Case Study: Sustainability training for a construction vehicle manufacturer

How a construction equipment firm created a culture shift and achieved sustained stakeholder engagement with sustainability objectives

The client

The client is a subsidiary of a global company providing heavy equipment to the construction and mining sectors, both high-emitting sectors. The client, a pioneer in electric solutions for construction, already has ambitious environmental commitments and goals in place, alongside a strong commitment to sustainable material use. With Many Roots (WMR) was brought in to provide sustainability training tailored for construction vehicle manufacturers to increase engagement and buy-in at a senior level to facilitate meaningful progress.

The challenge: Complex emissions challenges hindering stakeholder engagement

Prioritising the ‘E’ in the HSE agenda 

Taking on the challenge as a whole company not just the sustainability team’s responsibility

Complex sector challenges making employees feel change is not feasible

Other pressing regulations often taking priority over sustainability

The solution: Highly tailored training with big-picture thinking

The training programme: A programme of sustainability training for the construction vehicle manufacturing sector highly tailored to the client. WMR facilitated small-group in-person workshops and larger ideation and debrief sessions using the Climate Fresk tool. Sessions lasted three hours and started with senior leadership then expanded to senior management.

Key content areas: Sector-specific challenges, a feasibility case study from a fossil-fuel company, alignment with upcoming regulatory frameworks, systemic progress.

Engagement method: Collaborative workshops encouraging participants to think big using the “Levers of Influence” framework.

Change management support: Follow-up stakeholder engagement sessions six months later.

Our approach: Tailoring training to the sector and company

The client already had big sustainability goals but faced challenges embedding them throughout the company. To help them make progress, we started by engaging senior leadership and later brought in senior management. We heard from participants that regulations in other areas often took priority over sustainability concerns, so to demonstrate the relevance of the topics to stretched employees, we tailored the programme to the sector’s and the company’s specific challenges. We encouraged all participants to think on a bigger scale and imagine the kind of pivot needed, using a case study from an adjacent heavy-emitting industry to demonstrate feasibility.

Results: Buy-in and, business integration

• Since the workshops, the client has seen a cultural shift of increased engagement with sustainability across the organisation
• There is now and buy-in from senior leadership
• Participants have since successfully integrated sustainability into wider business discussions

What the client said

Participants praised the clarity and inspiration they provided and the way the facilitators connected with and engaged the group.

Why it worked: Head and heart for sustained engagement

We took a head-and-heart approach to the training, which is key to achieving long-term change and sustained engagement. The first component, the “head” part, entailed leveraging a cross-industry case study to show that change is feasible and motivate ambitious goal-setting. In parallel, we also focussed on engaging participants’ emotional and empathetic side to inspire long-term commitment and emotional buy-in.

We started with leadership and then took a phased, collaborative approach that brought people from different departments together and encouraged them to speak freely, helping to embed sustainability initiatives across multiple levels of the organisation.