Step By Step

Many companies today are seriously considering the impacts of their businesses on society and the environment. After the publication of numerous scientific studies, business leaders have become more aware of the implications of unsustainable business practices. An initiative among businesses to streamline efficiency and make products and processes more sustainable is now rapidly emerging. The message is urgent: we need to redefine our priorities and adjust our business models in order to secure a sustainable future. But what is sustainability, and how do we make businesses more sustainable? The Step-by-Step Guide to Sustainability Planning discusses what businesses are currently doing and offers ways to solve sustainability issues. The first part of the book explores effective ways to introduce and organize new sustainability initiatives. It also supplies real life examples and methods that business leaders use to organize and implement effective sustainability programs. The next sections will outline the main ways businesses can effectively implement sustainability programs.

Introduction

This section provides a basic framework for a sustainability plan including a general overview of what will be discussed in the rest of the book. The section also defines some key terms that will be used throughout the book, especially focusing on sustainability planning and sustainability assessments. Sustainability assessments are snapshots that provide a short term view of a company’s sustainable practices while sustainability planning focuses on long term goals for creating a fully sustainable organization. Sustainability assessments help facilitate the incremental steps needed to implement a sustainability plan.

Key Concepts:

• [Sustainability Assessments]: Sustainability assessments provide a snapshot for how healthy a sustainability initiative is and what more needs to be done. It is important to select assessments that encompass the main issues addressed in a sustainability initiative. Sustainability assessments are most useful when an organization has clarified the business case and completed initial projects.

• [Sustainability Planning]: Sustainability planning involves creating a vision of a fully sustainable organization and then developing metrics and a long term plan to achieve that vision. Sustainability planning is an iterative process that involves continually checking progress, revisiting goals, and revising the plan.

Case Example:

• [Earthscan’s Sustainability Plan and Report: Three Years in the Making]: This case example describes how a Earthscan, a small publishing company, spent three years refining their sustainability plan so it adequately reflects their current practices and sustainability objectives. Earthscan ended up taking responsibility for greenhouse gases associated with paper production among other things.

Methods:

• [Fast Track to a Sustainability Plan]: A lot of information must be collected in order to create an effective sustainability plan. Top level management or a sustainability steering committee meets over multiple days to go over the steps of a sustainability plan and discuss possible ideas. The initial steps of defining sustainability, assessing impacts, and establishing goals and metrics must occur in sequence while later steps can occur in any order.

• [Variations on the Process for More Advanced Organizations]: This method addresses ways to advance sustainability initiatives in organizations that already have some experience with sustainable planning. Once an organization is well steeped in a sustainability effort, it may be helpful to do some long term sustainability planning. This includes reassessing the business model, discovering new impacts, training new employees, and constructing a policy statement for the board of directors.

Chapter 1: Preparing for Change

This chapter provides helpful advice on how to implement change in an organization including where to start, who to reach out to, and general tips and strategies for generating excitement about a new initiative. The best way to introduce a new initiative is to get as much support for it as possible. This can be done by reaching out to employees and company leadership, creating urgency by explaining the problem and emphasizing its implications, and creating opportunities for involvement. Finally, the chapter provides several methods that help generate support for new change initiatives.

Key Concepts:

• [Special Considerations for Sustainability Initiatives]: Sustainability initiatives come with their own special challenges. Because sustainability is an abstract concept that involves a lot of technical language, company leaders must provide examples and applications in a way that clearly communicates what sustainability means. Implementing sustainable change requires long-term thinking but also short-term wins to keep the movement alive. It is also important to maintain a positive approach to sustainability in order to empower employees working for the new initiative.

• [What to Do Before Creating a Sustainability Plan]: All organizations are in different stages of development which affects how management reacts to change and how sustainability leaders should market their new initiatives. In order to nudge an organization away from the status quo, sustainability leaders can tap into the personal passion of workers by reaching out to different levels of the organization in order to generate support.

Case Example:

• [How to Not Build Support]: This case example describes how a passionate individual berated and guilt-tripped other employees for not acting sustainably. This was ineffective at creating support because it failed to generate enthusiasm for sustainability initiatives.

Methods:

• [Readiness Assessment]: A readiness assessment should be done before starting any sustainability plan. A readiness assessment is directed towards company leadership and asks how organizational support, goals, and past efforts relate to sustainability. At the end of a readiness assessment, management determines whether the organization is ready to move forward with a sustainability plan.

