During a  conversation last week the following nugget came up “they think appointing Sustainability Champions is a substitute for paying for a Sustainability Manager.” This gets my goat for several reasons:

• You can’t do Sustainability on the cheap. Yes, it will save you money in the long run, but you’ve got to invest to save.
• Voluntary champions with no formal authority will struggle to change anything of substance. Responsibility must be aligned with authority.
• The lack of commitment from the top: depending on champions is not delegating responsibility, but derogating it.

Sustainability champions cannot be the primary implementation route for Sustainability: it must be hardwired into the reporting structure. Think of champions as the oil in the engine of your Sustainability Strategy, not the fuel.