Your 5-step approach to sustainable development

By Caroline Chamberland

The subject of sustainable development is certainly fashionable, and we’re hearing about it more and more frequently in the media and around us. Many companies want to start down this path, and are wondering how to approach the concept. Here are our five-step recommendations

Before you start: why

Before embarking on a sustainable development initiative, and as Simon Sinek recommends, it’s important to start with the “why” behind it. The success of any project depends on the management’s commitment, which must be supported by solid reasons and aligned with a clear objective. To help you improve your thinking, here are some interesting potential outcomes: Here are a few to get you started:

• Environmental, social and economic benefits for the company and the community;
• Employee involvement and increased retention;
• Gaining a competitive edge;
• Opening up new markets or reaching new customers;
• Meet new stakeholder needs;
• Reduce costs and increase profits;
• Reinforcing the company’s credibility and sustainability (executives of a profit-driven company would rather go to the Bahamas).

Identifying expected results and clarifying objectives helps confirm management’s commitment. This commitment is necessary for all large-scale projects, but it is even more so in sustainable development, to ensure the sustainability of actions, and it will be tested at every stage of the project. Indeed, to ensure that the changes made fit harmoniously into the corporate culture, and to avoid the project ending up as nothing more than a fine marketing strategy, management’s commitment must be sustained over time, and this will only be possible if the project is based on the right reasons, especially as some of the effects of organizational changes may only become visible after a certain time. Let’s not forget that we’re working primarily for future generations. The reasons identified, the objectives and the management’s commitment can be brought together in a sustainable development policy, which will serve as a guide throughout the process.

Step 1: Diagnosis

Just as continuous improvement aims to eliminate the real causes of a problem, the process begins with a diagnosis of sustainable development practices. This involves identifying what the organization is already doing well from this point of view, and what gaps need to be addressed to achieve world-class standards. This diagnosis involves the following analyses:

• Identifying the organization’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of sustainable development.
• Identifying the activities that have the greatest impact on sustainable development.
• Making a list of relevant stakeholders, i.e. those who can influence the company’s strategy, but also those who are potentially negatively impacted by the organization’s activities, products or services.
• For each of these stakeholders, identifying their needs and expectations in terms of sustainable development.
• It should be noted that this diagnosis and assessment of the needs and expectations of relevant stakeholders may influence the initial vision for the project, which may require readjustment of the sustainable development policy initially developed.

Step 2: Planning

Based on the policy and the diagnostic results, the organization can define objectives related to sustainable development. The policy and objectives will now serve as a guide for the company’s employees and partners on the moral commitments that apply to daily activities. By integrating them with other strategic objectives, we affirm the management’s commitment to achieving them. The first step allowed the development of a list of gaps in sustainable development principles; the second step now aims to develop the objectives and the action plan to achieve them. Of course, we will ensure that the objectives are developed according to the SMART concept and align them with the organization’s strategic planning. Indeed, these objectives should not be managed by a separate committee as they may be forgotten by management, significantly reducing the likelihood of achieving them within the planned timeframe. By integrating them with strategic objectives, they will be deployed at every level of the organization, in every business unit or company process. Achieving the objectives will be made possible by planning activities aimed at eliminating gaps, specifying annual targets to be achieved, identifying those responsible for each action, clear deadlines, and detailing the methods planned for monitoring and measuring their achievement.

Step 3: Implementation

Deploying the action plan may seem like an obvious step, but it is often at this stage that delays begin to emerge. These activities are generally in addition to normal work, and most of us will tend to deprioritize them, resulting in missed target dates. By maintaining rigor in following the plan, the chances of success can be improved. A good way to implement activities according to planned dates is to involve all employees. Besides being a powerful motivator and facilitating change management, the work is distributed among several people, reducing the burden on each individual.

Step 4: Measurement

After implementation, it’s time to check the achievement of the objectives. Be careful, it is not just about verifying if the actions are completed, but confirming that the completed action allowed reaching the initially targeted objective. Adjustments are likely to be necessary at this point, and perhaps even new actions. This does not mean the project was poorly planned, but rather that the situation may have evolved unexpectedly. For example, the best plans developed in February 2020 may not have achieved their objectives. This measurement must also take into account other unplanned effects, whether positive or negative. It is crucial to be completely transparent and honest at this stage to allow for the improvement of methods. Denial and bad faith should be removed from the room as quickly as possible.

Step 5: Reporting

Reporting is the act of communicating the results to the various stakeholders identified in step 1, whether they are internal or external to the organization. This report can be a powerful marketing tool for your sustainable development program, provided it is done honestly and identifies the next steps, regardless of whether the results are positive or negative. It is likely that you will have slightly different versions of your report depending on the stakeholder it is addressed to. This is not about changing the results but rather focusing attention on the portion that concerns them. Indeed, each stakeholder has different expectations and needs, and the action plan results probably affect them differently. Thus, shareholders will be interested in costs and return on investment, while employees will want to know about improvements to their context and the personal benefits they will now gain from environmental enhancements. Various templates can be used for reporting, but we recommend choosing a simple model, especially for the first year of implementation, and evaluating based on your strategic objectives. Note that reporting is a periodic activity, and the company must choose the frequency at which it wants to communicate the results of its sustainable development program to its stakeholders. This period should not be so short that there is no progress to report, nor too long, which could give the impression that the initiative has been abandoned.

Conclusion

To ensure the success of your sustainable development initiative, we recommend identifying from the outset the reasons for undertaking it. From there, the five steps are diagnosis, planning, implementation, measurement, and reporting. Feel free to share with us the progress and results of your initiative so that we can celebrate with you.