You're a sustainability professional. How can you create a culture of sustainability in your company?

1 Assess the current situation

Before you start implementing any sustainability initiatives, you need to understand the current state of your company's sustainability performance, culture, and goals. Conduct a sustainability audit or assessment to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your company's environmental and social practices. Use relevant frameworks, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to benchmark your company against industry standards and best practices. Communicate the results of your assessment to your leadership and key stakeholders, and highlight the benefits of improving your company's sustainability performance.

2 Define your vision and strategy

Based on your assessment, you need to define a clear and compelling vision and strategy for your company's sustainability journey. Your vision should express the desired future state of your company's sustainability impact, and your strategy should outline the objectives, actions, and indicators that will help you achieve your vision. Your vision and strategy should align with your company's mission, values, and business goals, and reflect the expectations and needs of your stakeholders. Involve your leadership and key stakeholders in developing your vision and strategy, and ensure that they endorse and support them.

3 Engage and educate your employees

Your employees are the most important asset and resource for creating a culture of sustainability in your company. You need to engage and educate them on the importance and benefits of sustainability, and inspire them to take action and contribute to your sustainability goals. You can use various methods to engage and educate your employees, such as workshops, newsletters, webinars, campaigns, competitions, awards, and feedback mechanisms. You can also create sustainability champions or ambassadors who can act as role models and advocates for sustainability in their teams and departments.

4 Integrate sustainability into your operations

To create a culture of sustainability in your company, you need to integrate sustainability into your core business processes and operations. This means that you need to embed sustainability principles and practices into your decision-making, planning, budgeting, procurement, production, delivery, and evaluation processes. You also need to align your policies, procedures, and standards with your sustainability vision and strategy, and ensure that they are communicated and enforced across your company. You can use tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA), carbon footprinting, or social return on investment (SROI) to measure and monitor your sustainability impact and performance.

5 Communicate and collaborate with your stakeholders

Creating a culture of sustainability in your company also requires that you communicate and collaborate with your external stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, investors, regulators, media, and communities. You need to communicate your sustainability vision, strategy, goals, and achievements to your stakeholders, and demonstrate how you are creating value for them and the society. You also need to collaborate with your stakeholders to identify and address their expectations, needs, and concerns, and to leverage their expertise, resources, and networks. You can use platforms such as websites, reports, social media, events, or forums to communicate and collaborate with your stakeholders.

6 Review and improve your sustainability performance

Creating a culture of sustainability in your company is an ongoing and dynamic process. You need to review and improve your sustainability performance regularly, and ensure that you are on track to achieve your sustainability vision and goals. You need to collect and analyze data and feedback on your sustainability impact and performance, and use them to evaluate your progress and identify areas for improvement. You also need to celebrate and reward your successes and achievements, and recognize and appreciate the efforts and contributions of your employees and stakeholders.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?