5 musts for a serious sustainability work

Photo: Private

For any organisation, business or local, regional or central authority (actors), there are a few things that should be in place if they want to claim they’re working with sustainability. Way to often I meet businesses or other actors that tell me they do work with sustainability, but they mostly refer to their CRS work (Corporate social responsibility) where they donate money to civil society or they do operational work, such as certain activities for trash-picking and so on, but that’s not a business striving to become sustainable.

Serious sustainable development can only happen in a society where actors first look at themselves and how they create harm but also how they can contribute to good. Sustainability is not only a WHAT it’s mostly a HOW. How do we operate? How to we provide our costumers with goods and services? In what way’s do our service contribute to the global goals? The last one is a WHAT, different from the other two that is a HOW.

How to become a successful sustainable business? These are the 5 musts:

• Policy for Sustainable Development

• Sustainability aspects in the Code of Conduct/Organisational Chart

• Action plan for Sustainable Development

• Sustainability report

• Climate action plan according to the Paris Agreement

Policy is essential to define what sustainability means in your context. This is the umbrella to relay on so we all can agree upon what sustainability means for our business.

Principles such as anticorruption, inclusion, climate awareness and so on should be a part of the code of conduct and organisational chart. This is the backbone of the business/organisation and tells us our values. To strive for sustainability can not only be a question of profit or market opportunities, it must be a part of the business values.

Action plan, what are the goals? What needs to change? Just to define and set the framework is not enough, you need a plan with proper goals, indicators, a strategy and a budget (especially the budget part, though to change your business into a sustainable one is an investment because your investing in your brand, probably reducing cost in different areas and so on. I’ll explain more in a future post).

Sustainability reporting is important for transparency and to be trustworthy. This is where you show your results. The indicators will tell the reader about your performance and the storytelling how.

Climate action according to the Paris Agreement is something I believe most businesses lack. Most actors want to set it according to their size and capacity to reduce their carbon emissions. With this state of mind, a light version of “business as usual”, the target set at the Paris Agreement won’t be met. Everyone needs to half their carbon footprint within a decade. This is commonly called the Carbon Law.

Do you know any business that lives up to all these 5 criteria’s? Has your business implemented a proper sustainability work? If not, you should hurry because otherwise you’ll be out of business pretty soon..

How to create impact

Photo: Private

This weekend I had the opportunity to meet other young inspiring people who want’s to make a difference in the world through the network Young Sustainability Professionals. As a part of our workshops and discussions we, of course, reflected upon how to make an impact.

In my current job and throughout my life as a coordinator, consultant and project leader in sustainability I have never really reflected upon if I have changed anything. Did I really contribute to a difference or did I not? I personally believe the answer to the question is hard to quantify since so much about sustainability has to do with norms and values. However, what I do know is that I have developed a strategy to do my work which I think can be useful for other people who wants to make a difference.

First of all, for me it’s been clear on what I want to achieve; I want other people to be educated and empowered to make better choices and to get involved. I can’t control how people change their lifestyles or if a certain project really contributes to long-term changes in a specific corporation. However, I can engage others in ways where I believe the change and the fight will go on even if I leave the business or the project.

How do you do that?

1. Research the business. This means to educate yourself about the circumstances of where you are regardless if it’s a business, an organisation, a municipality and so on. Questions to ask is:

   • What’s the purpose of the business?

   • What do their code of conduct, policies and strategies say?

   • What do they want to achieve?

2. Set your goals. What do you want to achieve? If you want to make something more sustainable you need to pick your goals. Preferably you’ll do this together with the leading group/project group/boss, but if you think they’re not that open to sustainability, you set the vision and you keep it for yourself.

3. Choose your prioritise. This should be based on three things; what creates an impact in the world (CO2 cut, better diversity etc.), what can you impact from your current position and what’s the topic that is most likely to be attractive to the business? When you get to start, you have to set a framework with likely areas to change not necessarily your most passionated issue.

4. Create an attractive scenario and case. Now you map their strategies with your vision and topics to identify where you want to see a change. You might not present “Hi everybody, let’s go vegan” at a restaurant, but you could say “let’s cut food waste, get the media attentions, lower our costs and collaborate with a famous chief from TV - good for the planet, for our business and it’s employees”. The shift to a more plant based menu will come with time when the rest of the company starts to get involved and understands the benefits.

5. Do tasks beyond your normal working tasks. What you have to realise is that if you want to create change, you will be the person doing most of the work. Changing a company from zero sustainability work to some kind of sustainability work can be done within three years. Changing a minor project from zero sustainability work to some basic can take a few weeks. Be bold and write weekly-emails and letters even if it’s beyond your mandate to do so.

6. Find your allies. You can’t do everything by yourself and don’t be shy to ask people what they think and see if you have similar ideas or interest to change things. Share your burden and passion outside the business and project to re-fill your energy and to stay inspired.

7. Be patient and repeat. Keep on talking to colleagues, leaders and other people involved about sustainability and the importance of being a conscious company. Don’t assume people are educated about climate change, don’t judge people for not being aware or engaged and keep on sharing your aspiration and energy.

8. Make sure the action plan is inclusive. As soon as you have the mandate or someone with a mandate gives you space to really establish a systematic sustainability group it’s all about defining sustainability in policies and guidelines, incorporate it in strategies and make sure it’s a part of the annual planning and budgeting. This is the point you want to reach. You want to create an action plan for sustainability with your colleges that translates your vision into the vision of the company.

Congratulations. You have just made an impact. If you stay you might see/hear/feel diversity next time you say hallo to a new college, you might read a report with CO2 emissions being cut or you might enjoy a vegan meal at the next conference. Or maybe your company will win the prize of the best sustainability report, effort or change makers within their industry. The sky has no limit of what you can do to create impact you just have to start! Good luck!