Aussie leaders offer hope for employees in an anxious climate

EMPLOYEES are increasingly anxious and frustrated about the state of climate action, new statistics show, as two Australian chief executives team up to launch a tool to better help Fortune 500 companies build their net-zero strategies.

The chief executives of LiveTiles and My Net Zero are in New York this week to launch the Climate Change Tracker, a new index that they describe as a database to support the development of climate action road maps for employees and consumers.

The Index so far shows that respondents are anxious (44 per cent), frustrated (43 per cent), and sad (36 per cent) about the current state of climate action, and only 22 per cent said they feel hopeful for the future of the planet.

Some 82 per cent of people claim to be concerned or extremely concerned about climate change, with 75 per cent feeling a personal responsibility to take some action and be a part of the solution but worrying about how much it will cost (64 per cent).

When it comes to the role of corporations and specifically their employers, 70 per cent of respondents do not feel supported by their employer for personal climate action aspirations. Nearly two-thirds of respondents would think more positively of their employer if they were offered support, with the top areas requested being providing discounts or incentives from key service providers (62 per cent), supporting employee-driven actions (38 per cent), and providing information on how individual actions can have an impact (30 per cent).

Australia’s former chief scientist Alan Finkel said “this is the first data-led approach of its kind”.

“Recognising the importance of supporting and incentivising individual action, CEOs Karl Redenbach (LiveTiles) and Tim Hodgson (My Net Zero) are enabling the world’s largest organisations and governments to empower their people to individually play their part to help accelerate the world’s path to net zero … based on large scale empirical data.”

Mr Hodgson said the data would help inform better business decisions around sustainability strategies.

“Our goal is to empower everyday people to take positive climate action, with tangible and targeted support from the organisations that surround them,” he said.

“This new offering is the ideal starting point.”