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INTRODUCTION
In the last decade, the importance of sustainability
in any part of business in any industry has
increased. Sustainability needs to move from being
an add-on to a way of life at the firm such that
companies can balance their social, financial and
environmental risks and obligations. While
companies have begun identifying the need to
ingrain sustainability into the organisation, most
business leaders still do not have a clear idea on
how to go about doing so.
WHAT
SUSTAINABILITY
INITIATIVES?
DIFFERENTIATES
FROM
OTHER
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CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING
SUSTAINABILITY IN ORGANISATION
CULTURE
While the importance of moving toward
sustainability is increasingly felt in boardroom
meetings, companies find it difficult to drive
sustainability in their organisation. Some of the
obstacles which prevent organizations from
implementing sustainable business practices
include lack of leadership support, difficult to
measure return on sustainability investment and
limited understanding and involvement of
sustainability across levels.
We have identified five pillars along which
changes can be brought about so as to affect the
culture of the organisation. These are Strategy,
Structure, Processes, Metrics and People.
STRATEGY
Many corporations have initially resisted the idea
of sustainability and many others defined their
scope very narrowly, concentrating their efforts in
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HealthAhead- HEALTHYMAGINATION
GE has invested heavily in health globally and
believes in leading by example. The HealthAhead
program,
under
the
global
HEALTHYMAGINATION portfolio, partners
with employees and their families to ensure safety
at the workplace and promote overall health. The
program has already reached around positively
impacted two thirds of the GE employees.
Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) program
targets safety at the workplace by better controls
and monitoring. Due to these efforts, the number
of incidents of injury and illness has reduced by
37% by 2013 from the 2003 base year.
STRUCTURE
Structure determines where decision-making and
authority lie within the organization. By means of
a formal organisational structure we put in place a
framework that allows the culture of sustainability
to flourish. We use structure to identify key
personals and champions of the cause. Developing
a culture that supports sustainability requires long
term efforts, as it involves redesigning of formal
and informal processes and routines. Typically,
sustainability structure in organisation has evolved
gradually over three stages. These are Centralised
Structure, Integrated Structure, and Embedded
Structure.
Centralized
Structure:
In
this
stage,
organisational vision for sustainability begins to
emerge. This stage is led by one person or some
groups of leaders as it is challenging for entire
company to implement a new initiative. As initial
efforts start showing some results, both employees
and executives take notice of it.
Integrated Structure: In this stage, sustainability
efforts spread across an organization. One leader
give way to sustainability group and leadership
develops throughout divisions of the company.
Targets are set against measureable goals. Initial
elements of tying compensation to sustainable
performance are visible.
Embedded Structure: This is the final stage
where idea of sustainability is embedded deep in
the companys culture. Companys mission is
synonyms with sustainability mission. Multiple
long term goals are created, which are traced
against performance metrics. The results are
measured, and reported. Specific oversight
committees are common.
For example, BASF has created elaborate
structures to promote sustainable business
activities. At the top is the Corporate Sustainability
Board (CSB). It is BASFs central steering
committee which is mandated to monitor the
implementation of the sustainability strategy. It
defines organisation wide sustainability goals and
approves
corporate
position
papers
on
sustainability topics.
METRICS
Employees/labour form a major chunk of any
organisation, hence it is imperative on the part of
organisation to encourage employees by
incentivising them or setting metrics of
performance which would motivate them to take
the sustainable path in everything they do. The
performance will be compared against the standard
metrics and through this an evaluation by the firm
and also of the firm will be done. These metrics
are used to keep the morale of organizational
employees up and also to encourage them to do
better.
Coupled with role descriptions, organizations need
to ensure that employees will know how their
sustainability performance will be measured.
Accountability mechanisms need to be fair and
effective to maintain ongoing improvement.
Employees are more engaged in the sustainability
agenda if they see how it is directly related to their
job.
Board of Executive
Directors of BASF
Corporate
Sustainability Board
Sustainability Advisory
Council
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PROCESSES
A companys processes may be thought of as its
character since it is the processes that define how
the company achieves its goals. Successful
businesses have processes that distinguish them
from the competition. Thus it is but obvious that if
a company were to take up any new initiative it
would have to be incorporated in the processes of
the company to make the initiative a success.
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PEOPLE:
While motivating the workforce there are twin
forces of fulfilling existing requirements and
innovating for future practices that come into play.
