How to.

Last week I posted an article here about the people (He Tāngata) doing the sustainability and climate change mahi on the frontline, and working so hard to make the change we need to see in the world – and how they’re doing in managing all the things themselves.

We thought it might be useful to follow-up with some practical tips and reckons as to how we, as some of those sustainability professionals, have found some ways to have a positive impact, in our own experiences. We’d so love for this to kick-off a dialogue that could help make connections, find support, and enable us all to find ways to go faster and harder in this urgent time of need for change.

So, I’ll go first. (NB: Please forgive me if this occurs as teaching you how to suck eggs – I’m aware that most of you reading this are well more experienced and savvier than I am; but for those who are looking for some hot takes, please take this as maybe something to consider).

Some of the ways I’ve found over the years to cause change where it’s been hard:

1. Figure out what matters to who you’re talking to.

There are as many interpretations of the word “sustainability” as there are ears in the world hearing it. When I say that word, you might hear “green” or “low-carbon transport” or “recycling” or “ESG-linked finance” or “veganism” or “alignment with international climate risk reporting taxonomies”. It follows that you cannot assume that what you mean when you’re talking about your enterprise climate risk strategy, for instance, is landing the same way to any of the receivers of this context. Figuring out what a sustainable supply chain means, for instance, to your operational team, versus your marketing team, and getting them to integrate changes into their own specific operating context, is not only inclusive and clarifying, but also transfers the doing of it onto the people whose day job it is. The best way to figure out what matters to people and to tailor your message to them accordingly? Ask them.

2. Talk to their values.

A bit like the above: listen first. We all know that humans make decisions based on their values, first. (And almost never because they’re told to). There’s a bunch of research which backs up that this is just how our brains work - it’s intrinsic, and instinctive. No matter how much the data/science/IPCC findings make great sense to you, and you think everybody should be flying into action accordingly, if it doesn’t speak to their personal values, people are not going to act on it. So, listen and figure out what human value people hold around the Board table / Exec meeting / operational P&P / customer trend, and apply it to your programmatic context accordingly. Play the ball, not the man.

3. The trick to good story-telling is having a good story to tell.

Depending on where your role sits in an organisation, you could either have more of an operational lens, or more of a change-maker lens – or, more commonly these days – both. At some stage, it is likely that you will be asked to share the results of the good stuff you have achieved with the broader public / customers / your ELT / client / in your Annual Report. Figuring out how and where you can tell those good stories with integrity and authenticity is key to making long-term progress. People are unforgiving of greenwashing, in a way that’s arguably unique – and once you’ve lost them, it’s almost impossible to get them back. Make sure you’ve thought of all the risks before you go shouting from the rooftops. But when you have, do! God knows we all need the inspiration.

4. Do the big things, and the little things.

Figuring out what’s most important to your organisation (otherwise known as a “materiality assessment”) is absolutely critical in figuring out where to put your energies, resources, and money. Doing the big things (and as previously mentioned, you pretty much already know what they are for you) is essential to deal to first and foremost, or anything else will look like window-dressing and misleading (see above!) But don’t let that stop you from doing the little things as well. In short – do what your stakeholders would expect to see of you, but also do the things that make sense to your company, and advance your culture. If it makes your workforce happy to have volunteering days, or separated bins in the office, or fairtrade coffee in the cafeteria, then yes absolutely do that. But do the big things right, first.

5. Be honest; even when it hurts.

My old mate Jonathan Hill pretty much wrote the book on this. He is as straight-up as it gets, and yes, often it did hurt. Jonathan is a passionate deer hunter, and is a man who very much lives by his values. So when we ran a “design your own pie and we’ll sell it” campaign at Z (NB: it was called something cooler than that) and he had to front-up to the media when a vegan pie won the comp by a country mile, it just about killed him. By the way, that vegan pie is still in stock, and sells like hotcakes (sorry). But when it turned out that Z’s pie baker was (very much unintentionally) making the pies out of flour that it turned out wasn’t 100% vegan, things had the risk of going horribly wrong. Jonathan swung into action, went big and bold and loud and public on how we’d made a mistake, called mea culpa, apologised, and fixed it overnight. Gave the unsold (frozen) pies away to charity, and started over. The storm below over in days. It was a masterclass in straight-up honesty.

