To work effectively with the CO₂ Performance Ladder, it’s important that your organisation has support for sustainability efforts. Sustainability policies and measures can have a direct effect on employees. At the same time, employees play a key role in implementing sustainability measures. In this blog, we share tips on how to build support within your organisation for working towards certification with the CO₂ Performance Ladder – that is, structurally reducing your organisation’s CO₂ emissions, rather than using your certificate to your advantage in tenders.

Successful sustainability efforts depend on employee involvement. Without support, sustainability policy is likely to remain abstract, and employees may see sustainability measures as a burden. Where support does exist, your organisation is more likely to come up with innovative ideas, and changes are more likely to be implemented quickly, and, crucially, to stick.

The CO₂ Performance Ladder is one of the tools your organisation can use to decarbonise using a structured methodology. How do you ensure that employees see the added value of the Ladder and feel involved in taking measures to reduce CO₂ emissions? Here are 7 tips.

Tip 1: Organise a meeting about the CO₂ Performance Ladder

To build support, it’s important to involve your organisation from the moment you decide to work with the Ladder. One way to do this is by organising an in-person or online meeting. You can hold this for the whole organisation, or at department or team level. Use a presentation to explain what the CO₂ Performance Ladder involves and what benefits certification offers.

A meeting also gives employees the opportunity to ask questions and share any concerns, doubts or suggestions. Our website has information that can help you put together a presentation. You could also invite someone from another Ladder-certified organisation to share their experiences during the presentation.

Tip 2: Show the added value of the Ladder

Solid evidence can help persuade employees to embrace a tool like the CO₂ Performance Ladder. Scientific research by CE Delft has shown that organisations using the CO₂ Performance Ladder – currently around eight thousand – achieve significantly greater CO₂ reductions than before. The Ladder therefore makes a demonstrable contribution to achieving your organisation’s climate goals. Measures to reduce CO₂ emissions also contribute to cost savings, for example through lower energy use.

The CO₂ Performance Ladder also helps you measure and monitor your CO₂ emissions in a structured way. This allows you to take targeted measures for further reduction. The fact that your goals and ambitions are checked annually by an independent auditor from a certification body makes the Ladder a reliable sustainability tool. The CO₂ Performance Ladder has a great deal of overlap with European climate directives and is a useful tool for complying with this legislation.

Another benefit of the Ladder is that you can use your Ladder Certificate when submitting a tender. When the contracting authority includes the Ladder as an award criterion, you score points, or receive a notional discount on your tender, depending on your certification level or step. This increases your chances of winning great projects.

Tip 3: Show that the tool is easy to use

Introducing a new tool can create resistance, for example because employees worry it will mean extra work. However, using the CO₂ Performance Ladder is relatively straightforward and takes up little time for most people in your organisation.

Appointing key persons helps spread responsibility for CO₂ reduction throughout your organisation. Key persons are people within your organisation who, given their role, play an important part in reducing CO₂ emissions. When CO₂ reduction is firmly embedded across the organisation, it becomes progressively easier and more natural for employees to embrace sustainability in their work or on the shop floor. This also increases the likelihood that employees will actively put forward their own ideas for measures that contribute to CO₂ reduction.

Tip 4: Be specific about what measures involve and what they mean

Some of the measures you implement to meet the Ladder’s requirements can have an impact on your organisation. Think of electrifying your vehicle fleet, using more sustainable equipment and materials, or energy-saving measures. To build support, it’s important to clearly explain why you’re taking certain measures, what they deliver, and what they mean in concrete terms for employees. For more far-reaching changes, it can help to offer extra support, for example a workshop or training session.

Tip 5: Lead by example as an organisation

Leading by example encourages others to follow. If you want employees to adopt more sustainable behaviour, it helps if the organisation sets a good example itself – for instance, management driving in electric cars. Ambassadors or frontrunners within the organisation can inspire colleagues and enthuse them to make their work or processes more sustainable. Key persons – who you are required to appoint under version 4.0 of the Ladder – play an important role in setting this example.

Tip 6: Communicate your results and successes

Showing that measures and employee contributions are making a difference to CO₂ reduction increases engagement and confidence to keep going. That’s why it’s important to communicate about positive developments and successes. For example, use your newsletter or intranet to show how much CO₂ has been saved in the office or on a project over a given period. Storytelling makes the impact of sustainability measures even more visible, and personalising a story is inspiring too — for instance, by having employees themselves talk about sustainable initiatives they’ve been involved in. Has your organisation moved up on the CO₂ Performance Ladder? That’s certainly worth mentioning too.

Tip 7: Encourage active employee involvement

A culture that encourages ownership and autonomy contributes to support. When employees have genuine influence over sustainable changes and see that their ideas are taken seriously, they’re more likely to be motivated to contribute to sustainability. That’s why it’s important to give employees room for their own initiative and to make sustainability more tangible. This could involve organising working groups around specific themes, for example. As an organisation, you can also provide tools and guidance to help make work processes more sustainable together.