planetgroups

Getting Started

Most frequent questions and answers

Getting Started

The origin of our NGO is in Germany and the UK, so that is where we have the majority of planetgroups right now. However, since we work mainly through zoom and e-mail, we can support a planetgroup in any given country or region, as long as some of the people involved speak English or German. Step by step we will also start local teams of our NGO in other countries and provide more consultancy in other languages. Please contact us if you like to be involved and perhaps open a local planetgroups subsidiary.

We believe that everybody can be part of the solution, in every job. This includes our belief that there is no such thing as good companies (or good people) and bad companies. And no company is truly sustainable yet.

Of course people and companies are more or less aware or active to protect (or exploit) the planet. But none of us is planet positive yet, we all have to work hard to reduce our planet footprint in the future. And we all have created the current system we live in together, and perpetually reinforce it by using and benefitting from it.

So yes, we work with every company that shows a serious interest to contribute to creating a better world. After all, the more carbon intensive a company is operating today, the more it jeopardizes its future in terms of stranded assets, a harmed brand or lost customers, if they are not changing their trajectory. 

Our process is carefully designed with four main targets:

1) To pick you and your organization up exactly where you are.

2) To create a positive, resourceful experience along the way.

3) To establish long-term, sustainable working structures.

4) To achieve tangible results.

In order to achieve those targets walk you through a kick off calls, workshops, a survey, individual consulting and networking opportunities. We provide you with templates, presentations, ideas, structures, benchmarks and best practice examples suited to your industry. We give you access to our networking platform called the PlaNet. And we provide additional energy and motivation by telling the world about your efforts and helping you to market your achievements.

Most of the time, planetgroups will not actually do the sustainability work themselves – they support those who have the specific topic within in their job description. So for example managing or changing contractors in order to reduce the footprint in the supply chain will stay with the procurement department, or heating of offices and production facilities will stay with facility management. But planetgroups will add value, energy, encouragement, ideas and motivation to those who are in charge.

planetgroups may therefore act as motivators, initiators, facilitators, accelerators,

challengers, networkers, multipliers, supporters, organizers, or in many other roles. But they do not become part of the formal decision making structure for any given subject – they draw their power from their purpose, their energy, their communication skills, and from the business rationale behind them. Members of a planetgroup only take part in executing a specific planet project whenever their own job descriptions are concerned.

An important part of our work is to help you mobilize buy-in and support both by management and co-workers. Therefore the minimum number of employees required to start the process is 1. We then help you to take it from there.

Usually there is quite a lot of interest in contributing to a planetgroup, once the concept is better known and understood in a company. Therefore, since there may be more than a few hundred employees who want to be involved in larger companies, we often work with a differentiated structure consisting of a small and executive planet circle (<10), a larger planetgroup (<30), planet projects (can be as many as possible), a broader planet forum (can be as many as possible), and a planet PR team which takes care of the planet communication.

We offer our support to planetgroups 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.

Our fee is to be paid on a monthly basis, and companies can end their cooperation with us at any end of the month if they are not happy with our work. But this has never happened so far.

planetgroups are in initiative to drive and support corporate planet action. They are not the planet action themselves.

Establishing a planetgroups structure means to have an additional source of energy, know how, enthusiasm, time, publicity and direction “on premise”, which helps an organization to transform to a truly planet positive business model. Just creating this structure changes nothing – a company has to work with it in order to set targets, define projects, measure results, and report on progress.

Having a planetgroups structure therefore is a very important step to prevent a company from a potential temptation to just “greenwash”, since employees in a planetgroup are actively contributing to and observing the projects in place.

Most of our companies are also awarded our “planet active” label, which demands to a) set ambitious sustainability targets, b) involve employees in the process, and c) transparently report targets, action and results annually on our website.

Yes. Company size does not matter, because all companies can make a difference. Even a small architect`s office can have a huge impacts through the kind of buildings they build, or an electrician can focus of LED Lighting or Photovoltaic and Heat Pumps. Everyone can be part of the solution – in every job.

Yes. Public or Semi-Public Institutions and other Non-For-Profits have a huge role to play in the transformation towards a planet positive economy, and we support planetgroups in their organizations (administrations, schools, museums, theatres, universities, clubs, industry associations, etc..) as well. Usually we charge them the same fee to them which we charge to companies – but if necessary, we can make exceptions for other Non-For-Profits.

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