making sustainability stick issp conference 2013 kevin wilhelm may 9, 2013

MAKING SUSTAINABILITY

STICK

ISSP Conference2013

Kevin WilhelmMay 9, 2013


STICK

The Blueprint for Successful Implementation

Kevin Wilhelm

What I’m going to talk about today

• The 11 Steps for Successful Implementation• Common barriers your run into• How to overcome them• Illustrative and (sometimes funny,

sometimes sad) case studies

Typical Barriers that need to be overcome

• Overworked. Too much on plates already and another thing to do

• No perceived senior buy-in

• Boss doesn’t appreciate additional time away from my “job”

• People don’t know what to do. Need training to think differently

• No budget. Or issues between capital and operational

• People don’t feel empowered

• Apathy. Loss of momentum for attending events, people stop reading communications, taking action

• Middle management, Culture, Other

Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV

Growth $

Environmental& Social Negatives

Radical Collaboration Systems view “Team Sport”

Hero(martyr)

PersonalInfluence

MetricsProcessEco-Efficiency

StructuralCollaborativeGame changing

IndividualTeam/

DepartmentDivision/ Function

Company BusinessSystem

Costs MoreFinancialDrivers:

DominantCharacteristics:

Who:

Environmental& Social Benefits

Phase V

May 2, 2013

Random

Investment/ROI Top Line Value Creation

Incremental BreakthroughSystemicType of

Change:

Type ofChange:

Random Incremental Breakthrough Systemic


Growth $



Hero(martyr)

PersonalInfluence



IndividualTeam/



Costs more Investments/ROI Top LineFinancialDrivers:


Who:


Phase V

Value creationMay 2, 2013

1. Define Sustainability

What does it mean to YOUR company?

Why are we doing this?

What are we trying to accomplish?

What is your role?

What do we stand for?

Staying in business

Saving money & the environment at

the same time

Save on fuel and delivery times

Attract talent, improve retention

Respond to investor questions

Human Resources Fleet/LogisticsInvestor Relations

CompanyPassing to next generation

Products are organic and local

2. Business Case: External

Market Forces• Investors• Customers• Supply-Chain• Debt/Lenders• Insurance• Energy Prices• Commodity Prices• Societal Pressure• Extreme Weather• Employees• Industry Leadership• Political Instability

Public Policy• GHG/Environment• Energy• Green Building• Waste/Recycling• Water• Human Rights/Trafficking• Toxins• FTC Guidelines• Conflict Minerals• External Reporting• IIRC, SASB• ISO Standards

2. Business Case: Internal

• Focus on the top line

• Competitive advantage and differentiation– Cost leadership– Differentiation– Market segmentation (focus)

Bottom Line (CFOs)• Compliance• Risk mitigation• Cost savings

Top Line (CEOs)• Opportunities• Revenue enhancement• New products/services

Cautionary Tale• Client asked by Wal-Mart to evaluate LCA of product• Did not view as priority and did not provide data in time• Lost contract from a competitor who jumped to respond

3. Materiality and Stakeholder Engagement

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

What do they care about in regards to

your business?

How do they define

sustainability?

What’s important to them (socially, environmentally,

financially) and what is not?

Primary groups• Customers• Employees• Suppliers• Investors• Community partners & • donor recipients

Secondary groups• Media• Government• NGOs• Industry associations

Tangibles/ Financials

Intangibles/Reputation /Goodwill

Pollution & Health

Climate Change & Energy Crisis

Poverty &Social Injustice

Overharvesting &Species Extinction

Food &Water Crises

Regulators

Governments

Communities

Public

Employees

(NGOs)

(Scientists)

Customers

Competitors

MarketsInvestors

The “Perfect Storm” of Risks

Regulators

Communities

CustomersEmployeesGovernment

s

What’s happening with valuations

2010

25%Tangibles

/ Financials

75%

Intangibles/Reputation

/Goodwill

95%

5%

19781998

71%

29%

1981

83%

17%

4. Baseline and assessment

A sustainability baseline will help you:• Know where you are having the biggest

impacts• Identify your “hotspots”• Understand where your greatest risks and

opportunities exist• Determine low-hanging fruit so you can take

action• Identify your barriers to implementation

“You can’t know where you are headed unless you know where you are!”

