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We’re living in a moment of contradiction.
Public concern about the climate crisis is at an all-time high. Clean technologies are cheaper than ever. But emissions? Still climbing. And most companies, despite the glossy reports, are falling short of what the science demands. The gap between corporate climate ambition and actual change is widening, and time is running out.
At WorkforClimate, we believe the problem isn’t a lack of solutions; it’s a lack of focus on the right ones. That’s why we’ve developed a blueprint that identifies the five highest-impact levers companies can pull to genuinely shift the dial on climate and set themselves up for long term success as responsible businesses, and the roles employees can play to make those shifts happen.
These five goals sit in two critical buckets:
🔌 Energy – how a company operates
📣 Influence – what it enables, funds, or normalises
We teach this framework to employees across industries to help you:
- Identify where you personally can have the biggest, fastest and most feasible impact
- Analyse how well your company is really performing, beyond the glossy reports
- Shift the system from the inside
In each bucket, there are critical shifts to make. This is where real climate leadership lives, and is what we will be breaking down in this article.
🔌 ENERGY: operational power
This bucket includes all the emissions a company produces through the creation, delivery, and use of its products and services. In our blueprint, we zoom in on two foundational focus areas: renewable energy and science-aligned emissions targets.
1. Renewable energy: the no-brainer starting point
Every company uses electricity. And in most countries, it’s still largely powered by coal and gas.
That’s why switching to 100% renewable energy is the first, easiest and often most publicly visible step. It doesn’t disrupt operations, it can reduce costs, and it improves your company's climate credibility instantly. Whether you switch energy providers, invest in on-site solar, or negotiate a power purchase agreement - it’s one of the fastest ways to drive emissions down.
It’s important to keep some high-impact renewable energy procurement principles in mind when considering this goal, such as:
- Prioritise on-site generation: installing your own solar or wind systems has the highest direct impact.
- Use high-integrity procurement methods: favour Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) or bundled green energy over low-impact Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) or Guarantee of Origins (GOs).
- Support the grid you actually use: choose renewable sources connected to your local energy grid to drive real-world decarbonisation. It’s not enough to buy ‘renewable energy’ in theory - you need to help clean up the grid your company actually draws power from.
- Back it up with policy advocacy: influence goes further when companies also push for renewables-friendly legislation and regulation.
Moving to 100% renewable energy is often the first signal that a company is taking climate seriously. But it’s just the start.
2. Science-aligned emissions targets: getting serious about scopes 1–3
Most companies have some kind of emissions target. But very few include the full picture; especially Scope 3, which usually accounts for the majority of a company’s footprint.
Scope 3 includes everything from purchased goods and travel to product use and supply chain emissions. It’s often considered “too hard” or “not under our control". But climate science is clear: if companies don’t tackle Scope 3, they’re not tackling their real impact.
That’s why one of the most powerful things you can do is advocate for your company to set a science-aligned, independently verified target through initiatives like the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), that covers Scopes 1, 2, and 3.
Additionally , a credible target should:
- Include interim targets (not just net zero by 2050),
- Be based on absolute reductions (not just intensity metrics), and
- Minimise reliance on offsets, especially for near-term goals.
Having a science-aligned, credible target sends a clear internal and external signal: we’re serious, we’re accountable, and we’re playing our part in the transition.
📣 INFLUENCE: strategic power
The second half of the WorkforClimate blueprint focuses on how companies use their power beyond operations. It’s where things get more complex… And more impactful.
If the energy pillar is about minimising a company’s footprint, the influence pillar is about maximising its reach. These goals (Scope X, money, and lobbying/advocacy) go beyond internal operations and into the company’s role in shaping the systems around it: financial flows, political influence, public discourse, and cultural norms.
That’s why we see the influence pillar as equally (if not more) important than the energy pillar. Because it’s here that companies can become catalysts for broader transformation.
Of course, any of the five goals can be transformational, if a company applies a wider lens to its actions. A PPA can shift markets and emissions targets can drive supplier change. The key is to move beyond narrow decarbonisation goals and ask bigger questions:
“What future are we enabling?”
“What systems are we reinforcing - or disrupting?”
This is where inside-out climate leadership truly comes to life.
3. Scope X: the emissions your company enables
Scope X is the emissions your company causes indirectly through the services it provides or the clients it enables. These don’t show up on a carbon ledger, but they shape real-world outcomes.
For example, Microsoft’s AI tools are being used by oil and gas companies to accelerate fossil fuel exploration and extraction, even though Microsoft itself has a net zero commitment.
Sometimes called serviced emissions and enabled emissions, these are often immense. They’re not measured in emissions accounting frameworks (yet), but they can have a catalytic role on the future that we want.
Scope X is particularly relevant for industries like advertising, law, media, and consulting. If your company helps high-emitting industries operate more profitably or grow faster, then you’re part of the problem. But that also means you can be part of the solution.
We teach employees how to ask better questions: Who are we enabling? What’s our role in the system? And how can we align services with a climate-safe future?
4. Money: rerouting financial influence
Every company has money, and that money can support fossil fuels or fund the transition. Most still do the former.
That includes where the company banks, where procurement dollars go, and where default employee retirement or pension funds are invested.
Redirecting company capital (whether through divesting from fossil fuels, choosing fossil-free superannuation or pension funds, or switching to ethical finance providers) can drive significant climate impact, especially when employees act together. Changing even a single default super fund can influence billions in managed assets over time.
Employees don’t need to be finance experts. You just need to know the right questions to ask - and the right leverage points to target.
5. Lobbying & advocacy: using the corporate voice for good
Every company has a voice, and how they use it (or don’t use it) matters. This goal is about using your company’s voice and influence to advocate for positive solutions, instead of lobbying to maintain the status quo or delay climate action - which many corporations currently do.
They fund lobby groups that block regulation, support PR firms that greenwash their inaction, and maintain quiet links to political influence networks. That’s a problem… But it’s also an opportunity.
As an employee, you can help your company stop undermining progress and start advocating for it. Push for consistency between public commitments and private actions. Review lobbying memberships, and make the case for using the company’s brand and platform to back real solutions, not status quo delay tactics.
How can you use these goals?
These five goals form a strategic map for employee-led climate leadership. They help you focus on what’s most effective as well as what’s most feasible - so you can decide which one to choose based on where your company is at, and its biggest opportunity for impact.
Each one moves you beyond surface-level action and into the guts of how your company really works: where decisions are made, capital flows, and influence is exercised.
They also cut through the greenwash. Because while many companies claim to be doing something on climate, unless that “something” covers these five areas, it’s probably not enough.
And remember: you don’t need to be the head of sustainability, or work on the climate team. At WorkforClimate, we help you identify your role and build your strategy from anywhere in the organisation; whether you're in marketing, finance, procurement, or somewhere else entirely.
Ready to find your place in the inside-out movement for climate action? Why not check out our new Climate Leadership playbook, sign up for our Academy or join one of our free online workshops to gain the skills, confidence, and community to turn your climate ambition into impact that lasts.
