You want to make your organization more sustainable. How can you get everyone on board?

In many cases sustainability is key to enabling a company mission and values. A key task of sustainability professionals is showcasing how sustainability can enable, enhance, and deliver a company mission. By doing so, the "why" of sustainability becomes self-evident. Once, the above is established at the corporate and business level, the next step entails outlining how sustainability can facilitate task accomplishment and objective achievement at the functional level. By linking sustainability concepts to specific tasks and objectives, and showcasing how sustainability can constructively contribute to everyday tasks, sustainability adoption across the enterprise becomes an organic process rather than a synthetic one.

Sustainability is not an ideal or a goal that one gets to pick, unfortunately. It is not about how sustainability aligns with your organisation's mission, value, goals, but rather, how far your organisation is (in fact, all organisation are) away from being a net neutral / positive business. This is the reality we are faced today, and the sooner and more clear-eyed one can communicate this, the better.

Engage stakeholders through clear communication and involvement. Educate and train teams on sustainable practices. Recognize and reward sustainable efforts to foster a culture of commitment. Lead by example from top leadership to inspire collective action. Consider additional factors like resources and partnerships for holistic sustainability integration.

Assessing the 'why?' might seem logical, but it risks over-complicating the objective. Over-analysis can hinder action and impact - something that has plagued ESG objectives for decades. Sustainability, by its definition, involves coexisting in harmony with the environment, society, customers, suppliers, legal frameworks, etc. It's fundamental for long-term survival and success. Simply explain to people what the word means.

* Define your purpose beyond profit and what being sustainable means to your organisation. Ask yourself what the positive change is that you can drive for people and planet thanks to your heritage, expertise, skillset, products and services, sector or geography. Listen to your people and seek to identify what's materially important to your stakeholders. This helps include them from the beginning. * Explain why this is important, what you are committed to achieving, by when and how you will track and measure progress. * Enable your employees to engage with your strategic approach and understand what it means to the business, their team and for them as individuals. * Use accessible language and turn data into compelling storytelling

Begin with a clear-eyed evaluation of where your organization currently stands on sustainability. A comprehensive audit will reveal the full spectrum of your environmental, social, and economic footprint. This is about understanding our impacts, from carbon emissions to social responsibility, and setting concrete, achievable goals for improvement. It's a crucial step in plotting a course towards genuine sustainability, ensuring we're not just aiming for change but are committed to measurable action. This strategic approach not only paves the way for a sustainable future but also lays the groundwork for a roadmap to sustainability, fostering growth and resilience. Hope this helps -N

When an organization starts a sustainability initiative, stakeholders may be concerned about how the new initiative will fit in with the organization's existing policies and practices. Therefore, creating a detailed framework that outlines how the change will affect the existing policies and practices is crucial. This involves integrating sustainability principles deeply within the organizational framework. To achieve this, the organization needs to revise existing policies and create new ones that align with sustainability goals and commitments. By institutionalizing sustainability in policies, procedures, and daily practices, organizations can foster a culture of environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and ethical governance.

The section accurately highlights the importance of conducting a sustainability audit to understand the current state of an organization's sustainability efforts. However, it's crucial to note that the selection of indicators for measurement should align with the organization's specific industry and operational context. For instance, a manufacturing company might prioritize waste reduction and energy efficiency, while a service-based firm might focus more on employee satisfaction and social responsibility. Furthermore, setting targets should be realistic and ambitious enough to drive significant improvements.

Conducting a sustainability audit involves thoroughly assessing your organization's current environmental, social, and economic impact. This includes evaluating areas like carbon footprint, waste generation, energy consumption, employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and social responsibility. By doing this, you gain a comprehensive understanding of your organization's standing and can identify specific areas for improvement. The audit sets the stage for setting realistic and measurable goals to enhance sustainability performance over time. It's essentially a strategic tool to guide your organization towards a more responsible and sustainable future.

It’s important to understand how sustainable your organization is and who the stakeholders involved in the process are, before beginning any projects. This can be done by referencing sustainability or CSR reports, talking to the sustainability team, or creating sustainability assessments. Examples include conducting a waste audit or energy audit to get quantitative results or distributing a survey for qualitative feedback.

2 ways to think about what to engage stakeholders on: 1. Regulatory and compliance related. More often then not, your stakeholders would need help in complying with evolving regulatory and reporting demands from governments and their clients. 2. Leadership & transformation. This is the part that usually gets people excited - can we create a new product and add value to our investors and customers? Is it the first in the industry to do so? Everything else in between tend not to get the traction needed.

Absolutely! Sustainability thrives on collaboration. Engaging stakeholders—employees, customers, suppliers, and more—is critical. It's about actively seeking their insights and integrating their feedback into your sustainability efforts. Through open, respectful dialogue, we can uncover innovative solutions and drive collective action. Demonstrating the mutual benefits of sustainability fosters commitment and co-creation, essential for meaningful progress. Everyone wins. -N

Sustainability's power lies in unity! Engage stakeholders - employees, managers, customers, suppliers, investors, and regulators - as partners in your journey. Listen, learn, and co-create solutions together. By aligning sustainability with their needs, we don't just build a better organization; we build a community committed to a greener future

The section rightly emphasizes the importance of stakeholder engagement in corporate sustainability. However, I'd like to point out that this is not a one-time process. Continuous engagement and communication are vital in maintaining stakeholder interest and involvement. Furthermore, using technology can significantly enhance this process through platforms that allow for real-time feedback, collaboration, and transparency. This can lead to more innovative and practical sustainability solutions.

Involving relevant stakeholders will help your mission and reduce burnout. This can be achieved by holding regular meetings with them to discuss sustainability goals, welcoming their perspectives, and emphasizing the collective benefits of a more sustainable organization. Transparent communication and active engagement with stakeholders can build trust and strengthen your organization's reputation.