That is where the conversation of could do with
the backdrop of innovation comes in which
involves experimentation and learning.
There are two ways a company can choose to
convey the same to its workforce through formal
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a. Recruitment
A critical aspect of sustainability is the ability to
attract and retain the right talent to carry forward
the vision into the future. Additionally, with the
advent of social media, talent is becoming
increasingly conscious of the impact of
organizations on the environment and society at
large. Therefore, right talent identifies with
organisations with sustainable business practices.
For example, Aveda Corporation attracts and
identifies talent which is good at their core job as
well as at incorporating environmental mission in
their day to day jobs responsibilities. In their
online job application, Aveda explicitly
communicated its requirement for people
committed for environment sustainability. It asks
job applicants to be environmentally sensitive in
preparation of their application materials. For new
hires, companys Earth and Community Care
Team conducts orientation and education
programs. New hires are provided copies of
companys Green Ingredients policy and
Sustainability policy. Employees are expected to
abide by these policies.
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d. Leadership
Forward-thinking business leaders understand the
importance of sustainable business practices for
the long-term future of the organization and
society. It is the leadership that drives change in an
organization by establishing direction, aligning
appropriate resources and inspiring through
example. Leaders act as champions by taking up
and supporting the cause of sustainability in the
organization.
HR can evaluate the existing competency
framework to check its appropriateness and
incorporate the critical leadership competencies to
drive and implement sustainable business
practices. Identifying appropriate successors for
key leadership roles to drive the business strategy
and the sustainability agenda is another important
facet. This can be done by evaluating the readiness
of each leader through assessment of the personrole fit around sustainability dimensions and
competencies.
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References:
Ernst & Young Report, Role of HR in Driving Sustainable Business Practices, Retrieved from
http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-role-of-hr-in-driving-sustainable-businesspractices/$FILE/EY-Role-of-HR-in-driving-sustainable-business-practices.pdf
Barbara O. Brown, (2012), 3 keys to making sustainability central to success, Retrieved from
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/06/06/3-keys-making-sustainability-central-success
Barbara O. Brown, (2012), How companies structure sustainability for success, Retrieved from
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/07/06/how-companies-structure-sustainability-success
Bob Oedy, Sheldon Cohen, (2013), The Green Career Ladder: A Step-by-Step Guide to Profitable
Careers in Sustainable Energy
Three
Reasons
Job
Seekers
Prefer
Sustainable
Companies,
http://nbs.net/knowledge/three-reasons-job-seekers-prefer-sustainable-companies/
Posner, Bruce, and David Kiron. "How Caesars Entertainment is betting on sustainability." Image (2014).
Aniruddha Limaye, Ralsi Sharma, (2012), Rewards and Recognition: Make a difference to the talent in
your organisation
Gloet, Marianne. "Knowledge management and the links to HRM: Developing leadership and
management capabilities to support sustainability."Management Research News 29.7 (2006): 402-413.
Garavan, Thomas N., and David McGuire. "Human resource development and society: Human resource
developments role in embedding corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and ethics in
organizations." Advances in Developing Human Resources 12.5 (2010): 487-507.
Ardichvili, Alexandre. "The Role of HRD in CSR, Sustainability, and Ethics A Relational
Model." Human Resource Development Review 12.4 (2013): 456-473.
"Individuals Respond to Incentives - Boundless Open Textbook." Boundless. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
https://www.boundless.com/economics/textbooks/boundless-economics-textbook/principles-ofeconomics-1/individual-decision-making-40/individuals-respond-to-incentives-144-12242/
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/jun/26/green-executive-compensation-intelalcoa-pay
https://hbr.org/2014/07/sustainability-in-the-boardroom
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/CaseDocs/08.077.Nike%20Considered.Getting%20Tract
Retrieved
from
ion%20on%20Sustainability.Locke.Henderson.pdf
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https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/the-sustainable-living-plan
http://view2.fdu.edu/legacy/hrrolesustpaper.pdf
http://www.gesustainability.com/2014-performance/
http://www.ge.com/about-us/ecomagination
http://dsg.files.app.content.prod.s3.amazonaws.com/gesustainability/wp-content/uploads/2015
/11/06122554/GE_Leading_by_Example_11-15-15_KD.pdf
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Leadership