Earlier this year, employees from 16 countries across Europe took part in the 40-day Sony Europe Sustainability Challenge.
Sustainability is already embedded in Sony Europe’s ambitions, from its Road to Zero environmental goals to its work on diversity, accessibility and social contribution. With the Sustainability Challenge, Sony Europe wanted to take the next step: turning those ambitions into everyday action and engaging employees across countries and teams.
Through practical challenges, inspiration and sharing ideas with colleagues, employees explored how they could contribute to Sony’s sustainability goals through their choices at work and at home.
Together with Johan Devenyns, Director, Sustainability & Product Compliance, Sony Europe, we look back on the challenge, the impact it created and what Sony Europe learned along the way.
Johan Devenyns
Director, Sustainability & Product Compliance bij Sony Europe
Why did you organise the Sony Europe Sustainability Challenge?
We were looking for an initiative that would engage our employees in some healthy and fun competition with a learning curve while putting sustainability front and centre. The Footprint Challenge was the perfect vehicle to do exactly that.
What were you hoping to achieve within the organisation?
The objective was to continue raising awareness around sustainability at Sony Europe in a fun and interactive way to stimulate collaboration around the topic and get some fresh perspectives from employees.
We wanted to present employees with tangible actions and small changes they could adopt in both their work and home lives, things that are easy, repeatable, and can become lasting habits. By wrapping this in a fun and interactive experience, our goal was to further raise awareness around sustainability, stimulate collaboration, and gain fresh perspectives from our people.
How did you experience running a challenge across multiple countries and teams?
Aligning the content to make sure it spoke to all of our diverse Sony Europe workforce, whilst trying to utilise the Footprint Challenge to effectively raise awareness, required a lot of internal coordination. We relied on the support and experience of Miriam and Laura to ensure that everything ran smoothly.
What kind of internal impact did you notice?
The positive energy from the teams and the enthusiasm with which ideas were shared and received are definite standouts. The Footprint Challenge was certainly a great way to stimulate collaboration across multi-functional teams.
What surprised you the most during the challenge?
Employees really do care about sustainability, both at home and in the workplace, but they don’t always know what actions they could take to live more sustainably. This challenge gave them the opportunity to show their engagement and adopt new behaviours.
The awards ceremony at the end of the challenge was a great moment to celebrate the impact the challenge made within Sony Europe. The total number of actions, reduction in footprint(s) and general engagement with the challenge was extraordinary.
What are you most proud of?
How the Sustainability Challenge brought together employees from different organisations under Sony Europe who usually would rarely interact with each other was truly amazing. It’s a powerful example of the role diversity can play in generating new ideas and driving innovation.
How did you experience the collaboration with us?
The collaboration with The Footprint Challenge went really well. We felt supported and guided through the communication, content creation and the overall approach to the challenge. Also, the online platform was very intuitive to use.
Betrek medewerkers, verander gedrag en creëer blijvende inpact met ons 40-daagse activatieprogramma
