Mainstreaming Corporate Sustainability

Using Proven Tools to Promote Business Success

Suzanne Farver

• Publisher: J. Ross Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781604278163
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Sustainable Development
• Index: Economics

Mainstreaming Corporate Sustainability is a practical guide to the leading tools and resources used to successfully integrate sustainability into a company's corporate culture. Through the examples of companies from around the world, it provides an overview of the basics of any successful sustainability program, including the various international standards and performance frameworks that can be adapted to companies striving to improve their sustainability performance. These standards are summarized and explained in clear language and a conversational tone, allowing the reader to absorb what can be a complicated maze of resources. Used as the centerpiece for a popular corporate sustainability class taught on campus and online at Harvard University Extension School, as well as other universities around the U.S., this guide provides students and professionals alike with an overview of the most valuable management tools and resources available today. The second edition has been expanded with updated resources and a greater emphasis on climate change and reducing a firm's carbon footprint. Mainstreaming Corporate Sustainability provides an understanding of the pitfalls and challenges of this ever-changing field. It helps the reader become adept at asking the right questions and speaking the language of sustainability professionals, providing guidance to become a leader in this important business arena. Recommendations for additional reading are provided throughout, allowing the reader to delve more deeply into the subject at any stage. Key Features • Provides step-by-step processes for building a corporate sustainability program from the ground up • Emphasizes environmental and social responsibility while providing tools to promote successful financial measurement and economic success • Includes key ingredients to enrich any existing sustainability program and prioritizes the various choices for action • Helps to identify risk and opportunity to create economic success when environmental and social challenges arise • Includes advice on stakeholder engagement and meeting communication challenges in today's shifting business world • Describes how to develop strategies and systems management to promote successful transitions from inefficient operations • Provides key advice for supply chain management and meeting challenges of the value chain for multi-national corporations • Gives information about reporting and how to develop a clear and successful sustainability re-port • Supplies ideas for innovation, design, and marketing to promote responsible stewardship and successful customer relations • Offers a great balance between application of the tools/metrics/frameworks and the understanding of the philosophical underpinnings • Integrates the various elements of sustainability into a cohesive and systematic methodology that broadens how you will view corporate responsibility and the options available for addressing the pressing sustainability challenges facing our world • WAV offers teaching material for adopting professors—available from the Web Added Value Download Resource Center at the J. Ross Publishing website.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY

Where sustainability works best is where an organization’s leadership gets it and wants it to happen and enables it to happen so everyone from the person who sweeps the floor to the finance director feels part of that conversation.

—Will Day, Chairman, Sustainable Development Commission

WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY?

The word sustainability seems to have many different meanings floating about these days. Politicians use it when talking about keeping the government from running into debt. Environmentalists think of sustainability from the perspective of maintaining resources and reducing pollution. Farmers think about having enough water and fertile soil to grow healthy crops. Everyday folks think about sustainability from the standpoint of paying the bills and keeping food on the table. But what does it mean to use this term in relation to a modern corporation?

Many of you are probably familiar with the Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainable development (Bärlund 2004–05):

• Development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

This is an excellent and well-accepted definition for the purposes of making sustainable development and policy decisions. However, for a corporation, it helps to have a bit more flesh to dig into. What about the human resources side of sustainability? Shouldn’t sustainability include that as well?

In addition, how can a corporation identify a planning timeline? How far into the future should it plan? Are we talking about the needs of current generations within the control of the corporation, or does it include its entire supply chain and future generations as well? What about the demands of customers or suppliers who may have different priorities? What if the increase in price of certain resources is forcing a corporation to choose products that have a negative effect on society or the environment? How do you make the right choices?

MAINSTREAMING SUSTAINABILITY

To answer these questions, we need to understand how to drive sustainability into the fabric of the organization such that it becomes systemic. Every system within the organization must include parameters to encourage better decision making regarding not just economic concerns but also environmental and social concerns. This is what mainstreaming sustainability means—making sustainability part of a company’s DNA.

