I am very saddened by a large organisation I know well which has lost its way on sustainability. It had been rated best in class by independent evaluators, but the pipeline of green projects has suddenly dried to a trickle, employees are getting cynical and partners are getting frustrated.
What happened? A change in management bringing a change in management style. In tough times, they say, we must focus on a smaller list of priorities. The revised list has no mention of sustainability at all.
When they are challenged on this, the weasel words come out. Of course we are still committed to sustainability, it's a cross cutting theme, it's embedded in each of the new priorities, we consider it all the time, it doesn't have to be written down to be important.
Utter nonsense.
To do sustainability properly it must be embedded in the culture, systems, infrastructure, strategy and product/service of the organisation. That won't happen unless the leadership say "this is a priority for us, we want you to do it." Clear unambiguous commitment and direction is required.
To say to your staff and partners "we want A, B, C and D", and expect "E" to somehow happen by magic, osmosis or ESP is idiocy.
It would be interesting to hear how they reasoned about that change and how it could come to be accepted by management today, given the importance sustainability work. I didn't even think it was an option to go backwards on those issues. It brings me back to your previous post on trust as the magic ingredient in a company, if anything this will lead to the opposite and is that what corporations in 2012 want to project? I agree, I don't understand.
I can't go into too much detail a. for some sensitivities (sources etc) and b. because I don't swear on this blog.
The previous management understood that it had to be a priority, the new bunch seem to think that the job has largely been done. They don't understand that standing still in this game is effectively going backwards.
Don't know which org it is, but the bottom line is: there has to be SOMETHING in it for the company to 'go green': even if it is as tenuous as customer buy-in.
They still think they are doing it and a number of projects initiated by the previous management are still coming to fruition. It's the lack of new initiatives that bothers me.