.png)
Building an impactful sustainability learning and development (L&D) plan
Are you creating a course about climate change but don't know where to stop? Are you hoping to train your team in sustainability but find it's becoming too vague? We hear you. Sustainability education can be difficult, and that’s largely because we aren’t always clear in what we mean. In this article, we use a well-established framework to guide you in creating an effective learning and development (L&D) plan for sustainability.
It would be great if people were activated simply from knowing about sustainability but realistically, if that was the case, we’d have solved it by now. We need to move L&D away from simple teaching about climate change.
A well-used framework, popularised in sustainability by Dr. David W. Orr, is the head-hands-heart model. It recognises that long-lasting, holistic and impactful sustainability education must engage three factors:
· Our head with the knowledge of sustainability causes, impacts and solutions;
· Our hands with the technical and transferrable skills to take actions;
· Our heart with the motivation and drive to be part of a sustainable future.
Below we’ll introduce each part in more detail, explaining what to look for and how to adjust your L&D to effectively meet it.
Head (knowledge)
When we think of L&D, we often start here. This pillar educates participants about the causes, impacts and solutions to our sustainability challenges. This could be anything from understanding sources of emissions and environmental management principles to best practice examples and process clarification. It is important to remember causes, impacts and solutions are all important. People can often dismiss solutions, hoping the issues will scare folks into action, yet these are critical. Leave everyone just with the challenges and we feel overwhelmed, but solutions give us something to aim for and next steps.
Mapping the head:
Assess what true information is valuable – ideally aligning this with your sustainability plan and be role-specific. Generic climate science can be useful to start with but is ineffective unless you bring it to the local context. If possible, be role-specific: for example, procurement teams may need to know about scope 3 emissions and embedding in social value measures, whereas void officers may need to understand how to drive more efficiently. This detail makes it more likely to translate to action.
In practice:
This pillar is often taught through standard classroom interaction – presentations and/or asynchronous online training. These are fine but can be intimidating and lack longevity. That's why the National Emergency Briefing - videos that are engaging and impactful in their own right - require that discussions follow any viewing. Build in opportunities to apply the knowledge and discuss it with others. Instead of telling people the risks of climate change, ask them to share what they’re already seeing. Instead of telling them your key emissions sources, ask them to identify and rank their own first.
Hands (skills and action)
Once we know our context, we need the skills to be able to do something about it. This can be technical skills such as building management, renewable energy installation or risk assessment. It can also be transferrable skills like systemic thinking, creativity and resilience. At Change Agents UK, we advocate for transferrable skills to be developed across every role – for if you do so, sustainability really does become embedded across the organisation.
Mapping the hands:
Map your skills gaps and be sure to consider wide-ranging competencies: empathy can matter as much as environmental management. There are loads of sustainability skills frameworks out there so choose one that works for you. Some popular ones include:
ISEP Sustainability Skills Map – tailored for sustainability professionals;
Inner Development Goals – used by IKEA and include transferrable high-level competencies which reflect cultural skills development well;
GreenComp – a European sustainability competency framework;
IfATE Green Toolkit - supporting green skills for technical qualifications and apprenticeships.
Though many are wide-reaching and sometimes high-level, we recommend using them together to recognise that sustainability-relevant skills exist across the organisation. Map what skills you have and use them. If you have great critical thinking expertise, use it. If you are open-minded and curious, use that. Launch from where you are.
In practice:
Skills are best developed by using them. For this, plan activities – this could be simulations, mock presentations and projects, or ideally on-the-job learning. Consider structuring a program where participants commit to and complete actions, supported throughout to develop, reflect on and celebrate their skills. This way they can see the benefit as well as their capacity, supporting solutions (head), skills (hands) and motivation (heart).
3. Heart (motivation)
This is the source of one’s intrinsic drive to action. It shifts “they’re telling me to do sustainability” to “I want to do sustainability”. It includes aligning to our values, activating our compassion and role as a global citizen, and giving participants the real sense that what they do matters. It arguably is the most widespread blocker to real sustainability action so is really one to consider and embed within and beyond your L&D plan.
Mapping the heart:
This take some authentic questioning where your learners feel comfortable being honest about their motivation and engagement. Consider a survey or, if you have a good relationship, small focus groups to understand what people really feel (not just think) when it comes to sustainability. Ask questions like:
What matters to you when it comes to your impact on the world?
What comes to mind when you think of climate and sustainability?
What concerns you about it?
To what extent do you feel you can play a part in a sustainable future?
Their answers can help guide where you need to go: do you need to build a sense of empowerment, reconnect your work to people’s own motivations, or create more spaces for people to share their concerns and fears about the future? This may feel tangential to L&D but is what will facilitate your learning becoming practice.
In practice:
With climate especially, the information is scary and can lead to learners putting up defensive walls before listening. Give space for people to ask challenging questions and share contrary views – and appreciate them sharing - these create dialogue when sustainability can sometimes feel exclusive. Remember, validating their feelings is not the same as validating their statement - you can create a positive environment without agreeing to climate denial!
We also recommend activities to connect to values, to nature and to each other in safe places – so sustainability feels less overwhelming and more of a shared safe place. One of our favourite icebreakers is "Share with the person next to you something you love about nature and why". It calms and inspires people, ready to connect meaningfully.
The heart is often activated through culture and community. Once you see the feedback, question where it’s coming from. You may realise that people don’t feel heard by their managers, or feel so overwhelmed with their other to-do’s that they’re barely getting by, or simply that sustainability matters but it feels too big for them to face head-on. This may be difficult, and it affects the way we work and reflect our intentions.
What to do next
Assess your sustainability needs
As with any new measure, you need to assess your gaps, clarify your aims and specify your success outcomes. Simply ‘engaging with sustainability’ is not enough – for sustainability and climate action relate to basically everything in the world.
If you don’t specify beyond sustainability or climate, you risk a nice (or worst, scary) time delivering training with few real impacts.
Truly look at these three pillars and identify your blockers and aims. Be real here: is your challenge that staff don’t have enough information (head) or do they feel unsupported to take initiative in their role (heart)? These questions will help you to set clear, impactful and measurable targets.
Learn alongside sustainable places, people, and processes
Training is far more effective when we engage with it ‘on the job’. Build sustainability into the way you work: if possible, have sustainable buildings, a nice natural space for lunch and low-carbon options integrated into your operations so participants can see it in practice. Ensure we walk the walk by having leaders showcase sustainable principles and prioritise it, even when it’s not the most financially beneficial option. Finally, embed it into our processes so individuals don’t have to create anything from scratch but have sustainability be the easiest, guided choice. These translate any training into measurable results.
Embed action into training
With whatever training you’re doing for sustainability, encourage people to act. We all know that once we’ve done something, we are more likely to do it again. That’s the same with sustainability. To translate learning into practise, encourage staff to set pledges and ideally track and support their implementation.
Consider embedding sustainability goals into development plans, showcase them with awards and recognition, and ensure that everyone is on a path of continuous improvement – and continuous learning. If you need inspiration, check out our blog about how whg embedded Carbon Literacy pledges into their performance management framework.