The tools and concepts included in this book can be used to help guide a corporation along the path toward mainstreaming sustainability. This includes setting the initial vision; engaging with various stakeholders to understand their concerns and to develop a strategy; communicating with suppliers, governing bodies, or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to ensure full collaboration; complying with rules and regulations while striving to perform beyond those requirements; and measuring performance along the way to ensure that policies and decisions are supported and revised if necessary for optimum performance.

The goal of sustainability is exactly that: a goal. It may never be fully achieved, and even when a company is close to achieving that goal, it may only be for a short time. The late Ray Anderson, founder and CEO of Interface, coined the phrase striving for Mount Sustainability. Sometimes it feels like a long climb to the top, with narrow curves and boulders along the way. Tension will always exist between the three areas of responsibility—environmental, social, and economic—that may be difficult to completely satisfy for everyone all the time. But striving for that balance is key. It is that tension that keeps every person in the organization on his or her toes, looking for the best solution to every challenge. As the quote from Will Day at the beginning of this chapter emphasizes, sustainability leadership needs to come from the top, but it also requires buy-in from everyone in the organization.

CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY DEFINED

Most sustainability experts today argue that corporate sustainability involves three basic resource areas that are impacted by any company: environmental, social, and economic. Some refer to these as “the three responsibilities” or “the triple bottom line.” The responsibilities of a company within these three areas can be described in various ways, but well-accepted terms include environmental responsibility, social well-being, and economic prosperity. These encompass the spectrum of what is involved for a company doing business in today’s global marketplace. For any corporation, the day-to-day challenge is making its sustainability goals operational. Does the Brundtland definition of sustainability provide enough guidance to do so?

This brings us back to our initial series of questions. How do you define sustainability such that it drives the operational decisions that are made on a daily basis? Defining sustainability in a way that encourages transparency and accountability is also important. This makes everyone in the company responsible for the advancement of sustainability goals. Collective responsibility and accountability drives quality and reduces waste. For these reasons, the following definition is proposed for corporate sustainability:

Corporate sustainability means balancing environmental stewardship, social well-being, and economic prosperity while driving toward a goal of long-term success for the health of the company and its stakeholders. A sustainable corporation is transparent in its management of these responsibilities and is held accountable to its stakeholders for its results.

This definition implies that the balancing effort is a constant challenge for the organization. Figure 1.1 illustrates the tension between these three responsibilities with the sustainability sweet spot in the middle.

Managing these responsibilities means always striving to strike the right equilibrium between all three, while also being accountable to the stakeholders who are concerned about any one or all of those responsibilities. Answering to the stakeholders’ concerns is an important part of any company—especially in today’s age of hyper-communication.

Figure 1.1 Sustainability sweet spot

Transparency is also required, meaning that an organization must communicate openly and honestly regarding the risks it faces as a company as well as its plans for improvement. Some companies see this as a threat, but woe to those who fail to disclose information that is later revealed in a negative light. Such an incident can foster distrust and may cause a company’s reputation to falter.

The three areas of responsibility will be covered in detail in separate chapters. Sustainability reporting and accountability will be analyzed as well, including the various tools and concepts that companies can employ to help make objective decisions with stakeholder help regarding what and how to report progress and challenges.

Thinking ahead constitutes a large part of the planning process for sustainability. Planning for success as well as possible breakdowns reflect sound management principles of any management system. Using fewer resources, designing a positive and supportive workplace, and paying attention to important stakeholder concerns all help to create a more productive and a more profitable company. Mainstreaming sustainability throughout a company is simply good business.

A POSITIVE VIEW

The idea of approaching sustainability from a positive perspective or framework is one that is emphasized by many in the field. Pollution prevention (P2) is one example of such an approach. Its basic premise is to improve business processes overall in order to increase efficiency, thereby reducing the overall amount of toxic emissions. This is promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency as a positive solution to pollution, as opposed to charging fees and requiring permits for toxic waste.

