Count Us In Communities

Frequently
Asked Questions

What is Count Us In?

Count Us In is a global movement of people and organizations taking high impact steps to address climate change. It is supported by over 100 organizations from UNEP and Ted to IKEA and WWF. As an NGO, we are independent of any government.

Why does Count Us In call citizens to act on climate change, when the biggest emitters are companies and states?

Governments and businesses must act more boldly. We know less than 200 companies and powerful governments account for a huge part of global emissions. But what citizens do will directly influence business and political leaders.

We buy from those companies and vote for those politicians. We can all do our part to make a direct difference. Taking a step with Count Us In is a powerful way for individuals to make changes that matter - sending a signal to leaders and reducing your own carbon emissions at the same time.

As individuals, we can drive 25-30 percent of the global emission reductions needed to avoid the worst of climate change. Taking steps together lets politicians and organizations know that voters and consumers are serious, creating a cycle of positive change.

Who can take part?

Everyone can take part! Count Us In is building the largest and most ambitious citizen-led effort to avert the impacts of climate change.

Individuals: Simply sign up on count-us-in.com, choose the step(s) that’s right for you and keep it up! You can track your progress and raise your ambition through your Count Us In profile, and see the collective impact of your actions through the Count Us In aggregator.

Organizations: Your organization or company can help Count Us In become the largest citizen climate action mobilization, by joining as a partner, and promoting Count Us In among your supporters, followers, members, staff and customers. We can also help create your own whitelabelled or customized platform, linked to our aggregator. Book a callto find out more about Count Us In Communities.

We welcome sister initiatives and organizations with climate action platforms to join our community, and link up to our aggregator – to add up to something even bigger. Please contact us at contact@count-us-in.org for more information on partnerships, our platform and partner platforms.

How were the steps on Count Us In Communities chosen?

Working with experts from the UN Environment Programme and other partners, Count Us In developed an initial 16 steps that we believe are the most meaningful actions people can take on climate change, based on 3 criteria:

IMPACT: Actions that drive a major reduction in carbon emissions

INFLUENCE: Actions that make politicians and businesses pay attention

INVOLVEMENT: A set of actions that offer everyone the ability to get involved

As we develop our Count Us In Communities platform, we may make other steps available to help increase engagement and climate action within certain communities.

How are the carbon savings calculated for each action on Count Us In Communities?

The Count Us In Communities platform uses a range of data sources to calculate the carbon impact of each step. Aside from the step-specific sources and assumptions which are documented in the references section of each step page, there are a few other consistent assumptions:

  • All our calculations are made using carbon dioxide equivalent as a metric.
  • When taking a step, users commit to achieving a step within two months. For habitual actions (such as cycling to work), the potential carbon savings are given for the two month period; one-off actions (such as installing solar panels) are given for a year.
  • Users are asked to confirm how they did after two months, and whether they plan to continue. At this point, we update potential carbon savings to show confirmed annual carbon savings.
  • While we plan to progressively internationalize, the data on the Count Us In Communities platform is currently based on UK emissions factors and national averages, specifically:
    • Emission factor of 0.31598 kgCO2 per kWh of grid electricity (Defra conversion factors 2019) is used.
    • A fuel price conversion factor of 0.1839 £/kWh of electricity (BEIS 2019) was used.
    • The average household has 2.4 occupants.
  • ‘Voice’ actions have influence yet have no direct carbon saving. We give them a negligible saving of 1 kg CO2e to allow the commitments to be saved in our database (it only accepts values greater than 0kg CO2e).

What is the Count Us In aggregator?

The Count Us In aggregator is a cornerstone of Count Us In. It adds up every step taken, showing the difference we can all make by acting together. The aggregator reports on three key data points: (1) the carbon impact of the steps taken; (2) the number of individuals taking steps; (3) and the number of steps taken.

The Count Us In aggregator creates, for the first time, an ecosystem of partner climate action platforms. It combines data to show the collective impact of citizen climate action worldwide. This adds weight to our effort to drive policy makers, businesses and other actors to take bold action on systems change.

Data on the impact of citizens’ climate action in the aggregator began in January 2020, with data sourced from additional partners as they’ve joined this effort. Count Us In will continue to develop and gather more impact data through the Aggregator, and make insights accessible as a public good.

What makes Count Us In unique in the climate campaign ecosystem?

Count Us In builds on and complements the successful work the climate movement has done in driving global action in recent years.

We want to encourage people to take practical steps that when added up won’t just make a significant impact in reducing carbon pollution, but challenge leaders to act boldly to deliver global systems change.

This movement is based on the assumption that we need to engage and inspire the non-activist middle if we are to accelerate change. This “middle” group of 1 billion people not only has a significant carbon footprint, but is greatly influential with political and business leaders.

Based on in-depth research and insight, we know we need to meet people where they are at in their own lives, if we are to inspire them to act. This means reaching people with messages that resonate with their lives and concerns – and through organizations and individuals they trust and listen to, change-making communities they are part of, and messages that connect with and inspire them.

