Earth Day is a global day of action on 22 April to raise awareness for environmental issues and climate change mitigation. On the occasion of this year’s Earth Day, IKEM and numerous other companies are joining forces with their employees in a four-week climate challenge to promote tangible climate action and sustainability in the workplace. The Earth Weeks are an initiative of the Berlin start-up 2zero, which aims to encourage people to make a commitment to sustainability using digital applications. We spoke to Julius Gronau about the motivation behind the Earth Weeks, the content of the challenge and why it’s worth taking part.
What exactly are Earth Weeks and what is the motivation behind the campaign?
Earth Weeks is a sustainability initiative from 2zero that starts on Earth Day and runs for four weeks. The aim is for people, together with their employer, to master daily challenges for more sustainability in their professional and everyday lives and make a joint contribution to climate change mitigation. The motivation behind the campaign is to raise awareness for environmental and climate protection and to show that team-based sustainability campaigns can also be great fun.
What activities are planned?
The Earth Weeks consist of 22 challenges in four themed weeks that focus on different aspects of sustainability such as nutrition, consumer behaviour, mobility and the energy transition. Of course, we don’t want to give too much away about the challenges just yet, but you can definitely look forward to some really clever ideas. Participants can then complete challenges, solve quizzes, read guides, collect rewards and compete with other teams and participants on the leaderboard in the 2zero app.
How does 2zero support companies with the implementation?
2zero provides companies with a platform and all the necessary materials to carry out the campaign. This includes a dedicated community for each participating company in the 2zero app, a management portal for tracking successes, marketing materials for social media and print for internal promotion of the campaign and, of course, all the content relating to the challenges for Earth Weeks.
Why should companies take part in Earth Weeks?
It’s simple: you have the chance to have fun as a team and do something for the planet at the same time. Our campaign provides you with exciting challenges – all of which, by the way, originate from a research project and are therefore based on scientific evidence – and you learn together how to live more sustainably and make a real contribution to climate change mitigation. In short, it’s the perfect opportunity to come together, discover new things and do your bit for a better world.
In other words: together with their employees, companies can finally create a concrete impact for more sustainability. And since we know that companies are always on the lookout for cool sustainability campaigns, but often can’t get anything big off the ground on their own, we take on virtually the entire organisation, from the application to the evaluation of the campaign. So when I think about it, participation is actually a no-brainer for companies for whom sustainability is important.
How does the campaign help to raise awareness of environmental and climate protection beyond the four weeks?
Through gamification and the playful competition, participants are motivated in a positive way to engage with the topics of environmental and climate protection. 50% of our campaign participants state that they will maintain the habits from the challenges even after the end of the campaign. The sustainable habits developed during the challenge therefore help to raise awareness of sustainability in the long term.
How you register for the Earth Weeks?
All important information about the campaign can be found on our website. You can also register for the campaign there in just a few steps and then the onboarding process can begin. The registration deadline is 18 April 2024.
