Ideaplants

Kanal Consulting Group a US-based management firm has developed a 12 step guideline to Implement sustainability accross an organization.


As reported on greenbiz.com, they propose the list of steps to implement sustainability in order to improve the “bottom line and the environment”.


The list covers: Be coherent in what you do, have a proper strategy & model, get everyone on board and roll this out across departments.





Employee engagement seems to be one of the key components that are still perceived as challenging when it comes to implementing sustainability.


In a way it makes sense – we are dealing with individuals on whose motivation the success of the project depends. Coming up with a really motivating internal campaign to get everyone on board, opening up the plan so employees can propose their own ideas requires not only a lot of preparation but also a rethinking of the current thinking that is being done around sustainable development. Is it time for an open source approach for global companies?

Here an interview from a Social Media presentation I gave at The Hub last week together with Oihana (eMarketeer at The Hub):



You may wonder what this post has to do with Sustainability: I do believe that the shift towards social media is not only important for Corporate Marketers. The fact that corporations have to become more transparent also means they have to start reviewing their current business operations: How compliant are we really? And how do our stakeholders perceive our performance?

Some years ago it would have been a great opportunity for a Business to move towards social & environmental responsibility to gain a competitive advantage. Today it becomes more and more a must to not fall behind your competitors and to avoid a potential crisis.

Being truly transparent does not only mean that a corporation needs to implement a CSR report that is compliant with GRI standards we are talking about a process of change management that is not to underestimate. It’s not just about the numbers but also about the motivations & meaning given to these values by each and every employee.

Only in the moment a researcher from the R&D division, your supply chain partners and the external maintenance guy live up to this philosophy and come to work every day because they truly believe they help save the environment and add benefit to the community by working for an organization, one can talk about a successful implementation of this approach. It’s not just a one-off exercise. It’s rather a cultural transformation of the whole organization.