5 Sustainability Transformation Nuggets – Inspiration From My Cambridge Learning Journey

As I just completed the CISL Sustainability Business Management Course, I wanted to share some learning that resonated and inspired me along the journey.

1)????Think “System”. Many of the Sustainability Issues facing an organization cannot be addressed alone due to their scope, complexity and need for collective action.?Not an excuse not to act as there is an opportunity to think about partnerships ?(with other Businesses , NGO’s, ?Government and Consumers) to help fund new technologies development , drive system changes, work along the value chain, scale best practices to the benefit of Society ?etc.

Many such partnerships initiatives already exist ( such as?the “Alliance to End Plastic Waste” or the “Sustainable Apparel Coalition”). I was inspired by the collaboration between Adidas and Allbirds ?to create a low carbon sneaker released in 2021. This was a step towards Allbirds recently announcing their M0.0NSHOT first Zero Carbon Shoe and Opening their technology to drive scale at Industry Level.

More can be done. Leadership, Collaboration “Finesse” and a good framework are required though to make such partnership or co-opetition deliver the strongest outcome.

2)????Design For Sustainability and Circularity. This is crucial as 80% of a product environmental impact is defined at Design Stage. Though Intuitive, this is a key challenge for Marketeers and Designers as the sustainability aim needs to be called upfront, a multidisciplinary team is required and the end product/service needs to be meaningful for Consumers ( aka sustainability as a benefit is most often not enough) . We had an interesting experience through the course writing a design brief for a circular computer.

This is also the opportunity to develop New Business Models, such as (1)Rental / Product as a service models as we start seeing in the Fashion Industry ?, (2) Sharing / Second Hand Platforms ( e.g. Vinted) , (3) Ensuring?Longer Living Products with Remanufacturing ( such as Caterpillar) and/or Repair Services or 4) getting new Value from Waste such as Protix upcycling food waste into sustainable proteins for animal food via insect farming or Michelin recycling Old Tires material to produce new Tires in a circular fashion.

The EU Right to Repair Directive will drive away business models based on planned obsolescence so even more important to review product design. Good example of Circular business model are available from the WEF

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3)????Leverage Behavioral Science to help Bridge Consumers Value-Action Gap. I personally believe that social norming has a big role to play and I was happy to read Unilever’s recent study showing the potential ?that “influencers communication” has on driving more sustainable behavior and that it is OK for a Brand to own the message.

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4)????Communicate Factually and Authentically. It is important for companies to communicate about the progress they are making on their Sustainability journey. They should not hide and they should inspire. ?Beware of Greenwashing though! Do not hide sustainability pain points in your business - work on addressing them. Think of Protective (“Shields”) vs Differentiating actions and understand where you stand. Then be sure to communicate authentically and transparently, recognizing that Sustainability is a journey and you rather be humble about it. ?Building on my Sustainability Activation Experience, I love the recent example of Puma going ‘transparent’ and opening its value chain operations to scrutiny by sustainability conscious Gen Z influencers. ?

UK and the Upcoming EU Legislation will enforce the need to have environmental claims supported with facts. A welcome safety net which will reinforce basic trust building principles.

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5)????Embrace a Collaborative Sustainability Leadership Style.?Sustainability Leaders tend to have a very collaborative style versus being the Hero Type. They are courageous and recognize the complexity and interconnectedness of systems and the big unknowns. ?Hence the value of humility and a collaborative style to enlist and mobilize their organizations. Loved the Ted X from Lorna Davis .

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These are just a few snippets from the rich learning we went through at CISL and I hope some resonated with you. The field of Sustainability is broad, complex and evolving fast requiring ongoing learning. ?I want to thank my CISL Tutors Prof. Wayne Visser and Rida Bilgrami for their inspiration as well as Jonathan Hall from Kantar as he was my first mentor in the Sustainability Field.

I am energized to be helping organizations on their sustainable transformation journey.

#sustainability #sustainabilityconsulting #circulardesign #sustainablebehaviour #sustainabletransformation #CISL?