Making Sustainability Every Person's Job
What organizations can do to integrate sustainability.
Years ago one state's environmental protection agency was undertaking
a major sustainability initiative. Its staff was passionate about the
environment; many members were highly educated environmental scientists
and engineers. The agency kicked off its efforts with all the right
strategies: top leadership endorsed the program, most of the employees
were trained on the concepts of sustainability, and the agency even
incorporated sustainability goals into its long-term strategic plan.
However, one year after this flurry of activity, very little had
changed. The sustainability champions in the organization were stymied
and confused. They thought they had done all that was necessary to get
their initiative to take root. But further investigation revealed a
number of barriers preventing a real integration of the effort. The
problems uncovered and the strategies that have since been employed to
battle them provide important lessons about helping sustainability take
root in an organization.
Problem One: Sustainability is not seen as a Strategic Priority:
Sustainability initiatives are too often viewed as something noble to
do for the planet. As long as this attitude prevails, going green will
always be seen as something nice to do when there is spare time and
money. It is leadership's responsibility to frame sustainability as the
business issue that it is. Employees need to understand the strategic
case for pursuing sustainability, the threats associated with ignoring
it, and the opportunities it presents for business improvements.
There are a number of tools, both subtle and explicit, that
leadership can use to convey the importance of sustainability to
employees:
Make the business case by translating sustainability trends into
business issues and help employees see how the organization will be
impacted by factors such as climate change, resource scarcity, and
changing consumer preferences. Incorporate sustainability targets into
your strategic plan. Draw the link between sustainability and previous
initiatives to underscore the notion of continuous improvement and
dispel the perception of fad hopping. Clarify why sustainability is the
next natural step for your organization.
Hold managers accountable for results related to sustainability by
incorporating these expectations into their plans, metrics, and
performance reviews. Expect managers to regularly review progress on
sustainability projects.
Re-evaluate individual job descriptions and incorporate into them
duties related to sustainability. As long as employees believe
sustainability is something "extra" to do, something on top of the
already full plate of duties they're juggling, meaningful change is
unlikely.
Create real opportunities for employee involvement. Launch teams and
committees to work on sustainability projects. Give official sanction to
sustainability teams by providing them resources they need to be
successful and allowing them to meet on work time. Asking groups to meet
on their own time sends the message that sustainability is not integral
to real work. Green efforts should also be given visibility and public
acknowledgement of their accomplishments.
Identify symbolic management actions that will demonstrate
leadership's commitment to the efforts. For example, no one questioned
the sincerity of Nancy Stueber, president of the Oregon Museum of
Science and Industry, about her commitment to sustainability because
employees saw her walk through the office sporting her bike helmet and
riding gear.
Problem Two: Employees don't see the Relevance of Sustainability to their Jobs
Often we find that employees get excited about sustainability, but
aren't sure how to mix it into their daily routine. It's important for
organizations to make explicit the link between a sustainability
initiative and each person's job. For example, the environmental agency
mentioned earlier had code enforcement officials who thought their job
was strictly to interpret and enforce existing regulations. But as they
examined their duties in a sustainable light, they discovered other
opportunities: offering consulting services in conjunction with their
code reviews, and making suggestions to customers about how to meet the
code by applying principles of sustainability in their projects. They
still fulfilled their original obligations, but added a valuable service
at the same time. This improved their relationship with those they
regulated and made them feel better about their work.
Employees often know intuitively their actions may not be
sustainable, but have trouble determining what to do differently.
Conduct an impacts assessment at the work group or individual job level.
Help employees explicitly map out their inputs, outputs, and key
activities and then assess them against your sustainability framework.
This will enable employees to see their impacts and opportunities for
improvement.