Current State

GAP

Desired State

Corporate Vision & Governance

EnvironmentReporting &

External Communications

Social Policies & Community

Vendors & Suppliers

Fleets

Employee Engagement

Product Design & Responsibility

Evaluation and Compensation

Case Study: Financial Institution

• Prior to calculating emissions assumed paper was the largest source of emissions

• GHG inventory revealed that business travel was the largest source

Action Results

• Utilized teleconferences for 3 out of 4 branch manager meetings each month

• Moved all Board meetings to Washington State to eliminate air travel

• Saved money during a down economy

• Encouraged board and managers to truly walk the talk

• Reduced GHG emissions by 41.2 MT tons year over year (75% reduction)

5. Set goals and vision 1. Set your North Star

PRESENT

FUTURE

2. Set the Right Goals to get you there

(corporate, departmental & individual)

3. Integrate and communicate progress - employees need to know when you get there

Patagonia “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

4. Align KPI, Sustainability Goals with Corp Goals5. Assign Responsibility and Accountability

6. Management Support

People need to see, hear, and feel Leadership support

• Showing up and making yourself visible

• Providing budget

• Providing time and resources

• Walking the talk and reinforce your message

• Providing “air cover” so people can prove things out

7. Change Management

• Understanding change– Understand your people– Understand your culture

• Breaking down silos and coordinating across departments • Engage the Naysayers and Skeptics

– What’s going to go wrong with this plan?– “What has to happen for this to work?”– At every stage of work flow – “What could go wrong in this

step?”

Collaborate Oriented• Group brainstorming sessions

Control Oriented• Existing policies for

opportunities for sustainabilityCreate Oriented• Social media and crowd sourcing

for new ideas

Compete Oriented• Use competitive means for

project idea generation

Engage the Skeptics

Position Typical comment Response

Investor Relations

Maximize shareholder value.

The DJSI has outperformed the S&P 500 for 10 years.

Accounting This is going to cost more

Sustainability initiatives tend to save money both short/long term

Legal Don’t want to disclose

You don’t. But you should track, it’s risk mitigation

Operations I know how to do my job !

Yes, but this is how it’ll be different, easier, save $

Sales Market unproven, fad

Ability to sell new products to top line.

PR Don’t want to greenwash

Opp to leverage all company efforts

Supply-Chain

We’re too small to influence change

Just start the conversation. Create procurement guidelines

HR Can’t afford benefits Look at what you offer, you could switch to options/flex.

Type ofChange:

Random Incremental Breakthrough Systemic


Growth $



Hero(martyr)

PersonalInfluence



IndividualTeam/



Costs more Investments/ROI Top LineFinancialDrivers:


Who:


Phase V

Value creationMay 2, 2013

8. Employee Engagement

• 16% in profitability

• 18% in productivity

• 49% in turnover for low-turnover companies (those with 40% or lower annualized turnover)

• 12% in customer loyalty

• 37% in absenteeism

• 60% in quality (defects)

Gallop Study showed that actively engaging employees can…

“….engaging employees in sustainability initiatives can improve a business’s bottom

line and help it reach its sustainability goals.”National Environmental Education Foundation

“The (sustainability) campaign brought people together like we’ve never been able to before or since”

Ken Hopper of Scandic Hotels

• Training and opportunity• Tie it to the job, day to day• Make it personal: engage the head, heart & hands• Intrapreneuring

9. Implementation• Prioritize – focus on what matters• Incorporate into decision making and policies• Systems to support sustainability: Kaizen, LEAN• Add purchasing/supplier requirements around sustainability• Align with other corporate efforts –including philanthropy,

investments, marketing and communications• Protection when sponsor leaves

Topic area Department

Community Relations with supplier Supply-Chain/Merchandising

Philanthropy and community donations Foundation or Community Affairs

Community Volunteerism & Pro-Bono Work HR

Sustainability/CSR CSR Department or Green Team

Green product benefits Sales

Actions the company has taken internally PR

Market for green consumers Marketing

Things you can do in your job

Department Things you could do

Finance Look into investing a portion into SRI

Facilities Combine all cost saving ideas

Accounting Start tracking sustainability/carbon data

Office Mgr Look at all office purchases

Travel Coordinator Look at costs, what trips could be eliminated

Sales Look for new sales opportunities

Supply Chain Begin to ask questions to your value chain, ask for their support in what you are doing

Human Resources Environmental or Wellness Benefits

Tax Research available rebates, incentives

10. Institutionalize

• Job descriptions and on-boarding– Potential employees, existing employees, board members

• Align benefits, evaluation and compensation– Results Only Work Environment

• Rewards and recognition• Gamification

– Measure progress and keep the competition real with data– Kilowatt crackdown, Talking Trash, etc

11. Communications

Internal• Continuous communication &

reinforcement of what & why• Share the good and the bad• Sharing best practices

External • What report is right for you?• Use of social media• Transparency builds trust,

creates value andreduces risk

11 keys for successful sustainability implementation

1. Define Sustainability2. Make the Business Case3. Stakeholder Engagement – What’s important to them4. Baseline - Measure what matters, metrics and KPIs5. Aligned Vision and Goals6. Mgmt Support & Resource Commitment (Time, Money, People)7. Understand your Org & People – How best to “do change”8. Employee Engagement: Train, empower, intrapreneur9. Implement: Create policies and procedures10. Institutionalize: Job descriptions, evaluations, compensation11. Communicate

Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

COME ASK ME HOW WE CAN HELP YOU !

