Mobilizing Employees to Accelerate Corporate Climate Action
Summary
In 2024, Kite Insights committed to significantly increase climate action within professional roles and industries through their free B2C app, Hurd. This initiative aims to empower 220,000 employees globally by September 2025 to drive climate action by providing tools for regular and frequent climate action reviews, free training, industry insights, and solution toolkits. By enabling employees to share success stories and anonymously evaluate their company’s climate progress, Hurd fosters a culture of transparency and continuous improvement. This commitment will significantly increase the number of CDP-registered organizations with credible, 1.5°C-aligned climate transition plans, addressing the urgent need for corporate climate accountability. Additionally, Hurd provides employers with valuable employee insights to enhance engagement, measure impact, and effectively communicate their sustainability efforts, driving broader organizational change.
Approach
Kite Insights commits to empowering employees to drive climate action within their organizations through their free B2C app, Hurd, aiming to significantly increase the number of CDP-registered organizations with credible, 1.5°C-aligned climate transition plans.
Hurd enables employees to review their ability to act on climate within their roles, access free training and toolkits, share success stories, and see how well their organization supports climate action. Examples of the microlearning content include training on how procurement roles can incorporate diversity and gender equality into supply chains, and how marketing roles can reduce the carbon footprint of promotional activities. Hurd also facilitates anonymous employee evaluations of their company’s climate progress, fostering transparency and accountability.
Employers benefit from granular data on employee engagement, the impact of changes, and public feedback. Hurd is designed for employees across all roles, industries, and geographies, with a particular focus on large private sector companies. Since its launch in late 2023, Hurd has been implemented in English, launched six courses, and reached 11,000 users, with over 1,100 registered across nearly 200 countries and more than 200 companies.
The commitment will be implemented by expanding Hurd’s user base through targeted performance marketing and outreach efforts, aiming to reach 220,000 total users by September 2025, of which 44,000 will be registered. Kite Insights create more microlearning content and translate and localize Hurd to provide global accessibility. By collecting and analyzing granular data from employee feedback, Hurd will help employers understand engagement levels, measure the impact of climate actions, and adjust strategies accordingly. Partners will promote Hurd within their networks, provide insights for content development, and support localization efforts.
Kite Insights’ expertise in sustainability, marketing strategies, and robust content creation will drive this commitment, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and accelerating organizational transformation towards sustainability.
Action Plan
July 2024 to October 2024: Secure remaining funding; Launch 2 courses aimed at helping IT professionals and sales / client facing roles to take climate action within their roles; Reach 34,000 total users, registering at least 6,800.
October 2024 to April 2025: Launch 2 more function-specific courses to help other job roles take climate action within their roles; Complete translation and localisation to 1 additional language, including the app itself and the learning content; Reach 34,000 total users, registering at least 22,000.
April 2025 to September 2025: Launch 2 courses to help other job roles take climate action within their roles;
Complete translation and localisation to 1 additional language, including the app itself and the learning content;
Reach 220,000 total users, registering at least 40,000.
Background
Corporate climate action has been sluggish and ineffective. This challenge breaks down into three parts:
Say what you mean & do as you say: A mere 0.4% of global companies currently have credible climate transition plans (CDP, 2023) . The “say-do gap” exposes corporate failures to deliver on grand promises. Meanwhile the world is speeding towards the 1.5°C target outlined by the IPCC, and if companies don’t follow through on their stated goals, the world is at risk of a new climate reality with devastating consequences for people and nations around the globe.
Empower your people: Employees have immense influence over a company’s climate action. More than 8,000 Amazon employees recently called on the company to develop its first-ever climate plan, with an open letter followed by the filing of a shareholder solution (The Guardian, 2019) . 65% of people are more likely to work for a company that takes climate seriously (Unily, 2020) . Frustratingly, however, employees face a “want-can” gap: with limited access to the knowledge, tools, and organizational support that could unleash their full potential and creativity in their workplaces. This gap needs to be bridged and employees have to become strong drivers of sustainable action.
Measure every inch of change: Most companies are struggling to demonstrate their level of climate action. They’re also afraid of the backlash they’ll face if they don’t deliver. The pressure from employees, investors and consumers is, most of the time, paralyzing. Meanwhile, 90% of global institutional investors revise investments if companies do not at least consider ESG criteria within their business model (EY, 2021) . This “pressure-action” gap forces the question of who is going to act within organizations and how. Traditional ESG measures, for example, do not currently include ways of measuring employees’ ability to act on climate.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
Kite Insights is seeking catalytic philanthropic grant funding to scale, translate, and localize its free B2C app, Hurd. Kite Insights is also seeking media and PR support to help Hurd to scale, and also content partnerships with experts who have content they could help to translate into micro-learning for the Hurd user base., Kite Insights has deep subject matter expertise in climate and sustainability and how it intersects with social issues. It conducts research, curate events and debates and provides learning content and experiences. Kite Insights exists to empower people and organizations with the clarity and confidence to play their part in the sustainable transformation of our economy and society.