• [Lessons from the Past]: Using this approach, employees look at previous sustainability efforts and discuss what worked well and what should be changed. Leaders of the organization can then use this information to more effectively implement a sustainability initiative.

Chapter 2: Refining the Business Case

This chapter emphasizes the various business reasons for pursuing sustainability and provides analytical tools that assess the impacts of sustainability initiatives on overall business strategy. Generally, businesses invest time and resources into sustainability programs with the idea that these programs will return value in the future. Strong sustainability programs add value by protecting company image, lowering costs, and satisfying public pressure for sustainable change. Businesses can use analytical methods to assess which sustainability initiatives add the most value and then take action accordingly.

Key Concepts:

• [Right Action, Wrong Reason?]: Businesses invest in sustainability initiatives because of a complex set of motivations, and there is no right or wrong reason to pursue sustainability. Whether it is a passion for the environment or keeping up with competitors, any reason to pursue sustainability is a step in the right direction.

• [Why Organizations Pursue Sustainability]: Businesses pursue sustainability for a variety of purposes, which financial analysis alone cannot adequately measure. Some business reasons for pursuing sustainability include: responding to public pressure and protecting company image. Organizations also pursue sustainability for personal reasons which include: securing a prosperous life for future generations and a passion for nature.

Case Example:

• [Make Sustainability More than Just the ‘Right Thing to Do’]: Pursuing sustainability because it is the right thing to do is not a compelling business argument. A large legal firm was given a list of business reasons to pursue sustainability. Some notable reasons include: establishing a competitive advantage and keeping up with clients who need legal advice for their sustainability efforts.

Methods:

• [SWOT Analysis]: A SWOT analysis is a great method for strategic sustainability planning. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. When it comes to sustainability, organizations want to leverage their strengths, invest in opportunities, correct weaknesses, and manage the risk of threats.

• [Long-Term Sustainability Strategy]: This method explores an organization’s role in creating a sustainable world by looking at the organization in three different time frames: near term, intermediate term, and long term. The near term focuses on what an organization can do today to reduce its impact on the environment. The long term focuses on the role of the organization in a fully sustainable society. The intermediate term focuses on the organization’s transition from the current state to the end goal.

Chapter 3: Creating the Vision of Sustainability

This chapter begins by defining sustainability and then applying that definition to comprehensive frameworks in order to guide the vision of a fully sustainable organization. Comprehensive frameworks provide the overall foundation for how businesses should approach sustainability issues. These frameworks include several tools and strategies that serve as a link between business and sustainability, and managers use these tools to envision a fully sustainable organization. The chapter concludes by discussing detailed methods that help create a clear vision of sustainability.

Key Concepts:

• [Hierarchy of Frameworks and Tools]: Businesses must operate within four main guidelines in order to be fully sustainable: the laws of nature, frameworks, principles, and standards and conventions. The laws of nature are the most crucial because they define what is possible in the natural world and form the basis of human behavior. Frameworks help translate the natural laws into boundaries within which humans can operate sustainably. Principles apply the information from frameworks to create guidelines that define sustainable ways to operate in certain industries and sectors. Standards and constructs are useful tools that allow companies to implement guidelines set forth by principles and frameworks into the overall business strategy.

• [Long Term Visioning]: Businesses need to determine which current practices are out of alignment with their chosen sustainability framework and establish time frames to address each issue. Near-term visioning involves assessing major impacts and identifying what can be done immediately. Long-term visioning takes decades and involves transitioning to a fully sustainable organization by adjusting the entire business model. The transition between near- and long-term visioning requires strategic planning catered towards adjusting the current business model to one that is fully sustainable.

Case Example:

• [NW Natural Takes on Climate Change]: NW Natural is a natural gas company that is working to reduce the climate impacts of its main product: natural gas. NW Natural is working to reduce their carbon footprint by tracking CO₂ associated with company operations and using fuel at the source rather than for electricity, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by over 20%.

Methods:

• [Threats and Opportunities]: This method is used to help people find ways to make their organizations more sustainable. First, sustainability team members examine how other industries are being sustainable by relating external practices to a chosen framework. Then, team members do the same process to determine what similar things their organization can do to become more sustainable.

• [Backcasting]: This method involves gathering data about a company’s current impacts and assessing which ones violate the chosen framework. From there, managers can create a vision of a fully sustainable company and then work backwards to determine the incremental steps needed to achieve that vision.

