Turning Everyday Actions Into Real Impact: Our Cool Choices Experience
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
By: Sustainable Business Council
This spring, SBC staff and our members participated in Cool Choices, a team-based sustainability game designed to make it easy, and fun, for employees to turn good intentions into meaningful action. Over just a few weeks, what started as small, daily decisions quickly added up to measurable environmental, financial, and cultural impact.
WHAT IS COOL CHOICES?
Cool Choices is a customizable, online sustainability game that runs over a focused 4–6 week period. Employees choose simple daily actions, both at work and at home, that help reduce environmental impact, save money, and build long-term habits.
The program is designed to fit into even the busiest schedules:
Just a few minutes per day
Fully online and mobile-friendly
Team-based to encourage connection and accountability
By turning sustainability into a friendly competition, Cool Choices makes participation approachable while reinforcing shared goals across the organization.
WHY WE PLAYED
Like many organizations, we are committed to advancing sustainability and strengthening employee engagement. Cool Choices offered a practical way to:
Turn sustainability goals into everyday behaviors
Increase participation in ESG and environmental initiatives
Reinforce company priorities through customized action choices
Build a stronger sense of teamwork and shared ownership
Most importantly, it gave employees a way to contribute in small, manageable ways—without adding complexity to their day.
HOW IT WORKED
The game format was simple:
Choose Actions Daily: Employees selected from a list of sustainability actions aligned with our organizational goals.
Earn Points for Real-World Impact: Actions like saving energy, reducing waste, or choosing alternative transportation translated into points and measurable results.
Track Outcomes and Insights: At the end of the game, we received a detailed report showing environmental savings, cost reductions, and engagement levels.
OUR RESULTS
The impact of these small daily choices was significant. Environmental & Resource Savings from the game were:
Because these estimates are annualized, the benefits continue to grow if participants maintain these habits over time.
Engagement & Participation
75 participants
89% participation rate among registrants
Even more exciting, employees contributed 130+ new ideas for future sustainability improvements, highlighting the creativity and passion within our team:
Use the rechargeable AA & AAA batteries in the printer room instead of disposable batteries.
Use a jelly jar to hold fresh spring flowers cut from your yard
Use laminated versions of daily checklists that can be reused with dry erase markers instead of printing new copies each day.
Set up hairnet recycling stations at production floor exits to avoid the plastic nylon from going to landfill.
Use a paper cutter to make scrap/note paper out of one sided (non-sensitive info.) used paper that you would otherwise recycle.
Re-use discarded printed paper into scratch pad. Use a hole punch and place them in a binder for use at your desk.
Separating office paper to turn into a more valuable waste stream.
Cardboard boxes for sustainable crafts
Compost coffee grounds
Re-useable sandwich bags to last longer.
MORE THAN A GAME
While the numbers are impressive, the biggest impact may be cultural. Cool Choices helped:
Build awareness around sustainability in everyday decisions
Create conversations across teams
Empower employees to take ownership of our organizational goals
Show that small actions, taken together, can lead to meaningful change
WHAT WE LEARNED
A few key takeaways from our experience:
Simplicity drives participation — Quick, easy actions remove barriers
Visibility builds momentum — Seeing progress motivates continued engagement
People want to contribute — When given the tools, employees bring both ideas and enthusiasm
LOOKING AHEAD
Cool Choices demonstrated that sustainability doesn’t require sweeping changes to make an impact. Instead, consistent small actions, multiplied across a team, can deliver measurable results.
As we look to the future, we’re excited to build on this momentum, continue engaging employees, and explore new ways to implement the ideas generated during the game.
Interested in bringing Cool Choices to your organization? It’s a proven, practical way to turn engagement into real-world impact, quickly and effectively.
