The Company Challenge is an internal competition within companies for apprentices to develop specific solutions for climate protection and energy efficiency and, ideally, to implement them.
The measures created can be very diverse. Projects such as the replacement of disposable cups with reusable ones are possible. While such actions may play only a minor role in a company’s life cycle assessment, they are important for establishing sustainability within the corporate culture. One project group realised that a great deal of energy was used for air conditioning at their site in summer, but that better insulation through renovation work could not be realised in the medium term. They thus fitted special protective film to windows that filters energy-rich solar radiation from sunlight. Other projects focus on core business processes, such as avoiding printing receipts by replacing them with digital alternatives.
There is a wide range of solutions, and not all ideas can be realised by the apprentices. However, for the most part there is an opportunity to include such ideas in the company-wide pool or innovation process. What is guaranteed in all cases is the positive impact on apprentices. They broaden their knowledge and experience the challenges of – cross-divisional – project work.
Company Challenge at Swiss Post
End of April, the jury selected the winning projects from the Swiss Post Company Challenge during a video conference. In the past few months, myclimate had carried out the Company Challenge for the first time in French-speaking Switzerland.The past few months saw myclimate carry out the Company Challenge in French-speaking Switzerland for the first time. This was the biggest myclimate Company Challenge to date and involved 140 apprentices from Swiss Post – building and grounds custodians, logistics specialists, business experts, retail specialists and customer dialogue experts – presenting 45 impressively diverse projects. The apprentices developed solutions for climate protection in the fields of mobility, heating and cooling, material consumption and electricity. They tackled subjects such as digitization, resource and energy efficiency, and corporate sustainability. The jury was particularly impressed by the efforts of some teams to bring about the realisation of their project ideas by means of pilot projects and prototypes, through surveys of customers and employees, and by establishing contact with the responsible individuals within the company. Maria di Marco, Head of Vocational Education in Western Switzerland at Swiss Post, would not hesitate to recommend the Company Challenge: “The collaboration with myclimate was excellent. We really valued the professionalism with which myclimate supported the groups and us in project management. A total of 45 groups carrying out projects in the same company was very ambitious, as we were aware.”
Company Challenge at the City of Zurich
In the City of Zurich’s Waste Disposal & Recycling service department (ERZ), recycling and the environment are the key concern. This made it all the more exciting to be able to carry out a Company Challenge with apprentices from ERZ. The Company Challenge was launched in the context of the apprentice camp, and as myclimate has long been concerned with the enabling young peopleinvolved in the enabling of young people and has a broad international network, the apprentices cooked in a sustainable way and enjoyed interaction with a school in Ghana. As is always the case in a Company Challenge, the focus was on project management and teamwork to a large extent, alongside content. “The Company Challenge enables apprentices to plan and implement concrete and effective sustainability projects,” says Michela Cicilano, Head of Vocational Education, ERZ. “In this way, we make our own small contribution and simultaneously strengthen skills such as teamwork and project management.”
Company Challenge at your Company?
Would you like to use the Company Challenge to advance vocational education and sustainability in your company? If so, please get in touch! We would be happy to create an individual offer for you. A Company Challenge can be an internal competition, but it doesn’t have to be. In any case, individual projects qualify for the national competition of the Energy and Climate Laboratory, the programme in which the Company Challenge originated.
Contact: Ottavio Scata
Link: Energie-Klimawerkstatt