Gas Networks Ireland

The Challenge

• To create an educational and empowering campaign to inspire Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) employees to learn more about sustainability generally, and about their role in delivering its Vision 2050 strategy specifically.
• Create understandable, authentic messaging for external audiences that showcases GNI’s ambition to be net zero by 2050 and how they will achieve this.

Our Approach

• Kick-start meeting with the Sustainability Manager and Corporate Responsibility Manager to establish goals.
• Webinar design based on employee needs and surveyed feedback to maximise learning impact.
• Baseline survey to understand our audience (perceptions, gaps in knowledge, areas of interest) so to better inform campaign design and establish metrics by which to measure progress.

How we helped

1. Advisory

   We worked closely with the Sustainability Team, CSR lead and Employee Engagement Team to ensure we understood the needs of the internal audience at GNI and co-created sustainability messaging and engagement that would resonate.

2. Employee Education

   We designed and delivered two interactive Sustainability 101 webinars, the purpose of which was to inform employees of GNI’s sustainability ambitions and to build awareness and capacity on sustainability to enable employees to act at home and at work. We also co-designed a six-month sustainability campaign with themes and activities that reflected the interests and values of GNI’s employees.

3. Employee survey

   We designed and conducted a survey for Gas Networks Ireland employees to gauge sustainability attitudes, know-how and information and motivation gaps. Establishing these baseline metrics provides insights to inform the design of employee campaigns and internal messages, ensuring that they resonate. The baseline also enables the tracking of progress over time.

4. External Sustainability Communications

   Gas Networks Ireland required assistance to craft authentic sustainability messages for external stakeholders to cement its social licence to operate and ensure proper engagement.

The Impact

• Gas Networks Ireland’s VISION 2050 and the choice of UN Sustainable Development Goals with which it aligns are now better understood and articulated by employees and throughout its entire business operations.
• Employees are more informed and empowered to make small manageable changes at home and at work to live more sustainably and understand their role in helping achieve the VISION 2050 goals.

Tara and Madeleine of Change by Degrees led an engaging workshop that supported and enhanced our thinking about our role in decarbonising the Irish economy. Their approach to storytelling has helped us to message complex and technical information in a simple and compelling way.

Ian O’Flynn, Head of Commercial & Corporate Affairs, Gas Networks Ireland