Today, on World Environment Day, I’m very happy to publish our latest impact report, digging into the impact Do Nation and all our users achieved in 2018.

Since we first launched our pledge platform, we’ve directly helped over 17,500 people to form new healthy and environmentally friendly habits – leading to savings of more than 3,500 tonnes of carbon each year. And as you can see in the impact report, 2018 was by far and away our most high-impact year to date, with a 46% increase in pledge numbers from the previous year.

In preparing this report, three things really stood out to me:

1.  Joining the waste-free trend

Historically, the most pledged actions were fairly consistent: Veg out (the pledge to make meat a treat), Step up (to walk up the stairs), and Tea time (to only boil the water you need).

But this year, the top spots were taken by a totally new – and very topical – selection: Clothes call (declutter and donate unwanted clothes), You mug (use a reusable mug), and Fantastic unplastic (reduce your plastic use).

This is no surprise – but it’s good to see that we’re helping to turn the unprecedented public concern about fast fashion and plastic pollution into action.

2.  Investing in impact

Again, it was no surprise to see that most of our impact comes from our employee engagement campaigns – on average, an organisation running a campaign receives 176 pledges, whereas the average personal campaign receives 23.

For several reasons, workplaces are really amazing places to target behaviour change. Like it or not, they’re where most of us spend a huge chunk of our time, and there’s usually a strong sense of culture and community, clear communication channels, and a sense of responsibility and accountability – all things that really help when trying to encourage long term behaviour change.

What was particularly interesting – and reassuring – to see is that the effort you put into running a campaign directly correlates to the impact achieved. Organisations using Do Nation Plus, which allows for deeper customisation, reporting, and account management and planning support, tended to raise 10x more pledges than those on our Basic tier. Most importantly, these pledges were 40% more likely to be completed successfully.

3.  Carbon++

While our impact has grown year on year, our running costs have actually decreased – meaning that our cost per tonne of carbon saved has fallen by 88% since 2015. It’s now sitting at around £56 per tonne – that’s slightly higher than the average market carbon price, but there are many benefits in addition to the carbon savings.

67% of our users say they improved their wellbeing, and 42% felt healthier as a result of their pledge. What’s more, on average each pledge triggers 7 conversations about sustainability – which in turn can unlock far greater benefits and changes. 

Tackling the climate emergency is going to take action at all levels – governments, industries, and individuals. Behaviour change will clearly never be enough on its own – but from what we’ve seen, it can be a vital first step, and a major key to unlocking bigger, more transformational changes.

Download our impact report for more detail, some case studies, and to read our full theory of change.