Cases

How do you empower employees to become advocates of sustainable solutions?

Expanding the development of smart, environmental idea.

As Australia's largest food retailer and second largest private employer, Woolworths takes their commitment to social responsibility seriously. In the interest of enhancing their existing national sustainability program, they wanted to inspire more effective eco-friendly practices in their workforce of 180,000 employees. The solution started with research.

In a strategy session conducted with key internal stakeholders, Impact identified the value of creating peer influencers who could help champion new ideas and drive awareness to their environmental focus. To test the organization’s ability to embrace change, a pilot program was created in the Sydney metro area.

Using a group of store-based volunteers, a team of “eco-ambassadors” were created. Each participant attended an environmentally focused, boot-camp training session that prepared them for their challenge, helped them communicate the actions in their workplace, and encouraged feedback on sustainable ideas.

The pilot was so successful that Impact has been retained to commence immediate roll out of the program to all Woolworths brands in both metro and regional locations.