The climate and biodiversity crises can feel distant or overwhelming when framed in abstract terms. Yet much of the change needed already exists in everyday decisions: how we travel, what we print, how we use energy, and the habits we build together at work.
The Funds Industry Climate Challenge 2026 is grounded in that reality. It is a behaviour change programme that helps people turn climate ambition into practical, shared action in the workplace.
GAP’s award-winning climate challenges help build positive norms that make sustainable choices easier, more visible and more connected.
What we saw in the 2026 Funds Industry Climate Challenge
Over two weeks (11–25 May), the Challenge brought together 2,087 participants in 133 teams, who collectively logged 265,554 climate-friendly actions, resulting in 289,759 kg CO₂e saved (289.8 tonnes).
That works out at around 195 kg CO₂e saved per participant; not as an abstract figure, but as the result of thousands of small, everyday decisions made collectively across workplaces.
These actions included familiar, practical choices: switching off lights and equipment, printing less, reducing waste, reusing containers, taking shorter showers, and cutting down on food waste.
On their own, each action is small. Together, they begin to shift what is normal in the workplace. And that shift in norms is where lasting behaviour change takes root.
How behaviour change shows up in practice
A key insight from this year’s Challenge is that people are already willing to act, but that context matters. When sustainable behaviour becomes visible, shared and part of everyday team culture, it becomes easier to continue to do the right thing.
The Challenge works by strengthening this sense of collective agency. It helps people see that they are not acting alone, and that climate action is not a separate task, but something embedded in how we already work and live. This is how the “Spiral of Inaction” is disrupted; not through pressure, but through participation.
What changed in 2026
Each year of the Funds Industry Climate Challenge builds a clearer picture of what collective behaviour change can achieve.
- 2023: 2,300+ participants – 173 tonnes CO₂e saved – 75 kg per participant;
- 2024: 2,900+ participants – 280 tonnes CO₂e saved – 96 kg per participant;
- 2025: 3,800+ participants across 22 companies – 321 tonnes CO₂e saved – 84 kg per participant;
- 2026: 2,087 participants across 133 teams – 289.8 tonnes CO₂e saved – 195 kg per participant.
While participation numbers varied year to year, 2026 delivered the highest recorded per-participant emissions savings to date. It also reflected a more distributed model of engagement, with participation organised strongly at team level across organisations.
This evolution matters. It shows how climate action can be embedded more deeply into workplace structures; not as a one-off campaign, but as a repeated, shared practice.
The wider significance
The Funds Industry Climate Challenge is not only about carbon reduction. It is about how change happens in real communities and workplaces.
From a behaviour change perspective, we see three consistent shifts:
- From individual responsibility to shared practice;
- From awareness to routine action;
- From isolated effort to visible social norms.
These shifts matter because they link environmental action with social wellbeing. People are more likely to sustain behaviour change when they feel connected, supported and part of something collective.
In that sense, climate action becomes something more relational: a way of strengthening collaboration, workplace culture, and shared purpose.
It also connects to wider systems change. When organisations across a sector normalise low-carbon behaviours, they help shape expectations around how business is done, influencing everything from procurement choices to operational standards.
What we learned from the 2026 Funds Industry Climate Challenge
The most commonly logged actions were simple, practical steps:
- Turning off lights and devices;
- Avoiding unnecessary printing;
- Reducing waste and recycling more consistently;
- Choosing reusables over disposables;
- Reducing food waste;
- Taking shorter showers.
These are simple, accessible actions. Importantly, they are also transferable; they apply both at home and in work life. And that means that they make sustainable choices feel more natural, and relevant in all situations. In other words, the Funds Industry Climate Challenge helps turn “good intentions” into shared habits.
Looking ahead
The 2026 Funds Industry Climate Challenge shows what becomes possible when climate action is designed for people, not as an abstract goal but as a lived, collective practice.
As a behaviour change organisation, GAP Ireland works with partners across sectors to support exactly this kind of shift: from awareness to action, from individual effort to shared norms, and from short-term engagement to lasting cultural change.
The opportunity now is to build on this momentum, scaling approaches that make sustainable behaviour visible, normal and achievable in everyday settings.