Throughout the programmes we have run with our clients we have got to know what works (and what doesn’t). This means we have been able to share this knowledge with those new to our site – making each programme better than the last.

However, as great as feedback is, there is no better way of learning than doing.

Unsurprisingly here at Do Nation, we are always up for a bit of doing. That’s why when we got the chance to practice what we preach and take part in one of our own Pro programmes we jumped into those metaphorical shoes and walked a few miles. Our companion on this journey was Ministry of Startups (MoS), a series of shared offices for startups where we were based.

Our Pro programmes play on friendly competition between different teams – seeing who can make the most pledges or save the most carbon. From previous experience we knew that teams that actually work in the same place perform better than creating a team with people that don’t know or interact with each other. This gave us the ideal opportunity to create a competition between the three office buildings ran by MoS to truly find out which was the best office!

One other thing that we have learnt is that competing for pride works well, but competing for desserts works better. So to ramp up the competition, free Ben & Jerry’s was offered to everyone who made a pledge in the winning team.

As if ice cream wasn’t enough, for an added incentive MoS also promised to switch to a green electricity supplier if we all matched the carbon savings through our actions.

The competition was hard fought, but our insider knowledge and enthusiasm shone through and our building was victorious (well we would have been embarrassed if we didn’t win).

But victory wasn’t ours alone as all the other startups we shared our space with also got involved, with over half of the all people taking part. It was a great way to get to know everyone better and encouraging to see they shared similar values. It also showed that if you have truly engaged team leaders it makes a huge difference.

Overall our individual actions collectively saved 11 tonnes of carbon – the same as flying from London to New York 23 times. It was also way over the 6 tonnes of carbon target needed to match the saving made by switching to Ecotricity. It just goes to show that small actions really do add up!

“Do Nation have built a slick system that makes encouraging colleagues to pledge and commit to environmental action straight forward and super easy. The data and statistics provided enabled us to easily see the overall impact and we are so pleased to have saved nearly 12 tonnes of carbon.

Not only that, it has achieved true behavioural change in the individuals who participated and we’ll therefore continue to reduce our overall carbon footprint.”

– Ben Davies, Founder of Ministry of Startups.