Fellowship and competition drive climate action in the workplace

March 19, 2025, marks Denmark’s national overshoot day when the country’s consumption of natural resources exceeds what the ecosystem can regenerate in a year. This day often sparks debates about who is responsible for solving climate challenges — legislation, businesses, or consumers. Instead of delegating responsibility, a handful of Clean colleagues have taken matters into their own hands and are trying to make a difference through “Klimakampen” (the Climate Battle).

Community and competition

At Clean’s office in Aarhus, there is a unique energy in the air. Colleagues have joined Klimakampen, a competition that makes climate actions fun.

“Climate action through community and competition,”

says one participant. Colleagues perform climate actions, track their CO2 savings, and compete against teams of colleagues. For example, you earn 180 points by biking to work.

“It creates fun conversations at our lunch table – especially ‘motivating others to take climate action’ creates a race to be the first to say ‘hey, did you remember to do something today?'”

says another participant.

Alfred, who studies Economics and IT, adds:

“I’ve thought more about things like food waste and seasonal vegetables because I see it in the app every day. I probably still eat the same, but you can’t afford beef on a student budget.”

Gamification Creates Engagement

Although the system may seem simplified, it has created a positive atmosphere in the office.

“Even though I had only been at the office for a month, it was already easy to see which angle would have the best effect – friendly competition!”

says Anne Sofie, who studies Urban Landscape Engineering and initiated participation in Klimakampen.

Points in Klimakampen are calculated based on various climate actions. For example, you can earn 680 points by eating pork instead of beef, while you get 730 points by avoiding meat altogether. This has created fun conversations and a cozy competition among colleagues.

A broader perspective

In a broader perspective, our director Kim emphasized in a statement from 2022 that it requires a massive scaling of technical solutions to enable more sustainable development in the world.

“In Denmark and other highly developed countries, you can cut down on consumption, but there are very large parts of the world where people have nothing, and they also need to be helped to increase their standard of living,”

he said at the time to IWA, one of the world’s largest conferences in the water sector.

Overshoot day is an important indicator of how we as a society manage our natural resources. It is a reminder that we must work together to create a more sustainable future.

“We all have a responsibility to change our behavior and reduce our footprint. It is a global challenge, but we can start by making a difference at home,”

concludes Anne Sofie.

Clean is Denmark’s water and environmental cluster and has over 300 members working with water and environmental technology solutions. These members include many Danish small and medium-sized enterprises working hard to address the complex climate challenges the world faces both today and in the future. Klimakampen is one of them, and their efforts show how community and competition can motivate positive climate actions.

You can read more about our members, meet some of them, or dive into our projects and learn about the many companies working every day to have a positive impact on the world and hopefully contribute to moving Denmark’s overshoot day to later in the year in the future.