Other examples of employing a positive approach include the ideas promoted by Amory Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), which, for over thirty years, has consistently encouraged business-led solutions to the world’s most challenging energy problems. With a mission to drive the efficient and restorative use of the world’s resources, RMI is recognized as a leader at creating positive solutions while working with a variety of unexpected partners, including Walmart and the Pentagon.

Another example of a positive vision for sustainability is the Appreciative Inquiry model—an approach to developing organizations centered on finding constructive resolutions and solutions by identifying the common positive values among its participants. Appreciative Inquiry was originally developed by David Cooperrider in 2005, and it has since become popular among many sustainability professionals.

Numerous permutations of positive thinking have been promoted throughout modern society, from Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking to the plethora of books on success available in today’s market. Whatever the package, the idea is sound and an effort will be made to emphasize positive solutions throughout this book.

By harnessing the collective consciousness of an organization in a positive manner, people can be inspired to new heights. Creativity can be unleashed with more energy to work together in a more holistic manner. Many psychological studies support the connection between happiness and better health or longevity. People are also more productive in a workplace that supports a positive vision for change rather than a negative environment of threats. Research has shown that people stay at their jobs for reasons other than just a paycheck. Work approval and support often trump salary on the list of reasons for remaining in a particular work environment.

Part of creating a sustainability management system (SMS) includes monitoring results and promoting continuous improvement. This is another example of employing a positive vision at work. Companies must strive to improve their processes every time they undergo review. Rather than fixating on a problem, focusing on improvement helps to keep the emphasis on positives. Emphasis on positives not only improves the process itself; it also improves morale. While some are obsessed with problems and mistakes, turning that negative energy around to focus on a positive vision and continual improvement helps to keep everyone motivated and happy.

EMPHASIZING WHAT WORKS

To incorporate sustainability into an organization therefore requires that we look for what works in an organization. Emphasizing those positives enables the company to act responsibly in the three areas of sustainability. The tangible results of this responsible behavior may be a series of statements describing the organization’s positive view. As examples, such statements might reflect core values like honesty, integrity, respect, or fairness. Because these terms resonate with most people as commonly held values, their use reinforces positive and constructive behavior.

If an organization creates an internal assessment program within the SMS, documentation of sustainability successes creates a synergistic drive. This drive gains momentum within the organization and will eventually become self-supporting. Employees are encouraged to participate and offer new ideas as management review provides rewards and support. Pride in accomplishments permeates the organization. Success therefore becomes an everyday means of doing business.

This positive energy and excitement is what supports sustainability over the long term. There should be no end to the continuous improvement process. Successes are built on real experiences in the organization. Reporting on those successes becomes a priority in itself, supporting further improvement and innovation.

RESPONSIBILITY FROM THE ISO PERSPECTIVE

What does responsibility mean from a corporate or business standpoint? How do you frame this idea such that it can be managed and made operational within the organization?

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) can help us here. Founded in 1947, ISO is a nongovernmental, independent organization made up of representatives from various national standards organizations in over 160 countries and coordinated in Geneva, Switzerland. Since its inception, ISO has developed over 22,000 individual standards to guide the operation of business and technology around the world. ISO has established industry-specific standards as well as general standards emphasizing envi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• List of Appendices
• About the Author
• WAV™ Page
• Chapter 1: Introduction to Sustainability
• Chapter 2: The Corporation Perspective
• Chapter 3: Business Case for Sustainability
• Chapter 4: Sustainability Footprint
• Chapter 5: Governance and Management
• Chapter 6: Stakeholder Engagement
• Chapter 7: Environmental Stewardship
• Chapter 8: Social Well-Being
• Chapter 9: Economic Prosperity
• Chapter 10: Corporate Sustainability Strategy
• Chapter 11: Sustainability Management System
• Chapter 12: Supply Chain Management
• Chapter 13: Sustainability Metrics
• Chapter 14: Reporting on Sustainability Performance
• Chapter 15: Design, Marketing, and Stewardship
• Chapter 16: Innovation
• Chapter 17: Conclusion
• Appendices