How the subject is introduced to the internal stakeholders (all key functions and departments) shall determine the participation and engagement in the long run. This can be achieved by: - Engaging an external expert to develop a customised module addressing the organisation. (While an external party may be involved, you will still have to collaborate deeply to bring out unique aspects & tailor the module for different departments) - Create an internal task force and deploy a train the trainer approach to cascade awareness across the organisation - Develop and deploy an e-learning module internally that speaks about the need, the developments, the organisation’s initiatives & goals, concluding with the expectations from these stakeholders.

One key step is to make sure your stakeholders are emotionally connected to the topic. Often people understand the vital importance of changing the way we do business, but they are just paralyzed by the complexity and the immensity of the task. Make it easier for them. Break it down into small steps. Use the multiple formats existing on the market to help you: The Climate Fresk, The Week, etc..

Investing in education and training programs is key to building a knowledgeable and skilled workforce. Equip employees with the understanding of sustainability concepts, best practices, and their role in achieving organizational goals. Continuous learning opportunities create a culture of curiosity and innovation, encouraging employees to explore sustainable solutions and integrate them into their daily work.

You cannot make an organisation more sustainable as it first has to deliver proof of achieving evidence based Sustainability, which is a result developed by assessing and evaluating factors and impacts over five main vectors until you have a positive balance. This means your organisation is either Sustainable or not, there is nothing in between. You also need to enable Sustainability in all aspects of your organisation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to add a value creation element with all persons involved. Only now can you develop a dynamic strategy and your navigation system for all to follow but individually testing for improvement.

You can make an organisation more sustainability aware, I would challenge any company that said it was 100% sustainable in the presentworld. A drive to carbon neutral, circular focused embracing all 17 sustainable goals is getting close, but each company will have its journey to travel. Once you have base mapped an organisations maturity you can work to set its roadmap. Communication is key, sharing best practices, the organisations vision to align employees and create supported networks that motivate sustainable change, shoukd be centralto a sustainable program.

A much more effective way to drive sustainable outcomes is to embed sustainability performance in corporate KPIs and remuneration. If structured right, it'll drive much more lasting outcomes. Having said that, sustainability-related awards are also effective from a identity-shaping perspective. It's externally visible, it reinforces not only a type of behaviour but an identity.

To ensure people make sustainability part of their job, they need to feel they are in a psychologically safe space to experiment - because that’s what innovation is all about and innovation is what the sustainability transformation needs. And they need to see their ideas come to life! This might not always be the case, just as out of 10 innovative ideas not all will succeed. That’s why it’s important to highlight great examples of where people did succeed, against all odds. And ultimately, what will engage people is when leaders are role models of sustainable behavior and clearly cascade their expectations. In a formal way (e.g. objective setting), but also informally (e.g. authentic communications).

Celebrate progress with rewards. Acknowledging and incentivizing sustainability efforts boosts motivation and commitment. Highlighting achievements, offering tangible rewards, and sharing success stories within your community inspire continued action and innovation towards our shared sustainability goals. Remember, the key to your successful team is everyone wants to be acknowledged, respected, heard, and valued. -N

There are many ways to make an organisation more sustainable. From a rethinking of current processes to application of fancy new tech (eg alternative e-fuel, CCS etc), the sky is limit. In fact, new processes (with min capex) are sometimes the most impactful at the early stage because there are usually so much wastage in the name of economies of scale / convenience. However, like octane additive to petrol, these initiatives often get much much better traction when the organisation itself is well prep mentally and culturally to be more sustainable. This usually requires a clear communication of its sustainability vision, how those initiatives relate to business goals.

In my opinion, for the staff to believe in sustainability, it needs to be integrated into their daily routines, and they should feel involved in the strategy. Similarly, to encourage participation, we should begin with an ambassador strategy focused on enhancing sustainability performance. Once it’s implemented, engaging in guided participatory actions allows us to enrich the strategy with diverse perspectives, ensuring that everyone is motivated to participate

As an environmentalist and data scientist, I’ve often been the only person interested in sustainability in tech spaces. I’ve found that taking the first step, even though it’s daunting, can be the key to getting other members of the organization on board. Having open and honest conversations about the importance of sustainability can help others understand its value.

Start from the basics, evaluate the footprint and targets associated with roadmap. It should be treated like a new business line. Vision / targets / action plan Engaging the operations to elaborate action plans and targets is key to get the buy-in from everyone. It has to be a mix of bottom up for credibility and top-down to make sure it is challenging enough. It is key is to align objectives/bonus, to ensure they are not conflicting with finance. Most people want to act, but they need the right objective and tool box. In the industry, the solution is technical and the technical teams are the best placed to define the roadmap. Finally, we developed side projects such as "Office Goes Green" to have all employees contributing.

Understanding what drives and matters to each person and trying to and engage them in alignment with the startegic visions. Putting together a committee from across the company is always very helpful to on board change agents

The most difficult stakeholders would be the frontline workers who would perceive this as another management fad or cost cutting technique. My suggestion is to start from the top and show leadership intent by suitable actions. Caveat: Nothing will succeed if the company is perceived as unethical.

To make your organization more sustainable, start by clearly communicating the importance and benefits of sustainability to all stakeholders. Involve employees in the decision-making process, creating a sense of ownership and responsibility. Offer training and resources to understand and implement sustainable practices. Recognize and reward contributions to sustainability goals. Share success stories and progress to maintain momentum and enthusiasm. Aligning sustainability with the organization's core values and objectives encourages widespread buy-in and collective action.

The concept of power dynamic is useful. Sustainability is not just a report, a committee, a task force, or a campaign, but how to drive people changing from mindset to behaviour. And this also helps “sustainability” be sustainable.