Kevin Wilhelm,Sustainable Business Consulting

www.sustainablebizconsulting.com

[email protected]


STICK

The Blueprint for Successful Implementation

Kevin Wilhelm

http://www.sustainablebizconsulting.com/

Example Questions

• How important is it to you that we take into consideration and actively address environmental/social initiatives?

• What specific sustainability issues are most important to you? (environmental, social, economical)

• Which specific initiatives would you like to see us participating in or putting more resources towards within the next 1-3 years?– What are we doing that you like?– What should we be doing that we aren’t?

• Are there any aspects of your relationship with us that could be improved through better environmental or social practices?

Before starting…

• Get the right people in the room • Explain why the baseline is important • Ensure people understand the outputs, what you are trying to do

with the final result• Determine your boundary, what is in and what is outside of

“your company”• Delegate tasks (assign responsibility) and continuously check in

on data gathering• Let them know this won’t be a one-time exercise, so they start

building processes for gathering this data the first time they look for it.

• Make sure you get sign off from the key decision makers so data isn’t delayed

Keys to setting your sustainability goals

• Clarity: Clear, concise, goals with one unified vision that people understand

• Strategic Intent: Determine focus areas, make a commitment, develop metrics for success

• Alignment: Goals aligned across all departments - internally, collaboratively, and diagonally

• SMART: Need to be Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Results Oriented & Time Specific.

• Listening: Engage skeptics, listen to issues and anticipate obstacles

• Accountability: Who’s responsible for achieving the goal• Reinforcement : They need to be constantly communicated and

reinforced

9. Implementation

• Prioritize – focus on what matters• Incorporate into decision making and policies• Systems to support sustainability

– Kaizen, Toyota LEAN, Microsoft Personal Carbon Allowance

• Align Sustainability with other corporate efforts –including philanthropy& investments

Objective Measure Target InitiativeFinancial Achieve cost

savings in internal processes

% reduction in costs of goods sold

10% reduction by 2015

Identify cost saving measures in internal process across all lines of business

Environmental Reduce GHG emissions

Per employee GHG emissions

10% reduction by 2015

Launch alternative commuting program

Things you can do in your job

Department Things you could do

Finance Look into investing a portion into SRI

Facilities Combine all cost saving ideas

Accounting Start tracking sustainability/carbon data

Office Mgr Look at all office purchases

Travel Coordinator Look at costs, what trips could be eliminated

Sales Look for new sales opportunities

Supply Chain Begin to ask questions to your value chain, ask for their support in what you are doing

Human Resources Environmental or Wellness Benefits

Tax Research available rebates, incentives

SWOT and GAP analysis

Opportunities• Where is there a growing gap

where we can create new solutions for environmental challenges?

Strengths• What are unexpected ways we

can apply our strengths to environmental challenges?

Threats/Consequences• Where are environmental

challenges creating broad threats to future business value?

Weaknesses/Risks• Who else has similar

weaknesses or faces similar risks from environmental challenges?

Adapted from the WRI’s Sustainability Swat (sSWOT) tool

2. Business Case

Demonstrate the business value it will bring to your company over the short and long term

ExternalMarket Forces

Public Policy and Regulation

InternalTop line

Competitive Advantage

What to include

For the baseline to be successful, you have to include those areas that: • Have the biggest social and environmental impact• Are most material to your company• You have the most control over – either operationally or financially• Customers and stakeholders are most likely to ask about• Could prevent your company from operating if something drastic were

to occur (market collapse, natural disaster, etc)

Corporate Vision & Governance

EnvironmentReporting &

External Communications

Social Policies & Community

Vendors & Suppliers

Fleets

Employee Engagement

Product Design & Responsibility

Evaluation and Compensation

Employees have different learning Styles

Extroverts Introverts

Enjoy generating energy and ideas from other people. Prefer socializing and working in groups.

Prefers to listen, watch and reflect. They enjoy quiet, solitary work and prefer to solve on their own

Jump right in without guidance from others

Choose to observe others before attempting a new skill

Willing to lead, participate and offer opinions

Like to think about things before attempting to try a new skill.

Different types of Learners

Auditory – hear Visual – See

Verbal – Say Kinesthetic – Touch

Social Solitary

making sustainability stick issp conference 2013 kevin wilhelm may 9, 2013

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