planetgroups is an initiative started in summer 2020 by a group of climate activists and HR professionals in Germany and the UK. We have founded a UG (“Unternehmergesellschaft”), a Limited Company by German law, in so called “Steward Ownership”, or “Purpose Company”. All of our revenues are used to finance our operations and – if there is profit – reinvested into creating more planetgroups and having more global impact for our planet and the climate. We pursue no political or particular business interest, other than to make all business sustainable.

If management could drive the transformation to a fully sustainable world on their own, they would have already done it. The reason they haven´t is usually not that they do not care about their company or about their planet. They – like any of us – are trapped in a system of established habits, patterns and mutual expectations. In order to change that system, managers need everyone`s support, and sometimes also a little reminder how important that is.

Changing the way we produce, consume and work is everyone’s business, and everyone can contribute to this transformation. Employees are essential to driving change in any organization – they can crowdsource ideas, network across the organization, generate momentum and energy for the shifts needed, facilitate and monitor change, and oftentimes take decisions at their own workplace. Employees want to see the transformation happening, and they have all the resources to help driving it. To succeed on shifting onto a sustainable path, the world needs all of us, including you.

Planetgroups, when referring to the actual groups of employees operating in a company, are funded by their organizations. Some of the work of employees is done in their free time as volunteers, some of it during their working hours, depending on the agreement each employee has with his or her superior.

Our NGO is funded by the organizations whose planetgrups we support, with costs on a subscription basis ranging from 13,000 EUR per year ( 1,000 employees). This flatrate grants 13 consulting days per year which can be used for workshops, individual consulting, surveys, or trainings, plus marketing support, PlaNet access, and MeetUps with other planetgroups. We charge this fee as soon as we have the management team of a company on board. Until then our support is free of charge for employees who want to kick off a planetgroup in their organization.

Our NGO is operating as a Non-For-Profit consultancy which is completely self-sustainable in its operations and does not depend on donations or public support.

Yes. planetgroups is an initiative started in summer 2020 by a group of climate activists and HR professionals in Germany and the UK. We have founded a UG (“Unternehmergesellschaft”), a Limited Company by German law, in so called “Steward Ownership”, or “Purpose Company”. All of our revenues are used to finance our operations and – if there is profit – reinvested into creating more planetgroups and having more global impact for our planet and the climate. We are not allowed to sell or pass on the company other than to future “steward owners” who also work in the NGO and who also can never sell or make a profit out of it. We pursue no political or particular business interest, other than to make all business sustainable.

All of us have left our former jobs to build this NGO, since we believe it is needed in order to create a positive, action oriented and community building platform for the transformation of our economies and societies which we need to see.

Creating a planet positive business world is something we have to, and we can do ourselves. Building and supporting planetgroups across the globe, we want to make sure that a permanent flow of drive, energy, direction and dedication is maintained towards this goal. We want to realign business towards contributing to a better future. Each company has everything to win by engaging in this process. We believe that it will create fundamentally better business cases, and that it will be exciting to be part of it.

Yes we do, although our specific work is of course dependent on the context, people, backgrounds, histories, cultures and industries we operate in.

At the core, we all share the same mission:

To empower, facilitate and support employees, whatever their role, to build sustainability into the heart and business model of their organization.

This mission is based on the belief that together we can create a better future, where successful companies thrive on a healthy planet. The solutions to get there are actually not that complicated, once we have committed ourselves to the journey. We see our job as helping employees and companies to generate and maintain sufficient momentum and to navigate that path.

Accordingly, the communication employed by planetgroups strives to be: target and solution oriented, appreciative, transparent, polite, far sighted, balanced and approachable. Should misunderstandings or disagreements appear, which always happens, we aim to resolve them through our focus on the common goals, active listening, creative compromise, team spirit, and resourcefulness.

Oftentimes managers are not concerned (or too concerned) about sustainability efforts because they believe they are harmful to their “bottom line”, their business success. But the opposite is true.

Planet action will result into higher reputation, brand value and employee satisfaction. It will substantially drive customer retention, the speed of innovation, cost reductions, organizational agility and risk management, as you can see in the chart below

So most of the time it is also a question of finding the right arguments and a good timing for getting management buy-in. On top, when employees request their management to take action in a specific direction, they usually have more influence than they think.

We will support you in getting management’s attention and buy-in for the process, providing you with solid evidence-based arguments and frontrunner examples from your industry that will resonate with your management. We will also make sure to highlight that there is always a starting point somewhere. We don`t need to turn the whole company around in a first step; we can start with solutions that can be developed first in interested pilot divisions, subsidiaries or locations, harvesting the “low handing fruits” first.