Companies are facing unprecedented challenges to understand and address their social and environmental impacts. Many companies try to address all these challenges from the sustainability department, rather than sharing responsibility out to the business. What would a more effective model look like and what are its key components?
I believe three areas are of particular interest: information exchange,
Set information free
Sustainability departments generate huge amounts of data which value risks going to waste if it doesn’t reach commercial decision-makers in a format that is understandable and actionable. It’s often better to start small and simple to demonstrate the concept. At Waitrose we developed over a few weeks an Excel application that aggregated audit information into a dashboard, providing each technical manager with
At H&M we brought in production controllers into the sustainability department to start the process of quantifying and packaging information in a way that was adapted to how the production manager’s dashboard was constructed. This put a whole other perspective on the data that we had previously only used within the department, but was key to the business alignment process. Data needs to be in the right hands for results to happen. But even then, those hands need to know what to do with it.
Update your job descriptions
If commercial teams are being handed more data without a clear idea of how to assess or action it, not much is gained. It stands to reason that to capitalise on your sustainability work the job descriptions and recruitment profiles need to specify a sufficient degree of competence in this area. How else would you know when individuals and teams need training? Conversely, anyone wanting to earn the right to be listened to by commercial teams need to understand the business logic and key functions of the company. It’s natural that sustainability teams, being highly specialised, are not as familiar with the commercial aspects at the outset, but job descriptions should require this to provide a clear benchmark.
Updating your job descriptions gives you an opportunity to identify such gaps during performance reviews and also makes clear to recruiters how to evaluate candidates for your next round of hiring. Through this competence development, sustainability and commercial teams will come to share a language, helping them to solve problems closest to where they appear.
Place problems close to people
Sustainability departments are often tasked with solving the problems they identify, but the logical endpoint of that strategy is a myopic department sprawling to contain a miniature replica of the company itself. That is hardly a viable strategy. Besides, sustainability problems are business outcomes and should be treated as any other adverse result. Sustainability teams are advisers, and building the capability of the whole organisation is their key objective.
Place the problem close to right people by having the sustainability team work on creating a capable team in each business function. Organisational development should be an iterative process that provides real evidence for what works, and providing a natural cycle for re-assessment and adaptation. The organisation is never finished, this is just the current version.
Recommendations
- Build the minimum viable tool for presenting the most critical sustainability information to commercial decision-makers. Iterative based on feedback.
- Update sustainability team job descriptions to require the necessary experience to understand the business logic to effectively work as advisers and facilitators.
- Place problems close to people where the influence to affect change is the greatest.