Sustainability Strategy 10 Key Trends: 12 Months Retrospective
Paul Blackler
Transformation with Purpose | Innovation & Agility | Product | Biz4Good | Sustainable Development & Leadership
Strategy is not building a plan of solution initiatives, but deciding what opportunities to persue, and what NOT to, to help achieve an objective. The?narrative behind these choices?and?why?sets the strategic direction contextual to each organisation and it’s mission.
Dispute the rise of Sustainability, many organisations still struggle with how to start, progress or improve their Impact journey beyond initial Co2/ESG reported metrics or SDG goals they loosely map to.
I took time to reflect on my experience across the field to summarise key strategic themes I see organisations pursuing, which can also provide scaffolding for an impactful journey.
Welcome to my Top 10 Sustainability Strategic Trends…
1.?Global, local and industry alignment: Use of frameworks, benchmarking, (+certs)
Sustainability is a global systemic issue. A strong Impact strategy takes the time to build foundational understanding and alignment at all three levels:
Successful strategies get a sense of their inner ‘purpose’, direction and approach and then build their own ‘theory of change’ as strategic direction.
To do that they follow other key steps…
2.?Build with richer & broader?stakeholder needs
Authentic orgs adopt a ‘Double Materiality’?approach grounding strategy by deeply and periodically examining their true material impact in the world, beyond just risks received to the business (e.g. shareholder profit).
This requires deep introspection and self-challenge, selecting appropriate proxies to understand what cannot easily be shared/heard.
Example:?An RBS Leadership fable told of an executive drawing a face on a balloon taking up a seat as a customer physically represented in the Boardroom. This allowed the execs to more easily turn to the Balloon and discuss ‘what would the customer say?’. True or fable, broader stakeholders such as the environment, nature and our biodiversity cannot speak up, but great leaders allow them to be included in our decision making.
Broader input allows for?diversity, equity and inclusion,?and considering business/product consequences to 7 future generations (conscious capitalism’s ‘stewardship’ roles).
Double materiality is?values-driven?and?value-driven?seeking what is right for the world and the long-term viability and value creation of the business. While GRI and ISSB?ignore this controversially, Europe’s drive with CSRD, and?UN’s SDPI?pave the way for it to be increasingly mandated.
3. Value-chain impact mapping
Strategically impactful organisations map out their?value chains,?user journeys and life-cycles (flows of money, material, energy and value) in collaboration to stakeholder input, and identify opportunity to?maximise positive impacts?and not just?minimise or eliminate the negative ones. UNSDP Impact standards improve prioritisation, execution, and reporting by articulating?WHO-WHAT outcomes?and ABC goals vs thresholds:
4.?Science + Nature led: beyond Ops Co2 reductions
Organisations are increasingly adopting Science Based Targets (e.g.?SBTi). Despite Sustainability often watered down to mean just carbon, biodiversity improvements (cop15?&?high seas treaty) along-side?blue credits?&?plastic credits?help innovate our entire accountancy systems.
Doughnut Economics?gave regional measures for an?ecological?ceiling and a?social?foundation, against safer and fairer ‘thresholds’. However,?few framework/standards?help organisations with ‘context’ based metrics. Beyond operational reductions (Co2, energy, water, etc) impactful strategy re-designs to?Avoid before Reduce or Offset?(WWF), and non regulated organisations leverage lighter frameworks e.g.?Future-Fit Framework.
Organisations still have far to go beyond reductionist activity towards leading holistic change that supports life’s living systems. But a regenerative?biomimicry?movement is underway and gathering speed.
5.?Employee engagement, safety and wellbeing
Strategically impactful organisations plan opportunities to?engage?their employees in the process, as well as to?benefit?from intended outcomes.
Example:?JTC?becoming certified Eco Office Plus Champion, building a safety roadmap, and an employee stakeholder engagement plan.
Everything starts with awareness (data-information-knowledge-wisdom) and strong companies invest to build Sustainability into the DNA of the business. Ultimately Sustainability is a change management issue. The solutions lie in how we better lead and organise our people, and how we integrate it?into the employee experience. The good news is we already have all the skillsets (leaders, visionaries, designers, engineers, data scientists, communicators, delivery managers) — and Wardley’s?pioneers, settlers, & town planners. The question is how to unlock the potential?
Change leaders/coaches can guide through change (e.g?Kotter’s 8 steps), and modern ways of working (e.g. agility, innovation), build capacity, and manage?adoption curves?via community building and a culture of learning.
Great change facilitation builds?shared artefacts?(Visions, maps, OKR’s, roadmaps) representing alignment on how we collectively see the world, and?embeds rituals?that build, reflect, iterate and re-designs them against an increasingly?VUCA?world. Just as ‘design’ understands a problem before jumping to solutions, strategic leaders recognise meaningful facilitation only happens (avoiding surface level copy-cats) when its grounded in good Strategy. Less impactful managers rush facilitated ideation from wherever colleagues can muster ideas from (pulling a white rabbit from a hat).
6.?Partnership, ecosystem building & advocacy
Sustainability is as much about building resilience (McKinsey,?WEF/PWC). Strategic leadership recognises connections and community as a value add (brand, loyalty, attraction, attrition, capability, etc) rather than just a cost, and?reward?their team for it. A voice of advocacy and influence (e.g.?Ben and Jerrys) is often an underestimated impact. After all, we are stronger in numbers and a rising tide lifts all boats.
Pooling Resources:?How can ecosystem business models help pool resource? 37Billion digital devices contributes more co2 than data centres.