By acting, 1 billion people will create market demand, incentivising and rewarding business change. At the same time, they will create political pressure and a space for leaders to act more boldly on systems change. This virtuous cycle of change could be a powerful catalyst and a complement to existing campaigns.

Who leads Count Us In?

Count Us In has been initiated by a diverse group of organizations committed to incubating a global community that goes beyond a single name, brand or organizational objective.

Initially convened by Countdown (powered by TED and Future Stewards), Count Us In has been developed with partners, including: COP 26 High Level Champion Team, TED, UN Live, The Do, Brunswick, Do Nation, Accenture, Global Optimism, Leaders’ Quest, Something More Near, SYSTEMIQ, UN Environment Programme, Wonderlab and more. The Count Us In community has grown to include over 100 organizations ranging from the EU and WWF to IKEA and Tottenham FC to Extreme E and EKTARA. We are supported by some amazing Stubborn Optimists led by Christiana Figueres, including Hindou Ibrahim, Sir Tim Smit and Dia Mirza amongst others. You can see more about our communityhere.

Future Stewards Foundation UK (UK registered charity 1195686) has legal and fiduciary responsibility for Count Us In, including budgets, managing income and expenditure, reporting to donors, and overseeing contracts with suppliers.

How are the carbon savings calculated for each country?

Currently, the Count Us In Communities platform does not gather country-specific data on carbon savings, but we aim to build this capacity in the future.

How do you know people are taking the steps they commit to?

Upon committing to a step, Count Us In Communities shares the potential impact of individual steps and provides the individual with tips on how to adopt these lifestyle shifts.

When someone takes a step on the Count Us In Communities platform they commit to try the step for two months. Thistime-limited period is short enough to not be too intimidating, but long enough to form habits that last. After two months we ask all users to tell us how they got on through their step Count Us In Communities profile. If they don’t report back, Count Us In assumes that they didn’t complete the steps they pledged to.

How is Count Us In Communities user data used?

Count Us In has commissioned Do Nation to develop and manage the Count Us In Communities platform. When you sign up to take a step you are sharing your data with Do Nation and Future Stewards Foundation on behalf of Count Us In. As joint data controllers, they will manage your data according to their privacy policies and terms and conditions.

We'll use this information about you to, among other things, contact you to answer any questions you may have, measure the impact of your pledged steps, and to send you handy reminders, tips, and confirmation emails about your pledges.

If you decide you no longer want to receive any of this information, you can just let us know by emailing support@count-us-in.org with the subject line “Delete my account”. Unless you state otherwise, we'll leave your pledges on the site but anonymize them by removing all your personal data.

When you record your step, you may be given the option to share your data with the owner(s) of the Count Us In Communities page where you recorded your step, so that they can contact you in relation to your step and their related climate change programmes. Only if you opt in will this be shared with them.

We’ll input aggregated data from the Count Us In Communities platform and other partner platforms into our aggregator, developed by Count Us In partner Accenture and with support from our platform partners. This won’t include any of your personal data.

We will never share your contact details with other third parties without your explicit permission.

If you sign up to our mailing list, we'll send you occasional updates on the work we're doing or about things which we think may interest you. You can unsubscribe or manage preferences at any time through the emails we send you.

You'll find links to other websites on this site, those sites will have their own terms and conditions and/or privacy policies which you should read if you visit their sites.

We use cookies to collect information about your usage of this website, helping us to improve the usability of the site.

We will store your data on our secure servers but, due to the nature of the internet, cannot guarantee that information passed around on the internet is 100% secure.

How do I take a step?

  1. Click the aqua button that says 'Take a step' on our homepage.
  2. Choose a step to take from the list of 16 steps.
  3. Click 'Take this step' and answer the few questions that follow.
  4. Finally click 'Count me in' and you've done it!

How do I tell you how I did with my step?

You have 2 months to complete your step. It's important that at the end of that time you tell us how you did so we can count your impact in, and so that you know how much carbon you saved, or how big an influence you had.

There are two ways to tell us how you did:

  1. You will receive an email asking you to tell us how you did - follow the instructions in this email.
  2. Login to your profile, click 'confirmable', then click 'tell us how you did' underneath 'Awaiting confirmation' which is in the Step status section. Answer the few sliding scale questions. Click 'Tell us how you did' and you'll be counted in!

How do I choose the team I would like to take the step towards?

  1. Follow the instructions to take a step but before you click ‘Count me in’ you need to click ‘Find your team here’ which you will see underneath this question: Are you taking this step as part of a team?’.
  2. Type in the name of the team and select it
  3. Click ‘Count me in’ and your step will be counted towards that team

Get in touch:

For partnerships and general enquiries on Count Us in Communities: book a demo.

For technical assistance on Count Us In Communities: support@count-us-in.org.

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