Unleashing sustainable change: An inside look into the power of challenges

Imagine the collective impact of individuals shutting down electronics, adopting plant-based diets and embracing public transportation. These seemingly small actions can lead to significant change, especially when everyone is involved. But how can we inspire true buy-in from people?

In this sneak peek of our latest white paper Challenge Yourself: Uniting Tenants and Building Users for Greener Properties, we offer you a fresh perspective by sharing some of its key insights. With nearly 70% of greenhouse gas emissions in real estate stemming from operations, we delve into the potential for stakeholders to ignite positive change in how buildings are used.

One highly effective path to accomplish this is through thematic challenges centred around sustainability—challenges that are not only impactful, but also enjoyable for all participants.

Embracing Sustainability Challenges

In the pursuit of sustainable real estate, the key often lies in encouraging individuals to adopt new practices in building usage. In speaking with Stibbe, a leading independent, international law firm with main offices in Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg that is embracing hello energy’s Challenges, we learned about their impact in a real-world way:

“We are really excited about the hello energy Challenges feature. By already making our colleagues more aware about the sustainability of our building, their behaviour has changed in a positive way. We think with Challenges we can take that to an even higher level” said Herbert Bergman, Facilities Coordinator at Stibbe.

Sustainability Challenges: but how?

The most important things to keep in mind are to make the challenges measurable, accessible, relatable and achievable. Let’s break these down:

• Measurable – If you can set targets (number of single-use cups used, litres of water saved, etc.) you can give people a benchmark to measure their progress against.
• Accessible – Make sure challenges (e.g., using more public transport) are actually applicable to everyone; no one should be left out!
• Relatable – By relating challenges to actions taken at home (turning off the lights, recycling and so on), everyone can speak the same language.
• Achievable – Inspire your users to partake in challenges that are realistic, but that also keep them engaged.

From building Creating (green) building ambassadors

Motivating people to embrace sustainable behaviours involves setting trends, establishing norms and fostering positive habits. Through our monthly challenges, which revolve around action agendas like zero-waste and smart mobility, our aim is to create new norms around green habits that become second nature. By employing visualisation tools alongside engaging green challenges, we cultivate awareness and excitement around sustainability. Even simple actions like reducing single-use plastics can have a profound impact. This bottom-up approach fosters a culture centred on sustainability and cultivates inspiring green ambassadors that we proudly refer to as building heroes.

Ready to put Challenges into action?

If you're eager to witness the transformative power of Challenges firsthand, we invite you to explore our newest feature here.

Let's unleash sustainable change together. Discover the untapped possibilities of Challenges today!