Corporate climate strategies are often limited to sustainability teams, leaving key business functions underleveraged. A new EDF model engages cross-functional teams to tackle climate challenges—embedding climate action to upskill talent, reduce risk, boost efficiency and foster innovation.
What if your biggest climate solution isn’t a new technology, but your own employees?
Climate goals are now operational imperatives that are central to managing risk, driving efficiency, fostering innovation and creating long-term value. But execution remains a challenge.
To close this gap, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is piloting a new, scalable model that activates internal talent through structured, cross-functional teams. This approach empowers employees to lead real climate action projects that align with core business functions—transforming climate goals into operational reality.
Building on EDF’s corporate partnerships and its renowned Climate Corps program, this model integrates climate into daily operations, making it a fundamental part of how business gets done rather than an add-on.
The Untapped Engine: Employees
Significant emissions reductions are driven not just by sustainability teams, but by daily business decisions in product design, material logistics, supplier selection, and customer engagement. Yet the departments making these decisions are often not aligned with the priorities of the sustainability team, and may not realize the contribution their roles could have on climate. Meanwhile, there is a growing demand for climate engagement from within. Deloitte reports that over 80% of employees are willing to take climate action at work, and nearly half want to lead that change. Still, most feel they lack the permission, structure or pathways to contribute. For some companies, especially in the current environment, publicly leading on climate may not feel feasible. These organizations can still maintain momentum by channeling that energy inward, focusing on internal motivation, empowering employees and embedding climate action into everyday work.
When this energy goes untapped, companies miss more than goodwill—they lose out on innovation potential, leadership development and opportunities to build a culture of shared ownership.
A New Model: Cross-Functional Climate Activation
To unlock this potential, EDF’s Net Zero Action Accelerator team is piloting a new climate action framework that enables employees to lead impactful, business-aligned climate projects through cross-functional cohorts.
These teams bring together representatives from the business functions where climate action needs to happen, such as procurement, R&D, finance, operations and more, to work on practical, high-impact climate challenges. Together, they tackle projects that advance both climate and business priorities, such as improving resource efficiency, designing low-carbon and circular products or building more resilient supply chains.
Unlike traditional green teams, these cohorts focus on execution and systems thinking by bridging ambition and operations to embed climate in core decisions.
No single program can fully address the complexity of corporate climate transformation. But this model offers a pragmatic and scalable way to make progress on implementation.
How it works:
- Strategic scoping:
Company leaders, executives and sustainability champions define priority climate risks and opportunities and translate them into actionable projects.
- Cross-functional participation:
Employees apply to join short-term teams. Program leaders select three to five participants per project to ensure strategic alignment.
- Training and support:
Teams receive foundational climate education, project management tools and mentorship to guide project development.
- Execution and presentation:
Over a period of three to four months (about 80 hours total), teams research, prototype and deliver actionable solutions. Final presentations are made to executive sponsors, with a clear pathway to implementation or piloting.
Each project is designed for real-world feasibility and aligned with business priorities. Participation is framed not as “extra work,” but as a leadership development opportunity. Companies are encouraged to recognize participants’ contributions through career growth opportunities, internal visibility and even performance-based incentives.
What Makes the New Model Work?
Four key ingredients make this model effective:
- Executive sponsorship:
Top-down approach signaling that climate risk is a strategic priority and ensures alignment with enterprise goals.
- HR engagement:
Connects participation with career growth, leadership development, strategic relationship building, bonuses and retention strategies.
- Alignment with business priorities:
Ensures projects are timely, relevant, and positioned for business impact—not just passion projects.
- A lean, structured program design:
Respects bandwidth while delivering meaningful engagement and accountability.
Together, these components create the conditions for sustained progress: stronger collaboration, climate-literate leadership and a culture of shared action.
Hypothetical Example: Reducing Packaging Emissions
Imagine a cross-functional team at a large food company tasked with exploring ways to reduce upstream emissions from product packaging, which can be a major contributor to a company’s Scope 3 emissions.
The Process
Over a 12-week period, the team would follow a structured approach:
- Data collection and baseline analysis:
Analyze emissions data from over 40 suppliers and mapped emissions hotspots.
- Material assessment and innovation:
Evaluate three lower-emission packaging alternatives.
- Scenario modeling:
Develop cost and emissions reduction scenarios, with one option showing a 25-30% emissions reduction and a small cost increase.
- Supplier engagement strategy:
Engage two suppliers to co-develop a phased rollout.
- Roadmap development:
Align packaging changes with product rebranding cycles.
The Potential Outcome
The team would propose a pilot across several regions, aiming to reduce packaging emissions by approximately 1,200 metric tons of CO₂e annually, while generating insights to inform a broader packaging sustainability strategy.
Beyond the potential emissions impact, the initiative could foster stronger internal collaboration, boost employee engagement, generate new insights and R&D opportunities for emissions reduction, and enhance executive visibility.
A Call to Pilot the Model
Companies looking to accelerate climate progress shouldn’t overlook one of their greatest assets: their own employees.
Cross-functional teams offer a unique advantage: they build climate capacity where it's needed most and generate business-aligned solutions that stick. By upskilling employees, companies may also reduce their reliance on external experts and build lasting internal capabilities.
EDF is currently seeking medium and large North American companies with existing climate commitments to co-design and pilot this model. Participating organizations would receive foundational climate training, program management tools, mentorship, and evaluation support at no cost, helping teams move from concept to action. Please reach out to EDF’s Net Zero Action Accelerator team to discuss whether your organization is a fit and to schedule an exploratory call. We also encourage you to review the white paper introducing the Cross-Functional Teams for Climate Action framework.
The goal isn’t just to advance climate work—it’s to build the structures, relationships and leadership that make that progress sustainable.
The talent already exists inside your company. It’s time to put it to work.
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Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
Published Oct 8, 2025 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT / 11pm BST / 12am CEST