How an aerospace manufacturer embedded sustainability understanding at every level of the company

The client

Our client is a UK multinational company in aerospace manufacturing. The aerospace sector as a whole faces challenges reducing the carbon emissions it generates due to a reliance on fossil fuels. They also contend with regulatory pressures plus stringent safety and performance standards. They brought in With Many Roots (WMR) to facilitate sustainability training tailored for the aerospace sector.

The challenge: Multiple tensions within a carbon-heavy industry

• Mixed knowledge level across a varied workforce
• Understanding their relevance and influence in the sector-wide drive for decarbonisation
• Regulatory, safety and performance pressures take priority

The solution: Empowering all employees to contribute to decarbonisation goals

Training programme designed: Highly-tailored comprehensive sustainability training programme for the aerospace sector using the interactive, low-tech Climate Fresh model. Three-hour in-person workshops bringing in staff from different functions to build connections focusing on empowerment. Between 9 and 30 participants per session.

Key content areas: Climate awareness, sector-specific issues, and company-specific challenges and opportunities.

Engagement method: Interactive workshops for leadership followed by company-wide sessions inviting staff input to solve challenges collectively.

Change management support: Ongoing support, including workshop roll-out to new hires, internal communications guidance and scoping out a sustainability champions initiative.

Our approach: Leadership engagement, cross-functional involvement, and external expertise

WMR delivered a climate awareness training programme that first engaged leadership to ensure buy-in, providing an offsite space for leaders to address gaps in their knowledge and participate in open, vulnerable and brave discussions about sustainability and their sector. They saw the value in bringing in our external expertise, in part to provide this neutral space for discussion and in part to ensure consistency and quality. We later rolled out the programme to all employees across all functions.

The results: benefits across the board

• Embedding organisation-wide sustainability understanding: The project has so far reached nearly 600 colleagues, leading to a shared understanding of the complexity and scale of the problem and a marked increase in organisational understanding of its decarbonisation strategies.
• Actionable data providing valuable insights: Each workshop generated ideas for proportionate climate action, qualitative data that was then analysed at intervals, offering key insights for the leadership team to work with.
• Collaboration and risk reduction: The workshops fostered collaboration across teams, breaking down silos and encouraging innovative approaches to sustainability. Staff engagement with carbon emissions reductions reduces risk of non-compliance.

Inspiring a sustainability champion

One employee was so impacted by the session that he has become a sustainability champion within the company, bringing his experience to the shop floor.

“The sessions run by WMR have been a vital source of discussion and engagement with our employees, from a business and personal perspective.  It has brought about interesting discussions and challenges, along with an open forum to showcase the vital work we are doing as an organisation to reduce our impact on the growing climate crisis.  Giving our colleagues a voice, and ensuring that voice is heard, is a critical step towards having a strong collective approach to improving our future on site.  WMR provided the perfect opportunity to do that, by following up their training sessions with an interactive Q&A session, leading to some thought provoking and inspiring encounters.”

Looking to get started with a sustainability champion programme? Access our free guide.

Why it worked: Adaptable, flexible and able to facilitate difficult conversations

Responsive

During each phase of deployment we worked closely with the training leader to adapt and improve the workshop responding to participant feedback to ensure the training met the company’s needs.

Flexible

The long-term nature of this project meant we worked closely with our stakeholders, flexing to the needs of the business over the seasons. We scaled up as necessary and ran workshops for between 9 to 30 participants at any given time, navigating different locations and shift patterns.

Creating space for difficult conversations

WMR created a safe-enough space for colleagues to share their views, subsequently ensuring it was anonymously passed on to management. These sessions required skilled facilitators as conversations were often difficult and tense, with narratives of scepticism and denial being openly aired and engaged with. There is no quick fix to decarbonising the aerospace sector; holding that tension needs empathic facilitators confident in communicating the complexity of the climate crisis.