My old friend Sam Bridgman shares a break-through moment for him, when he was working with his Board and Leadership Team to set 2030 decarbonisation targets and likely pathways to achieve them. His job was to demystify and explain what was achievable, and what actions would contribute most; and therefore where to put their re-education efforts. Sam found “The key was clear, simple communication that took a lot of complex information and made it simple to understand and take out what they needed. In this case I worked with a designer and made an infographic that I used frequently. The interesting thing was that the information also showed I/the business didn’t have all the answers yet. There was still a big gap between where we could get to and where we need to get to. But the comms meant that we could have focused discussions where needed - closing the gap - rather than all the other confusion and questions about impact of likely solutions then we would have had in the past. It allowed us to have the conversation where it was most valuable.”

6. Be ok with your piece of the puzzle.

As we all know, this sustainability game has gotten mind-spinningly complex in the last few years. The things we now need to know about, and have insights and opinions on are proliferating by the day. The Linked In articles and climate change professionals WhatsApp group notifications that ping me several times a day (and night) are a constant reminder of what I don’t know. And the scary thing is, not that long ago, I did know. It’s taken a while, but I now trust that I know a lot about the stuff I need to know about, and I don’t need to know it all. And can we just take a moment to all give collective thanks to the likes of Daniel Street who does the hard graft in bringing the juicy newsworthy bits to our Linked In for us, bless their souls.

7. Spread the love.

Many of us are still the lone wolf in our organisation, but that is increasingly not the case. We now have whole sustainability teams(!) and even better, we work for organisations who get it. The Head of Procurement “getting it” on needing a supplier sustainability code of conduct changed my life when I was at Z (bless your heart Simon Dombroski) and drove really granular enterprise-wide change in a way I never could have on my own.

My friend Claire Waghorn at Christchurch Airport is all about connections. She says “With my wider workplace, it’s about always building relationships first. So inductions with new staff for me is about taking folk for coffee, hearing about their lives/ interests/ values, and sure enough, there is always a sustainability connection - might be a love of outdoorsy stuff so I lean into a “love it protect it” connection, some are social sustainability leaning, so what can we do to support our community or more vulnerable folk.  Then when I need to get them on board with initiatives often it feels more like we’re looking for actions together, rather than me pushing them.”

8. Surround yourself with your tribe.

There’s a group of sustainability professional cronies in Wellington (we call ourselves the “Sustainarati”) who get together pretty regularly to swap stories, share tips, and generally provide emotional and professional therapy (usually over a beer). Not only could I not do my job and keep my marbles without this group of absolute legends (you know who you are) but they have saved me time, angst, and the reinvention of wheels over the years. None of us takes this for granted, though – it takes a bit of logistical admin to deliberately plan to get together (and even sometimes the odd agenda) to really get the value out of it. And value there is; in spades.

As the lovely Rachel Tinkler at Mint Asset Management says: “So often, sustainability professionals are lone wolves, and while you can and should look for champions within your business, it's important to also build a network of peers who can sympathise and problem solve with you as they are going through the same challenges in their roles (often alone too). Over the last 7 or so years I've witnessed the community I'm in (Responsible Investment professionals within funds management) become a supportive, uplifting community that supports each other through the challenges these roles face - and it's an absolute privilege to be able to count many of them as friends.

Kelly and Olly at Oxygen have set up the Young Sustainability Professionals network in Auckland (get in touch if you want to know more!) As Kelly, says “The purpose of the group is not to so much to share knowledge, but to share experiences and support one another in our unique roles. The group has allowed me to feel more connected to others like myself in the industry which has had amazing wellbeing co-benefits! Sometimes you don't need to learn something new, but just need to know that others are dealing with the same challenges.”

9. Take a step back.

It’s way too easy to get overwhelmed with the enormity of the change we need to make, in the time we need to make it. This is not all on you. It never ceases to amaze and to humble me the number of shoulders we have to the wheel now. Always remind yourself to look down the mountain, not just up the mountain, and reflect on the progress we have made; are making.

10. Get out in nature.

Remind yourself why you’re doing this. As Rachel says: “I don't think us folks would be in this line of work if we weren't desperately passionate to see the change we know is so desperately needed – so we also need to take care of ourselves in the process. I have to remind myself of the basics - breathing, exercise, spending time in nature, eating well, setting and holding boundaries at work because this all does take an emotional toll.”

This precious planet we live on stands no chance of healing if we don’t take good care of it. Same goes for you. I’m fortunate enough to live by the sea and by the bush, and there’s nothing in the world more grounding than getting out into the trees or going for a swim and reminding yourself of why we do what we do. To protect our precious place; our turangwaewae. We are all here for this.