Getting your organisation future-state ready means having your goals validated by scientific, economic and financial principles and feasibility. Working through the following questions will guide an outcome-orientated conversation within your organisation and help prioritise efforts.
1. Do you understand the full cost of implementing your sustainability strategy?
Understanding the year three, five and ten costs of capital and resources, as well as the financial impacts and downtime losses, will help leaders make informed decisions and identify opportunities. Consider more than just expenditure to include potential cost savings that may be realised from implementation.
2. What is the financial impact of not meeting your sustainability targets?
Depending on your jurisdiction, failing to meet sustainability targets may include regulatory penalties including fines and legal costs. There’s also the long-term risk of increased operating costs through inefficient resource use. Reputational damage, investor withdrawal and supply chain disruption may also impact your bottom line.
3. Is your organisation impacted by mandatory regulatory changes?
Your sustainability strategy may inevitably become a non-negotiable as ESG disclosures become further standardised and mandatory. Organisations could face penalties for not adhering and aligning to corporate responsibility and transparency in this space.
4. Do you need to reevaluate your ambitions based on what’s possible?
Realistic strategies are more likely to be feasible, achievable and successfully implemented. That doesn’t mean you scale back, but rather focus on actionable strategies while balancing resources in a way that contributes to ongoing business success and resilience.
5. Are your goals founded on an achievable reality for your cost structure?
Sustainability strategies that are well-integrated with the cost structure are more likely to be viable over the longer term and get done. Stakeholder and investor confidence stems from goals that are founded in a realistic understanding of the organisation’s opportunities and limitations.
6. Do your targets factor in the ability to operationalise the changes needed to measure and verify your sustainability performance?
Your sustainability strategy becomes effective and credible when it’s grounded in your ability to implement, measure and verify impact. The approach transforms efforts from theoretical ambitions into transparent and feasible outcomes.
7. How can you use digital technology to influence your entire workforce to enable your sustainability strategy?
Many organisations have existing technology and platforms that can be applied to further sustainability efforts and projects. Conduct a digital stocktake to understand what you have versus what you need will help.
8. Is there a mindset shift that needs to happen across the organisation before you can proceed?
A significant internal stakeholder engagement effort is needed to educate and inform your people to bring them along on the journey, Clear planning and change management tools will help your organisation build resilience, adapt and benefit from sustainability efforts.
9. Do you have the resources to act fast, ask more questions and test assumptions?
There’s a growing need for a new breed of sustainability professionals who can talk the language of business and commerciality while also grasp the technical complexities of sustainability.
10. How will you actually do this? This is a new and complex territory.
We are in unchartered waters, and while the challenges are complex, the way forward does not have to be. Adopting a structured framework along the way that provides ample opportunity to learn and investigate, test concepts, refine, deploy and review will clear the path for fresh thinking, new ideas and, most importantly, actionable steps.
Discover more: GHD Sustainability Monitor 2024