Gareth's Blog

We are too nice.

Yes, us, people who are passionate about sustainability, in our spotless fleeces, our well scrubbed faces and neatly trimmed beards. All those good intentions, warm inclusiveness and incredible politeness.

But, frankly, do we have the cojones to do sustainability properly?

I get frustrated when I get involved in debates with fellow practitioners and they say things like "we don't want sustainability to be seen as a dictat from above..."

What?! Why on earth would you not want sustainability to be seen as a priority of senior management? There's almost a fear of rocking the boat when, for 99.99% of organisations, the boat needs some serious rocking.

So, are you prepared to face up to the following necessities:

• Getting rid of managers who resist the sustainability programme?
• Summarily dropping suppliers who are not doing sustainability properly as a clear message to the rest of the supply chain?
• Killing off profitable product lines which are incompatible with sustainability targets?
• Setting seriously ambitious stretch targets to jolt the organisation out of business as usual?
• Holding people in positions of power to account for the sustainability performance of their empire?

These may be uncomfortable positions to take, but they are the things that set the leading organisations apart from the rest - and let's face it, they're standard behaviour for organisations trying to improve their economic performance, and is sustainability not just as important?

So, let's not kid ourselves, this is not a hold-hands-around-the-campfire love in. Sustainability is serious business.

I diagnose the most common causes of failure of sustainability programmes as:

• No leadership: leadership is critical to any successful corporate transformation programme and, given the scale of change required for sustainability, a lack of leadership commitment and drive will kill off sustainability programmes before they get going;

• Lack of integration: “Green” and “sustainability” are seen as tangential issues to the mainstream business processes and get stuck in a green silo;

• Misalignment of responsibility and authority: most environmental managers have lots of responsibility and precious little authority. Conversely people who have the power to push sustainability are given no responsibility to do so;

• Lack of accountability: If you want to get somebody to do something, give them a target to hit and hold them to it. Make it a "must", not a "nice to have" - especially important for middle management;

• Lack of ambition/wishful thinking: "We've appointed energy champions. Job done.";

• Inertia: "We've always designed our products like that!";

• Fear: “if we try this, who’ll get the blame if it goes wrong?”

You will notice that these are all about attitude and culture - very rarely is the real reason money. The true barrier to sustainability is about 6 inches wide - the space between our ears.

Looking at many of the big sustainability leaders like InterfaceFLOR, Marks & Spencer and Body Shop, it is clear that their success, initially at least, was down to the passion of their leaders - Ray Anderson, Sir Stuart Rose and Anita Roddick. But impressively, those values have outlasted their founders - literally in the case of Anderson and Roddick who are sadly no longer with us.

On the other hand I have seen numerous organisations where a change in leadership, either at the very top or at the top of the sustainability function, has lead to efforts withering on the vine. Passion becomes lip service, as projects are completed ambitious replacements fail to appear, and the organisation seems content to rest on the laurels of past victories.

The ultimate aim of any sustainability leader should be for their programme to outlast their tenure. Interface's Mission Zero, Marks & Spencer's Plan A and Body Shop's founding values are all so deeply embedded into the organisation that they are no longer about those charismatic leaders, but are embedded deeply into the culture and structure of each organisation. Damaging that reputation would be seen as an act of vandalism.

Delivering such an embedded culture for sustainability is no easy task. Most importantly, it requires a lack of ego from the leader - letting go of the programme, so everyone can take ownership and designing it so it can flourish without that individual involved. Aligning responsibility with authority reinforces culture with reporting structure, adding resilience. And of course it is imperative that the succession strategy ensures that the next generation of leaders understand and appreciate the importance of sustainability to the brand.

Would your programme survive without you?