Driving Sustainability with eLearning

Launching an effective sustainability training programme begins with a clear vision, compelling content and interactive delivery.

In this post, we take a look at how elearning can be a powerful part of your toolkit for both internal training and public-facing sustainability campaigns. We include some relevant examples from our work with the likes of The National Trust, Amazon, Biobest and the Crown Commercial Service.

A Strategic Approach to Sustainability Training via eLearning

Embedding sustainability across an organisation begins with a clear vision and a learning approach that resonates with the day-to-day realities of staff, volunteers, and stakeholders. eLearning offers an ideal format for delivering sustainability training that is scalable, accessible, and engaging.

A well-structured programme typically includes:

• Modular, micro‑learning design - Craft short, focused e‑learning modules to explore key themes such as carbon footprint, biodiversity, or net‑zero goals. This promotes engagement, retention, and scalability.
  
  

• Multilingual, adaptable content formats - Use tools like Articulate Rise to build responsive modules that can be easily localised and accessed across devices.
  
  

• Gamified interactive elements - Incorporate flip cards, drag‑and‑drop exercises, animations and quizzes to bring sustainability stories and principles to life.
  
  

• Narrative‑driven learning - Anchor content in real-world examples and case studies to illustrate impact and motivate learners to embed sustainable behaviours.

A strong example of this approach in action is our micro-learning project with Biobest. The work involved converting over 120 PowerPoint presentations into interactive, bite-sized training modules to educate teams globally about sustainable crop protection, pest management, and pollination. 

Created using Articulate Rise, these modules were designed with localisation in mind, ensuring they could be translated and rolled out in multiple countries quickly. This made it possible for Biobest to provide consistent sustainability training to their global workforce, while tailoring the learning to suit specific regional contexts.

Addressing Sustainability Challenges in Large Organisations

Heads of sustainability in large organisations often face a range of challenges when trying to implement or scale up environmental initiatives. One of the most common issues is the difficulty in translating high-level sustainability goals into meaningful actions for employees across various departments and job roles.

While executive teams may set ambitious targets - such as achieving net-zero emissions or adopting circular economy principles - these goals can struggle to gain traction without a clear, organisation-wide understanding of what they mean in practice.

eLearning helps to bridge this gap by making sustainability accessible and relevant to every employee. Courses can be tailored to different roles, showing how sustainability applies to frontline operations, procurement, logistics, and leadership.

Good bespoke elearning also provides a consistent experience, allowing organisations to communicate key messages at scale, while offering learners the flexibility to complete training at their own pace.

In the case of carbon net-zero training for Crown Commercial Service (CCS), we developed a digital learning solution designed to support internal awareness, understanding, and confidence across its large and diverse workforce.

While the focus was not exclusively on sustainability, the programme’s flexible structure allowed CCS to embed key public value messages, such as responsible procurement and environmental impact, within a broader learning experience. This helped staff at all levels connect their daily actions with wider government goals and provided a framework for consistent, values-led decision making.

Supporting Public Sustainability Campaigns Through Digital Learning

Public engagement is vital for achieving sustainability goals, especially for organisations involved in conservation, heritage, or public service. Campaigns aimed at promoting environmental responsibility or encouraging behavioural change among volunteers, visitors, or the general public can be significantly enhanced through the use of elearning.

High-quality digital learning modules can serve as a powerful extension to a campaign, helping to deepen understanding and provide practical tools for action. This content also ensures that campaign messages are delivered consistently and clearly, no matter the audience size or location.

Interactive digital learning formats, such as animations, knowledge checks and branching scenarios, can bring sustainability issues to life and motivate learners to take ownership of their role in driving change.

This approach is illustrated in our digital learning for The National Trust, which is committed to becoming net-zero by 2030. This client needed to equip its large volunteer and staff community with a shared understanding of its vision and sustainability values. 

At First Media, we created five “Spotlight” modules using Elucidat, covering key topics such as climate goals, organisational values, and environmental stewardship. These modules were rolled out quickly and effectively, providing a clear, engaging way for the National Trust to support its public-facing sustainability agenda through consistent, high-quality learning.

Embedding Sustainability Within Broader eLearning Programmes

Sustainability training should not sit in isolation from other organisational learning and development initiatives. Instead, it should be woven into broader elearning programmes to ensure that environmental responsibility becomes part of the organisational culture.

By integrating sustainability into areas such as onboarding, leadership development, compliance, and operational training, organisations can normalise sustainable thinking across their workforce.

For example, new starters should be introduced to an organisation’s sustainability goals as part of their induction. Likewise, leaders should receive training on how to embed environmental considerations into strategic decision-making, and employees in departments such as logistics or facilities management can benefit from role-specific sustainability content.

A strong example of this integrated approach can be seen in our video-based training with Amazon, created to support small businesses in the UK and across Europe.

The suite of engaging and interactive online training modules had a primary focus of soft skills and leadership, but the design approach and learning structure allowed Amazon to integrate further key themes, including sustainability, into the learning journey. 

This helped reinforce Amazon’s wider ESG commitments and ensured that sustainability was not treated as a bolt-on, but as part of the organisation’s learning culture.

In Summary

eLearning offers a highly effective route to driving sustainability across complex organisations and public-facing campaigns. When underpinned by strong design, storytelling, and accessibility, it enables organisations to deliver meaningful, scalable and engaging sustainability training.

First Media’s experience across many sectors - ranging from conservation and agriculture to retail, government and more - demonstrates how tailored digital learning can help embed sustainability into the fabric of an organisation.

Whether rolling out micro-learning modules for Biobest, aligning volunteers around climate goals for the National Trust, supporting the net-zero government agenda at CCS, or embedding sustainability themes into leadership training for Amazon, First Media is helping clients meet the challenges of sustainability through innovative and impactful digital learning solutions.

Could we help you with elearning to support your sustainability programme?

Contact us at First Media.