What’s Your Plan?
You have a growth strategy. You have a sales and marketing strategy. You probably have a strategy for growing your people. But do you have an environmental strategy? Have you thought about your environmental narrative and how you plan to build that besides going out and getting a certification? Most companies I talk to have no strategy for their sustainability work. They know designers are asking for assets. They know building certifications are out there and they know that they are often competing with companies who have embraced and shared a robust environmental brand narrative, green labels and stories about saving whales. So..why not?
Every week manufacturers receive a different spreadsheet from a different design firm. This spreadsheet asks a different set of questions and contains a different set of boxes to check off. And the same thing happens. The salesperson brings this “opportunity” to the factory and tells us that if we can check these boxes and answer these questions, we will be considered for this project. It’s a great opportunity so everyone jumps on it. Most companies have someone at the factory who “handles” these requests, and that person now runs through hoops of flames to get these questions answered. Unplanned and unanticipated, everyone’s workflow is interrupted with this designer request. That makes this process even more expensive because everything must be done yesterday. Ring a bell? You kill yourselves to finish this spreadsheet just in time for the next one to come in next week. Did you document everything you collected for the previous spreadsheet properly? Are the answers easy to find, or is it a factory scavenger hunt every time? This is a frustrating process, but one we find ourselves in regularly. If this is your “sustainability strategy”, it’s not sustainable, and out of annoyance, your C-Suite will never get behind one.
Building out a strategy means that you can get out in front of all these spreadsheets. You can empower your salespeople to manage that process more proactively and effectively. You can free up your factory from all these fire drills and your sustainability work can improve your bottom line, not detract from it. With a strategy, you can effectively market the work you’re doing to lessen your impact on the planet, share it with the industry and challenge yourself to do better. Step 1, hire a consultant. (shameless self-promotion)
Remember that this work is a journey. It is different for every organization. We step into this current and get swept away. This is why so many companies are terrified to take this first step. They know they are a “good” company. They don’t want to destroy the planet. They know they are doing some good things, but nobody has documented and curated their work and they don’t want to come out with an imperfect first step. As is so often said, don’t let perfect stand in the way of good. With a strategy you can show the industry that your efforts are authentic. We can admit we aren’t perfect and set out to do better. That’s the first step.
The first step in developing this strategy (after you’ve hired a good consultant, because your “Sustainability Person” can’t do it all) is to embrace Transparency. Take a look at yourself and begin the process to understand your impact. We don’t need to measure things yet; this step is more about understanding your general impact and being honest with yourself and the industry. Just knowing your impact points and publicly acknowledging them is what we’re looking to do here.
The next step is Assessment. Looking deeper at those impacts and leveraging technology to create data that quantifiably measures these impacts. How much electricity are you using in your factories? How much water are you using? These are basic impacts we need to begin looking at and understanding. How much waste are you sending to landfills every year? By collecting this data, you are understanding your impact in exact terms, and you can begin to establish a baseline on which to build and improve. Again, you’re not looking for perfection here, you’re looking for transparency.
Your third step will be an important one. Commitments can set you apart from vague marketing statements that are often called Greenwashing. Commitments are quantifiable, measurable goals that you set for yourself. They are performance based with deadlines that aren’t “catchy” marketing dates like 2050, but dates that actually push you to get things done with a sense of urgency. Now, rather than saying something like “We believe in a greener planet”, you can say, “We are committed to reducing our energy consumption by 30% in 2025”. This is measurable, quantifiable, tied to a date and achievable. You can celebrate your work with these goals.
The final step, arguably the most important, is Optimization. Many companies get mired down in their sustainability efforts because they have no strategy, and their program just costs money. They spend money on labels and certifications, they spend money on green materials, and they spend money on those damn spreadsheets. Optimization, however, is how your sustainability work optimizes your organization. It’s how those goals you set improve your bottom line, make you more competitive and provide you with the bones of an excellent brand story. Optimization says you can spend a day celebrating the goals you set for yourselves and reached…and then set new ones. It’s how we get better.
So, think about strategy the next time you’re running around filling out a spreadsheet. Think about how nice it would be to completely understand your impact and work to achieve goals you’ve set to make your company better this year than you were last year. Because while selling more might be top of mind today, there are other ways we should be defining growth, success and good.
