How To Embed Sustainability Into Corporate Culture: A Cheat Sheet
Derek Wong | Aug 16, 2011 | Comments 1
August 16, 2011
Reprinted with permission
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Derek Wong is a Toronto based sustainability consultant. He holds an Engineering degree from University of Melbourne and is a CSA America certified greenhouse gas professional. See contact info and more posts like this at Carbon49.com.
93% of CEOs see sustainability as important to their company’s future success, as found by a UN-Accenture study. But how does one embed sustainability into a company’s core culture? Dr. Stephanie Bertels of Simon Fraser University conducted one of the most extensive researches in this subject. Her findings in the 74-page reportare distilled into a core framework diagram. This cheat sheet will guide you through the key points.
How to use the framework diagram? The framework has 4 quadrants. To effectively embed sustainability into your corporate culture, you should have initiatives in all 4 quadrants. See below for an explanation for each quadrant along with example initiatives. If you are starting from zero, plan for small initiatives in all 4 quadrants. If you are already executing your initiatives, check to see if they cover all 4 quadrants and analyze for any gap.
1. Fostering Commitment (Informal-Fulfillment)—Deliver existing sustainability commitments by motivating employees to get involved.
- Host internal workshops and competitions
- Include sustainability messages and success stories in communications
- Include sustainability messages in hiring and reward staff for sustainability contribution
- Share progress widely across the organization
2. Clarifying Expectations (Formal-Fulfillment)—Develop structures and procedures to implement current sustainability commitments.
- Set measurable sustainability goals at organization level, department levels, and personal levels
- Incorporate sustainability into organization’s vision and strategy
- Expand existing roles or create new roles for sustainability responsibilities
- Train staff on sustainable business practices
- Link compensation to sustainability performance
3. Building Momentum For Change (Informal-Innovation)—Develop new ideas and new practices for the road ahead.
- Form cross-functional champions team to seek innovative ideas from all levels
- Crowd-source from suppliers or customers for ideas and collaborations
- Share best practices across internal groups and at external industry events and publications
4. Instilling Capacity For Change (Formal-Innovation)—Formalize learning and process development
- Play an official role in industry conferences and policy development
- Benchmark progress with industry peers
- Incorporate sustainability deeply into business processes and systems, e.g. implement environmental management systems (EMS)
- Design new products and services that achieve industry leading levels of sustainability performance
How do your sustainability initiatives fit in to the framework? Share with us by leaving a comment below. More details of the framework are available at this website.
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[...] these values down to every decision is an effective way to standardize and insure compliance. (See Bertel’s Framework for more on this idea). Leaders such as Intel and Cisco incorporate sustainability goals – among [...]