How do you prevent ‘sustainability’ from sticking to nice promises and plans? How do you really make an impact with your company?

The sustainability transition is a complex issue. Not only laws and regulations force organizations to make sustainable choices, customers and employees also ask for it. It is clear that doing nothing is not an option. From 2024, listed organizations must report on the impact they make according to the EU’s Corporate Social Reporting Directive (CSRD). This mandatory sustainability reporting will also affect their partners and suppliers. So it’s good to sort out these obligations now.

From sustainability plan to realization

The sustainability strategy is in place, but how do you actually get it implemented in the organization? Organizations make clear choices for their sustainability strategy. Realizing these plans is where the complexity lies. Often because the realization has an effect on all facets of the business and that does not make it easy.

Support base

The sustainability strategy has an effect on the entire organization. Processes will be set up differently and reporting also requires insight into what is happening and what is changing. To gain support for these new ways of working, a shared conviction in the organization is the key. Because whether you want to get started with sustainability because you want to be compliant or just a thought leader, it is essential that everyone has a role to make a real impact.

Step 1: Joint conviction

Before you roll out the sustainability strategy, you first involve all people in the vision of the organization. What will we stand for together in the next five or ten years? What are we going to work for together? This shared conviction is the first step in creating support within the organization. Behavior can only change if there is support.

Step 2: Ownership

The sustainability strategy can be divided into goals per department. Each department will work separately to translate the goals to their own department. This creates insight into which behavior and which processes need to be adjusted. By tackling it themselves, people also feel responsible to achieve the set goals.

Step 3: Impact team

The next step is to bring together all the required actions and share them with all departments. This way everyone can see what is going to happen and what steps everyone is taking to implement the sustainability strategy. It is good to put together an impact team now, where a representative from each department takes a seat to continuously share actions with the set goals in mind.

Sustainability as an opportunity

Take on this challenge to create an impactful organizational culture together with your people. An impactful organizational culture is the basis for scaling. By establishing a growth culture together, you can continue to grow sustainably with your organization. Grooblue uses the Harvard Growth Culture model as the basis for this approach. If you would like guidance in these steps, please contact us.