability efforts a committed green team can do a lot. A small group of people can identify and address opportunities. As a company (or community) become more efficient, though, the projects get more complicated. And the projects involve more stakeholders. One of the ironies of sustainability efforts is that the more you succeed the more challenging it is to expand that success.

Sooner or later—especially if you’ve got aggressive goals—success requires all hands on deck. A company can’t achieve zero landfill unless everybody does their part in the lunch room. Similarly, a dramatic reduction in fleet emissions is possible only if every driver does their part.

Achieving aggressive sustainability goals requires culture change.

At Cool Choices we talk a lot about the need for culture change. We share stories from partners who’ve got “an entire employee population moving in the same direction.” We love that moment when our partners get it–when they see culture change happening in their organization.

How do you know, though, if you are achieving culture change?

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Everyone’s Competing for Talent

A decade after the Great Recession, we’re now in the midst of a tight labor market. Wisconsin’s unemployment hovers at 3%, which is lower than the 4.5% to 5% unemployment that the Federal Reserve targets. How should employers view this tight labor market, and how can they use sustainability to attract and retain talent?

Congratulations to Kohler Co. on their third Cool Choices employee engagement program! This program focused on Kohler Power Systems, Kohler’s division that manufactures generators and related products.

Congratulations to the Wylie Independent School District for completing their second Cool Choices sustainability engagement program! Wylie ISD is a public school district northeast of Dallas that serves more than 15,800 students from Wylie, Texas and neighboring communities. Nearly 275 staff across 23 schools and administrative buildings participated in the month-long Cool Choices program in October. This program follows their first program last April.

The IPCC’s sharp warnings about climate change are prompting an increased sense of urgency. Every sustainability and climate change advocate wants to motivate change faster. We want to engage everyone and to inspire them all to take meaningful actions that reduce emissions.

So let’s do it already.

Achieving aggressive sustainability goals requires more than a strategy; sustainability leaders need to facilitate a culture change so that sustainable practices are part of a new normal.

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Kohler Power Systems —Kohler’s division that manufactures generators and related products—will implement a unique Cool Choices program this fall.

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Some ideas are so good that they merit replication.

Last year Cool Choices did a community-scale sustainability program in Waukesha County, in partnership with the county’s workforce development team and local chambers of commerce. Sustainability leaders in the Fox Valley heard about the program and reached out to ask if we could replicate the program in their region.

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Communities across the U.S. and around the world are making big commitments to clean energy and environmental sustainability more broadly. According to a 2018 report from the CDP, more than 100 cities get most of their electricity from renewable energy sources—up from just 42 in 2015. Plus, a growing number of communities ranging from London, England to Norman, Oklahoma and Eau Claire, Wisconsin are making commitments to clean energy and carbon neutrality.

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Globally we’re in the midst of an exciting transition to electric vehicles and there are signs of the change everywhere you look with cities, states and utilities all helping to promote this transition.

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