The missing pieces in many Sustainability Strategies
I see lots of Sustainability Strategies which consist of a baseline (e.g. a carbon footprint and waste arisings data), targets and a series of nice case studies of what already has been done.
But this is wishful thinking – how you are going to meet those targets, by when and by who are the crucial parts of jigsaw. If your targets are worthwhile, the kind of work you have done to date are very unlikely to be adequate to deliver the required outcomes.
This is why we always put backcasting at the heart of our strategy development. Create a vision of the organisation where the targets have been met on time, then work backwards to the present day to work out what you need to start doing now to get on the right trajectory. It’s a very simple but powerful tool – and if you pick the right people to participate, you get great buy-in too.