Do back casting at the work group level. Help employees break out of a
day-to-day focus by thinking way into the future-the same as you would
for your organization as a whole. Ask what their function would look
like in 20 years if it were completely sustainable. What would they be
doing and what would they be avoiding? Working backwards from that
distant vision, help them see how tasks would evolve over time by asking
what they would need to be doing in 10 years in order to achieve that
20-year vision. And in order to implement the 10-year goals, what would
they need to be doing in five years? Continue this backward-chaining
process until they identify the immediate tasks that will move them
toward the vision of sustainability.
Another useful strategy is to share inspiring stories from other
parts of the organization, or even other organizations, that illustrate
how people are applying sustainability to similar functions. We love
telling office workers, for example, about the law firm we discovered
that is virtually paperless. When people see for themselves what others
in similar positions are doing, they can assess their own practices in a
new light.
Employ a checklist or assessment tool. Many of the sustainability
tools, such as LEED (the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
standard developed by the US Green Building Council) or SCORE
(Sustainability Competency and Opportunity Rating and Evaluation
assessment developed by AXIS) describe sustainable actions at the work
level. Taking employees through instruments like these will help break
down lofty principles of sustainability into day-to-day tasks.
Problem Three: It Takes Extra Effort to "Do the Right Thing"
Some employees will care enough to go out of their way to behave
sustainably. Others won't and you will have to make sustainability easy
or automatic. This requires embedding sustainability into the
organization's structures, policies, and business systems. This is the
ultimate form of integration; the point at which the sustainable option
becomes the normal way of doing business.
Change the physical environment, since it has a big impact on the way
we behave. SERA Architects in Portland, Oregon, for example, removed
all the desk side trash cans in the office over one weekend and replaced
them with paper recycling bins. Now if employees really want to throw
something away, they have to cross the office to find the single office
trash can. Other changes to the physical environment can be more subtle.
Consider setting the default on all your printers and copiers to
double-sided printing, so that people don't have to make the conscious
choice. If you have automated purchasing systems, be sure green supplies
come up first in the choice of options. When you're remodeling your
office or planning a move, incorporate sustainable materials into your
design and locate your office so that employees can take advantage of
more sustainable transportation options.
Rewrite organizational policies, since they also help to determine
behavior. Consider rewriting your purchasing policies to include
sustainability criteria. Include sustainability language in your vendor
contracts and shift your 401K investments to socially responsible funds.
Make sure that you are not inadvertently encouraging unsustainable
behavior by subsidizing parking or providing Styrofoam cups in your
break rooms. Adapt your management systems, since they are probably the most
powerful levers of behavior change at your disposal. Fold sustainability
criteria into hiring standards so that you end up recruiting people who
understand and support your efforts. Promote people who take
sustainability seriously. Above all, make sure your performance metrics
at the organizational, department, and individual levels include targets
for your sustainability efforts and are regularly reviewed and acted
upon.
Sustainability is too important to the survival of our planet and our
economy to risk poor implementation. We can take advantage of the
lessons learned by pioneers in this field to ensure sustainable
practices take deep root in our organizations instead of falling victim
to the "flavor of the month" syndrome. Sustainability, after all, isn't
something extra people do; it is the new standard for the way things
are.
Strategies to consider before launching your own effort:
Craft the business case
Hold managers accountable for results
Re-evaluate individual job descriptions
Create real opportunities for employee involvement
Take symbolic actions
Craft the business case
Hold managers accountable for results
Re-evaluate individual job descriptions
Create real opportunities for employee involvement
Take symbolic actions
Strategies to overcome the confusion of where to start:
Conduct an impacts assessment
Do backcasting
Share inspiring stories
Employ a checklist or assessment tool
Conduct an impacts assessment
Do backcasting
Share inspiring stories
Employ a checklist or assessment tool
Strategies for implementing sustainability initiatives:
Change the physical environment
Rewrite organizational policies
Adapt your management systems
Change the physical environment
Rewrite organizational policies
Adapt your management systems
Corporate Responsibility;Human Resources;Social Responsibility;Sustainable Enterprise;
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