How can you lead corporate sustainability?

Sustainability and ESG considerations are rewiring the business world. It is a key strategic issue for businesses. These are the steps to take (1) define the purpose of the team (2) identify and prioritize key issues via a materiality assessment process (3) craft a sustainability strategy in consultation with key stakeholders. Be sure to align on goals, priorities, timelines, resources needed (4) communicate, report back and gather feedback regularly (5) adapt and adjust strategy as required to changing environment and business needs

It is excellent to embed climate and ESG in your long-term strategy, but setting short-term tangible targets is key if you want to claim leadership in the topic in the longer and shorter term. We often see companies getting incredibly ambitious about sustainability and wanting to see results fast – this is achievable if you break it down into small steps for the coming 12 months.

Before going into the detailed planning of individual building blocks to drive forward the sustainability strategy in a company, two points are essential to be able to do this. Those who drive the topic must act with purpose and be authentic. As a Managing Director of Deutsche Bahn, I sold my car because I believe that sustainable mobility is important. As a public transport enthusiast, I can't come to work in an SUV. Nor can I, for example, campaign for sustainable fashion and have all my clothes double-wrapped in plastic. If I want to lead a sustainability strategy, I have to exemplify sustainability.

Stakeholder engagement is vital to identify both their expectations and the organization’s impacts on people and the environment (actual or potential). Then, certain criteria can be applied to determine matters material from an "impact" perspective. This can be complemented with a "financial" perspective, by identifying risks and opportunities that have (or may have) a material impact on the organization. The combination of both is called “double materiality”. When informed by material topics, the sustainability program has more solid foundations, is better focused, and eventually will create a greater impact. Besides, materiality also determines the topics that need to be reported (as required by sustainability reporting standards).

You'll want to pick initiatives that have the greatest lasting impact. Some sustainability efforts feel good, but don't really accomplish anything. You need to determine if your sustainability goals are merely performative, or whether they're designed to achieve real change.

From my experience, you need to be careful that your strategy encompasses all your company's businesses and departments (finance, operations, logistics, HR, marketing, etc.). Indeed, one of the most common pitfalls is to entrust the roadmap to the CSR department, which has the effect of disempowering the other business lines in terms of the real impact of their activities.

Es clave el definir bien con quien partir la comunicación de tu propósito y estrategia. El tener el apoyo del directorio o de la alta dirección es clave para poder allanar el camino a implementación de cambios y poder evangelizar internamente y luego externamente en términos de sostenibilidad. En mi experiencia personal, convencer y motivar al directorio me facilitó el poder abrir el Departamento de Sostenibilidad en mi compa?ía, tener autonomía pero también la colaboración de las demás áreas de la empresa.

Regular, consistent and coherent communication is a critical piece of a durable Sustainability strategy. Internal communication (a) report back to key stakeholders on the progress that has been made (b) gather feedback to adjust priorities going forward (c) continue to keep stakeholders at all levels aligned with your Sustainability strategy External communication (a) have a consistent and coherent message to external stakeholders. Sustainability and ESG can mean many things to different audiences. We should be clear what it means to our organization

To be credible in their communication, corporates need to demonstrate their sincerity. Influence Map research showed that 58% of 300 Forbes 2000 companies are at risk of NetZero greenwashing due to their policy engagement. So large companies need to make concrete commitments like SBTI or SBTN for example.

Sustainability and ESG considerations and rewiring the business world. The challenges are large, but so are the opporunities Given the large scale challenges, there are many partnership opporunities across your value chain (customers, suppliers) and with like minded organizations. Some real world examples include Microsoft partnering with Climeworks for direct air capture carbon removal. Another avenue to find like minded peers are in collaboration industry organizations and trade bodies

Ein Ansatz zur Implementierung von Nachhaltigkeit in Unternehmen besteht darin, strategische Partnerschaften mit anderen Unternehmen, Regierungen oder NGOs einzugehen. Diese Zusammenarbeit kann dazu beitragen, Ressourcen zu bündeln und nachhaltige Ziele effektiver zu erreichen. Weitere Vorteile von strategischen Partnerschaften (SDG 17) sind der Zugang zu zus?tzlichen Ressourcen und Fachwissen, eine erh?hte Glaubwürdigkeit und eine gr??ere Wirkung auf die Ziele nachhaltiger Entwicklung.

Mitarbeiter spielen eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Umsetzung von Nachhaltigkeitsinitiativen in Unternehmen. Ihre Sensibilisierung für nachhaltiges Denken und Handeln kann eine bedeutende Ver?nderung bewirken, wenn die Nachhaltigkeitskompetenz eines jeden Mitarbeiters durch Ma?nahmen wie prozessbegleitende Learning Journeys geschult wird.