Bloomberg Joins Leading Global Businesses in Count Us In Employee Challenge

LONDON and NEW YORK, November 30, 2021 /3BL Media/ - Bloomberg joins the Count Us In Employee Challenge alongside eight new participating organizations. BCG, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Kyan, NatWest Group, Ooni, ScottishPower and Spectris have signed up to the initiative, which brings together leading businesses to encourage their employees to commit to meaningful, personal actions that work towards global net-zero goals. Powered by global movement Count Us In, in partnership with a group of eight action platforms, it aims to engage 100 million employees by 2025.

In the battle against climate change, fostering public-private sector collaboration is critical – something the Founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions, has long advocated for. Earlier this month, the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, saw leaders across the globe negotiate ambitious roadmaps to climate targets, and business level up on climate action and ambitions.

While changes are needed at a systemic level, individuals have a key role to play. Emerging research highlights that individual and household actions, when taken at scale, could potentially drive 25–30 percent of the total emissions reductions needed to avoid the worst of climate change. Employee behaviour is part of every business’ carbon footprint, and thus, it is essential for all businesses to put in place strategies on workforce engagement to deliver their net-zero plans.

Employee participation, innovation and ownership can accelerate businesses’ transition to net-zero, and unlock individuals’ and teams’ creativity to deliver on sustainability plans at every opportunity. It has other benefits too, such as building a culture of mindful consumption, attracting and retaining talent. The Count Us In Employee Challenge taps into this potential, bringing together the energy of businesses, like Bloomberg, which are stepping up their climate ambition and action across all levels of their strategy and operations  to inspire and empower their workforce to play their part in delivering on their organizational climate targets, and build momentum for wider transformation.

The initiative is being delivered in collaboration with climate action platforms, including A-World, BrightAction, Do Nation, Deedster, eevie, Giki Zero, Joro and Joulebug and Pawprint. At best, its collective impact of 100 million employees taking action has the potential to match the carbon cuts required by the entire global shipping and chemicals industry to be on a net-zero pathway by 2030, or the entire emissions of Switzerland from now until 2025.

Nigel Topping, UK High-Level Climate Action Champion, who launched this ambitious initiative in June 2021, said: “It’s incredible to see companies harnessing the creativity and potential of their employees by joining the Count Us In Employee Challenge in this all-hands-on-deck moment. This is a powerful example of systemic change in action – individuals and organizations all playing their part to help create a zero carbon world in time.”   

Jemma Read, Global Head of Corporate Philanthropy, Bloomberg L.P.: It is increasingly clear that cross-society commitments and greater levels of collaboration are required to protect and restore our planet. Small individual actions – multiplied many times across an organization – soon start to add up, delivering meaningful and long-lasting change. We are delighted to join clients and partners to drive greater environmental engagement and local action through the Count Us In employee challenge.

 Dermot McDonogh, Chief Operating Officer, EMEA, Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is proud to join the Count Us In challenge in encouraging people to protect what they love from climate change. This is a great concept bringing to life how the actions of a few can add up to a lot and how by making a small change today, we can make such a big difference tomorrow.

 Sheila Duncan, HR Director, ScottishPower: The climate emergency is one of the biggest challenges we face every day and, as a Principal Partner of COP26, we’re proud to support our colleagues to take part in the Count Us In Employee Challenge. It might seem daunting for an individual to imagine how their actions can help, but – collectively – it matters. We must act now – and the Challenge is a great way to get people on board.

 Eric Levine, Count Us In Executive Team:  Since the Count Us In Employee Challenge’s launch in June, we have seen the number of participating organizations double from 19 to almost 40. We are excited to see clear commitment that businesses are moving beyond their strategy and operations to tackle climate change. Just like every business needs a net-zero commitment, every business should have a standard practice to engage their colleagues. We hope that seeing more organizations join the challenge today will encourage and motivate others to leverage their greater scope for climate action by involving employees.

Bloomberg on Climate
Led by Michael R. Bloomberg, a global climate champion and Special Envoy to the UN Secretary-General, Bloomberg is tackling the climate crisis from every angle.

Bloomberg Philanthropies is at the forefront of U.S. and global efforts to fight climate change and protect the environment across a key array of issues. Bringing together mayors and other government and business leaders, grassroots partners, and environmental advocates, Bloomberg Philanthropies implements bold programs that tackle the climate crisis and help build a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable economy. Its efforts are accelerating the transition from coal to clean energy, improving air quality and public health, advancing city climate action, protecting and preserving ocean ecosystems, and helping unlock billions of dollars in sustainable finance.

Bloomberg L.P. provides the global financial community with data-driven insights, news, and analysis to help them integrate an ESG lens across the investment process. As a company, Bloomberg L.P. is also leading by example, including committing to net-zero carbon emissions by 2025 and taking action in the communities where its employees live and work. And through Bloomberg’s stewardship of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative, Bloomberg is using the power of the capital markets to address climate change and support the transition to a net-zero economy.

About the Count Us In Employee Challenge
All large global businesses that have joined the Count Us In Employee Challenge have joined the Race to Zero, making public commitments to reduce emissions across all scopes in line with the Paris Agreement – halving emissions by 2030. Engaging their employees as part of the Challenge is an additional step being taken by participating businesses to engage their workforces and accelerate their business’ delivery of their organizational commitments.

All participating businesses provide a digital platform where employees can take personal actions in a counted and accountable way, using any of Count Us In’s platform partners – A-World, BrightAction, Do Nation, Deedster, eevie, Giki Zero, Joro and Joulebug. Those actions and their associated carbon impact are added up by the Count Us In Aggregator (operated by Accenture on behalf of Count Us In). Count Us In’s platform partners all offer support for employers in running employee engagement campaigns, providing a range of personal climate actions that employees can take, robust carbon calculation methodologies to capture the impact of actions, and features to motivate and inspire participation via teams, competitions, leaderboards and more.

About Count Us In
Count Us In is a community of people and organizations taking practical steps to protect what they love from climate change before it is too late. Launched at TED Countdown, Count Us In’s mission is to inspire 1 billion people to significantly reduce their carbon pollution, and challenge leaders to act boldly to deliver global systems change. It brings together sport, business, faith, youth and civil society to protect what you love, make changes that matter, do good for you too, and add up to something bigger. Learn more at count-us-in.org.