7.?Updating Data, Governance, Policy and Processes
Alongside training/awareness, strategic leaders help expose data and then allow their teams to understand and work out what it is telling them and what should be done about it, giving agency, ownership and commitment.
Beyond mandatory vs voluntary concerns, sustainability data starts less meaningful and can be improved overtime. Strategic focus (pareto principle) and simplicity (e.g. excel, aggregates and assumptions) helps simplify and avoid an over focus on process and tools (agile manifesto).
Roll call for the ‘town planners’ who then take accountability for stable, repeatable (but also inspectable and improvable) processes, adjusting them to reflect new learning and to reinforce new behaviours and outcomes.
8. Circularity, value-chain impact mapping & waste
The climate issue is recognised as a symptom to a much deeper set of causes (pollution — waste — overconsumption -?extractive competitive culture)?rather than a fair, just and naturally regenerative system.
Where?circularity?aims to keep materials and energy in the system, Impactful organisations provide time/space and facilitation to align on new ways at looking at their business/products connection in the world. Strategic analysis (e.g.?PESTLE)?identifies start points, measures Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), and applies?5R-thinking?to?re-think and re-design?all levels of the organisation: task, process, product, portfolio, and business model.
Distribution:?The?Hipli reusable parcels?Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)?demonstrates less impact?than cardboard from 2nd use (20g co2, 11x less).
Product:?Apple watch Series 8 —?Full Life Cycle Analysis
Godfather of systems-thinking, Dr. Ackoff reminded us that after designing the house, only by designing the rooms can we better design the house…
9. Transforming business models & revenue streams
The holy grail of transformation is on many business’s radar but requires real systems change, putting aside existing purpose and intent to transform their ‘whole’ for the greater needs / purpose of the broader system.
Industry Example:?Cars are becoming less emitting but with single passenger door-to-door travelling are we really transforming the system?
Movements such as?BCorp,?conscious capitalism,?shareholder commons,?Doughnut Economics action lab?and the?Foundation for Steward Ownership are all helping to re-organise the construct of business and rediscover what it?can be?in the world
A wave of transformation is underway, which requires ‘unlearning’ to build back from new principles. Constrained by the threat of the economic downturn and a perception of few resources to spur new growth, many organisations are still in the ‘conservation’ phases of the?Adaptive Cycle,?similar to agriculture subsidies, bank bail-outs, propping up oil and gas.
Against a trend of service optimisation, 40 years ago (such little progress!)?Dr. Ackoff taught?that heralding ‘lean efficiency’ of Japanese Automobiles which are also polluting our streets, was the wrong type of quality/success:
“the difference between efficiency and effectiveness is the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Unfortunately there’s not enough wisdom to go around.”
10.?Communication for influence and impact
Amidst the minefields of greenwashing and greenhushing often lies poor strategic intent. Impact organisations have deep respectful understanding of stakeholder needs AND perceptions. They lead with open, honest and vulnerable communication embracing trade-offs, tensions and the learning journey rather than selling solutions to attract consumers. They bring stakeholders on the journey as partners that learn together, and their influence reflects their greater impact, which only further builds trust.
Whilst reporting is not (yet) mandatory for all, producing an Impact report can galvanise the internal employee movement and advocates externally by demonstrating the positive/negative impact against strategic themes.
“We will only accelerate the pace of positive change if we create an environment that supports meaningful conversation and includes everyone willing to engage” (BSI)
In Summary
Organisations are getting busy but many are slow to be getting smart. “Finding deficiencies and getting rid of them is not a way to improve performance of a system” (Ackoff).
There is a dance taking place between business and societal stakeholders. Everyone is shuffling to find their role. That is strategy, clarifying our ‘why’, deciding where we should play, to align capability to be able to transform:
Sustainability requires organisations to be many of these things at once. Ultimately it is about how a company creates value for and mitigates its negative impact on the world.?Which of these strategic principles will you adopt in your own journey to transform for local and global resilience?
Would love to hear from you, your insight and experiences.
Thanks for Reading,
Paul
Water-without-border, Safe Drinking Water, Humanitarian Crisis & Water, Water-AID, National Defence & Water, Atmospheric Water Harvest, Farm Irrigation, Electricity from Wind, Solar & Kinetic Technologies
1 年Thank you Paul, first time I come across a correct definition where the aim is to create value by proactive thinking. Initially prevent making wrong decisions and avoiding mistakes with adverse consequences from how you work and corporate management strategies. This is how the origins of proactive and predictive management analysis was defined when the smelting and mining industry in Germany experienced the consequences of total deforestation and they all depend heavily on use of lumber. To understand nature one have to embrace the carbon cycle with its photosynthetic process to release sufficient oxygen and water molecules, produce food in abundance for all species and all organisms re-generative processes. No part of nature or nature’s ecosystems are linear or static but dynamic in its processes producing what’s needed to uphold all species and their habitats to prevent extinction from drought, flooding, pollution and sickness. The World Sustainability Protocol, or WOSP360 is a systemic initiative for dynamic adaptation and thinking of sustainability as a management strategy and society system, without sustainability as the embracing mechanism nature loose and so will we. The Law of Sustainability is a methodology and equation
Transformation Excellence & Change supporting Supply Chain & Operations
1 年As individuals but also as organisations we belong to many different systems... in each we play a specific role or dance to use your words.. I believe it's this unconscious loyalty to existing systems that hampers us to fully commit in 1 specific sustainability goal... What if we go all in into sustainability? Who of our partners would be cheering us on? Who would not be so pleased?
Business Agility | Ways of Working | Trustee | Village Website Manager
1 年Great post ?? I really like how you've blended systems thinking with business agility concepts.
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1 年Thanks for Sharing.