Case study: Stickerbook (by Obliquity Group)

Stickerbook is a social venture that enables organisations to build a community of knowledgeable and active champions for their  sustainability strategy through gamified, upskilling software. 

Stickerbook, the propriety platform of spinout social venture Obliquity Group, is bringing sustainability to life for thousands of users. An organisation’s key aims, mission, and strategy are distilled into short snackable videos and simple questions and answers, which enable the user to collect a sticker to prove their awareness or action.  

Stepping up sustainability upskilling 

The Stickerbook platform delivers immersive learning, supported by a recognition and rewards system, to allow organisations to increase their sustainability upskilling (while sustainability teams do their day jobs). A core focus of Stickerbook is to empower employees to feel more connected and valued, to take more sustainable actions at work and enjoy more informed conversations with clients and customers. 

Stickerbook also allows organisations to easily monitor who is doing what, which issues resonate, and where they should focus their efforts. It provides a way to recognise and measure employees’ efforts and commitment to a key strategic business area, to make what was previously intangible, tangible. 

Achieving more together

Created by the insight and research of Simon Kelly and John Isherwood, who met at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership, Obliquity Group graduated from the Cambridge Social Ventures Incubator at the Judge Business School in 2019, and this was just the start of what Simon and John have achieved with this venture and platform so far.  

Recent milestones include joining the CleanTech cohort at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) in November 2023, where their team has become a part of the 52-strong entrepreneurial community at The Canopy. 

Stickerbook continues to speed up their development, thanks in part to a recent pre-seed funding round in which Cambridge Enterprise was amongst their supporters. They have made their first hires to fill content and sales roles, and the next platform update will include a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) verified Sustainability Champions pack, enabling users to publicly share their sustainability credentials and development progress.

While a sticker book might sound pretty cheesy, let me tell you it is brilliant! I have spent a couple of hours enjoying listening to short, sharp videos that have educated me in ESG.

Managing Director, CBRE

Connecting the dots on what’s important

Real estate services firm CBRE used Stickerbook as the bedrock for its edie award-winning programme for Engagement and Behaviour Change in 2021, which enabled a 14-fold increase in sustainability upskilling (at a fraction of the cost and time), a 24-times increase in sustainable actions at work, and a 400% increase in sustainability conversations with clients. 

This partnership continues today, and many more have added to Stickerbook’s organic growth, now at over 6,000 global users and 150,000+ stickers collected so far. Most recently, they have joined forces with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) enabling users to become affiliate members of the Institute on completion of their IMEA stickers.  

The team’s progress continues to be recognised from within Cambridge and beyond. Stickerbook have been longlisted for this year’s Cofinitive’s #21toWatch, a recognition that has celebrated some of the very successful University of Cambridge spinouts previously. Within the sustainability sector, and alongside CBRE and IEMA, they have also been shortlisted for two 2024 edie awards – Engagement & Behaviour Change Initiative of the Year (for the fourth year in a row) and Partnership and Collaboration of the Year: Education and Empowerment.