What makes sustainability commitments stick?

Operating sustainably remains an important priority for organisations. It’s critical to long-term success and increasingly shaped by stakeholder expectations, even as political and consumer support has become more divided, and scrutiny of corporate sustainability claims has increased.

According to a study by PwC, 75% of workers say an organisation’s overall societal impact is important when choosing an employer, while 70% say the same when deciding whether to stay. At the same time, concerns around greenwashing are putting greater pressure on businesses to demonstrate that their sustainability claims are actually backed by meaningful action.

Many organisations now showcase their commitment through net-zero and other sustainability targets, but far fewer leaders are taking the time to understand how ready their organisation is to deliver them. In this article, we explore what can get in the way of turning sustainability commitments into meaningful action, and how leaders can create the alignment and ownership needed to make them stick.

A tough business proposition

The reality is that sustainability can still be a difficult proposition to sell internally in the short term. Even when there is support for the concept, the benefits of reducing emissions, changing supply chains or investing in new technologies may take years to realise, while the costs, disruption and competing priorities are immediate.

For leaders, the challenge understanding what might prevent sustainability ambitions from becoming reality. In our experience, three areas are particularly important:

1. Understanding how people see the challenge
2. Surfacing competing commitments
3. Creating ownership across the organisation
   

Sustainability can mean very different things to different people across an organisation. Understanding those perspectives is essential if leaders are going to create meaningful alignment.

Existing priorities, assumptions, incentives and ways of working can all influence how much attention sustainability actually receives. These background commitments need to be understood rather than left to operate unseen.

Sustainability can’t just sit with a sustainability team or a small group of senior leaders. Lasting progress requires people across the organisation to understand their role and take ownership of the outcomes.

Taking the time to understand these dynamics can help leaders see where the organisation is aligned, where people have different perspectives, and where existing ways of working could get in the way of progress.

Making sustainability a strategic agenda

Sustainability functions have become more central to many organisations in recent years. Increasingly, these teams also connect with strategy, operations, risk, investment and the wider purpose of the organisation.

But there is still a big difference between having sustainability within the strategy and embedding it into the way the organisation operates. For some businesses, sustainability commitments remain primarily a communications statement. Others have integrated them into their vision and purpose, established clear accountability and connected sustainability goals directly to business decisions. Most sit somewhere between these two ends of the spectrum.

The difference often comes down to execution of commitments.

Competing background commitments

Teams already have a lot going on. Existing workloads, targets and assumptions about how projects should be resourced all compete for attention. A sustainability strategy cannot simply be added to existing workflows and expected to succeed.

If sustainability is genuinely a strategic priority, leaders need to understand what is already occupying people's attention and have new conversations about what needs to change.

What are we already committed to? What assumptions are shaping the way we approach this? Where might priorities be in conflict? What would need to move for this ambition to become achievable?

Without those conversations, sustainability can easily become another initiative competing for resources rather than something that changes how the organisation operates.

Understanding the culture you're working with

At Achieve Breakthrough, we use diagnostic tools in a range of contexts, often to explore culture, values and alignment. These tools help us understand how individuals and teams see their roles, what they value and how those perspectives connect with the wider organisation.

That can be particularly valuable when it comes to sustainability because the scope of the challenge is so broad. One person might see progress through reducing waste or eliminating disposable products. Another might be focused on transforming supply chains. Someone else might see the biggest opportunity in product development, energy use or the organisation's wider social impact.

All of these perspectives can exist within the same organisation. Understanding them gives leaders a much stronger foundation for bringing people together around a shared ambition.

Enrolling our teams

Creating lasting sustainability commitments requires more than communicating the strategy. People need to understand what the ambition means for them and have a genuine opportunity to contribute to how it is achieved.

That starts with understanding the values, needs and perspectives already present across the organisation. From there, leaders can create the conversations needed to enrol people in the challenge and build support among stakeholders across the wider business ecosystem. This is particularly important when the change required is significant.

People are much more likely to take ownership when they understand the purpose behind an ambition, and can see how their role connects to it and have some influence over what happens next.

Collaborate versus compete

Human connection and shared ownership are therefore critical to making sustainability commitments stick.

The scale of change required to achieve a meaningful transition is bigger than any one team or function. It requires different parts of an organisation to collaborate, challenge existing assumptions and work towards outcomes that extend beyond individual responsibilities.

The same is true beyond the organisation itself. Suppliers, customers, partners and wider stakeholders all have a role to play. Sustainability commitments become more powerful when they are embedded into the way an organisation thinks, makes decisions and works together.

If you're looking to turn sustainability ambition into lasting action, get in touch.