Chapter 4: Identifying Impacts and Priorities

This chapter explains how companies examine the effects certain products and processes have on the environment and society. Company leaders can use data that has been collected from these effects to determine how far the organization is from achieving its vision. The final part of the chapter explains how sustainability leaders conduct impact assessments to determine the areas that need to be improved.

Key Concepts:

• [Reveal New Sources of Process Inefficiency]: Sometimes, looking for sustainable ways to reduce waste reveals processes that were inefficient and unnecessary. Reducing waste can make processes more efficient and save valuable company resources.

• [Go Beyond Your Gates]: Businesses sometimes have to look beyond their manufacturing and distribution processes in order to reduce their carbon footprint. If a product uses a lot of natural resources, sustainability leaders should consider ways to alter the design of the product itself in order to reduce its environmental impact.

Case Example:

• [Look Beyond the Obvious]: This case example explains how a legal firm realized some unforeseen benefits by reducing its paper consumption. Aside from saving $20,000 on paper purchases every year, the law firm also reduced process inefficiency since multiple people could work on the same electronic file at the same time. Electronic files also reduced the amount of time employees spent gathering information and allowed the company to save space since there was no longer a need for file cabinets.

Methods:

• [High-Level Impact Assessment]: Sustainability team members must understand a company's major impact areas in order to get a better picture of how sustainability initiatives affect their organizations. In a high-level impact assessment, managers first convene cross-representational groups to go over all areas in the organization that have an environmental impact including: processes, inputs, outputs, and relationships. Team members then determine what a sustainable version of each area would look like and compare them with what the organization is currently doing. Finally, team members identify areas that can be improved and generate ideas for near-term projects.

• [Aspect- and Impact-Weighted Criteria Assessment]: This method helps identify and prioritize activities in the organization that generate the most impact. First, sustainability leaders assign weights to criteria that describe ways the organization influences on the environment. A larger number weight indicates a higher importance. Next, sustainability managers determine the key processes in their organizations that have an impact on the weighted criteria. Each process is given a score for each criteria with lower scores having a lower impact and vice versa. Finally, the scores are multiplied by the weights and added up. The process with the highest score has the biggest impact and should therefore be given priority.

Chapter 5: Developing Sustainability Metrics and Reports

This chapter discusses effective ways sustainability leaders can use metrics to focus attention and generate concrete results. All pertinent data surrounding a sustainability issue should be narrowed down to a handful of key metrics in order to set realistic goals that employees can track and understand. It is also important for sustainability leaders to make sure that the metrics they select address all aspects of a sustainability issue and can be reported in a comprehensible and meaningful manner. The final part of the chapter discusses some methods sustainability leaders can use to decide which metrics to gather and report.

Key Concepts:

• [Should Targets Be Realistic or Audacious?]: There are two main methods for setting targets, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Setting realistic targets makes it easier for employees to envision the necessary steps to accomplish a goal, but it only achieves incremental improvements. In order to achieve full sustainability, a company must set more audacious targets which involve radical innovations to existing business practices. While audacious targets may be more prone to cynicism, a company should use a healthy mix of both realistic and audacious targets in order to achieve its sustainability objectives.

• [Narrow Down Your List of Metrics]: In order to better track and report substantive data, metrics should be narrowed down based on three criteria: availability, relevance, and proxies. Availability entails converting measures that an organization already tracks into useful metrics. Relevance involves finding metrics that can resonate with different audiences. Proxies refers to the ability of one metric to indicate the overall trends in a larger group of metrics.

Case Example:

• [Making Metrics Memorable at Schwabe, Williamson, and Wyatt]: This case emphasizes the importance of reporting metrics in an effective and meaningful way. At a large attorney firm, metrics were used to report paper consumption in terms of skyscraper stories rather than dollars or reams. The shock value from the metrics report inspired quick and meaningful change resulting in annual savings of $20,000.

Methods:

• [Sustainability Scorecard]: This method is used by companies when they need to figure out what metrics should be measured. First, managers post flip charts for each element of the sustainability framework and print out all relevant metrics. Then, employees can comb through the metrics and narrow them down to a list that will be tracked and reported by the company.

• [Sustainability Report Template]: This method is used to determine how a sustainability report should be organized as well as what metrics to include. Before designing a sample report, sustainability team members should review reports from other companies to get a better idea of the format and what to include. Team members then convene about what information should be included in the sustainability report that would be most impactful to their target audience.