Sustainable Team Building: Motivation and Sustainability in your the Company

In 2023, corporate sustainability has become a hot topic, high on the list of every Italian and European startup or company.

Besides that, from millennials to GenZ, the younger workforce increasingly cares about issues such as climate change and the social and environmental impact of their company.

Some data on the fly (source: Harvard Business Review):

55% of employees have higher morale if their company has a strong corporate sustainability program. Plus, compared with sustainable companies, employee loyalty was 38% higher.

Team building activities are a hugely effective tool for increasing a company’s productivity is a bit of an open secret.

But in 2023, amid the climate crisis, no company can hope to increase corporate engagement by turning a blind eye to climate change and its environmental responsibilities and not committing to becoming a green company.

The key?

Sustainable team building! That is, how to make CSR (corporate social responsibility) not just an acronym but a concrete reality for every employee in a company.

But there is a problem:

Most sustainable team building activities are improvised, carried out by those who don’t really do sustainability. And what is the result? A washout.

By the end of this article, you will be clear about the potential of a sustainable initiative, both for corporate engagement and for your company’s green image.

When a company or startup positions itself from the beginning as a “sustainable” company, the kind of people it will attract will also already have a good background in sustainability.

But what about when companies, whether small, medium-sized, or larger companies, are starting or are in the midst of a sustainability project?

What do you do?

At that point, the involvement of all stakeholders is crucial, from customers, to whom the tangible impact on the Planet and the nature of the company must be communicated, to colleagues from every team and level, who, through sustainable business events (or workshops) can understand the values and choices of the companies they work for and, above all, have sustainability experiences that increase internal cohesion and well-being.

A sustainable corporate culture is essential because:

• It attracts and retains talent: people are increasingly aware of companies’ social and environmental impact and seek employment in companies that share their values, needs and ideas.
• Improves green brand reputation: A company that demonstrates that it is responsible and sustainable and that it takes concrete action to reduce its impact on the Planet has greater appeal to customers, suppliers and even investors.
• Increases efficiency and productivity: A work environment that promotes responsible and sustainable values increases employee motivation and well-being, improving productivity and team cohesion.
• Contributes to global sustainability: All organisations, whether SMEs or a larger context, must structure their goals and operations concerning sustainable development issues for the Planet and nature.

Now that you know what this activity is for, you may be wondering, “but specifically how do you organise this kind of experience?”, “where to find original ideas for sustainable corporate events?”

What should you do?

A competition between different teams? Group training that sharpens problem-solving skills? Picking up trash?

For your convenience, here is a list of basic proposals:

• Tree planting or beach or park cleanup
• Construction of gardens or green areas
• Visit a sustainable farm or business and get on-the-job training
• Education on crucial sustainability and CSR issues
• Outdoor team activities such as hiking, rowing boat rides or nature walks.

Such a proposal is probably the closest thing to what you had in mind.

But there is one problem.

You should not take team building activities’s success for granted

The main problem is that creating these kinds of team-building projects takes a lot of organisation, the right contacts, finding partners such as a cooperative or farm, and getting together.

But the worst risk is another:

The event turns out to be a fiasco; the trainers have sloppy knowledge of sustainable issues, but most importantly, the team building is not sustainable.

And it could get worse:
The company/agency contacted to organise the event doesn’t really do sustainability (and doesn’t even know what it means to put effective green marketing strategies on the ground).

Instead of explaining in words, we do it in deeds.

The foundation of zeroCO2

We started in Guatemala, one of the most deforested countries devastated by oil palm planting, and now we work worldwide, from Tanzania, where we help Maasai women’s communities, to Italy, where we work with many cooperatives that have made their connection to the land their reason for living.

Social and environmental impact and development, reforestation and transparency (thanks to our monitoring system) are always at the top of our priorities.

Let’s get straight to the point: Why is it that when we offer trainers for team activities or experiences, we know what we are talking about?

With Fotocromo emiliana we have planted 3300 trees in Guatemala, supporting 66 families. In addition, we organised team training workshops for employees on sustainable agenda, climate change concerns, and the importance of corporate sustainability.

With Carrefour we returned to Italy. We planted a forest of 150 trees in the Roveri area near Bologna. The project sees the collaboration of Eta Beta, a mixed type A and B nonprofit organisation that mainly targets people in situations of fragility and social marginality to promote their integration through socio-rehabilitative paths.

La Piemontesina is an agri-nursery founded between 1982 and 1984 in Chivasso, Piedmont. It includes an educational farm where young children learn through educational activities developed in contact with nature, cultivated fields and a nursery.

With Flowe, the most sustainable online bank in the realm (they even have a paper made of wood), we created a corporate forest in Guatemala. We organised a beautiful team-building event at Piemontesina, which was an opportunity for all kinds of experiences and activities, from training employees on sustainability issues to teamwork among colleagues to plant trees to post-event, as each group could then track the health of the trees planted.

Let’s close with one last statistic on the fly because in the end, what world would it be without data?

According to a 2022 survey conducted by Salesforce.

“82% of global employees say they are ready to help their company become more sustainable.”

But the question is:

How to implement these good intentions?

And the answer is: through a sustainable team-building event.