Christmas Lights and Sustainability Work…

I was putting my Christmas lights away this year, and was reminded of some of the sustainability work I’ve seen on web sites lately. Sustainability work is overwhelming…if you don’t have a strategy. And…it’s not something that should be left to your marketing team…or the Head of Factory Health and Safety.

I read a web site that stated a company had measured their organization’s footprint, knew their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, and were focused on reducing those to minimize their corporate footprint. While that’s a great intention, an organization needs to measure, most importantly, their Scope 3 emissions, which typically represent 85% to 90% of their total emissions. You really can’t possibly come close to understanding your organization’s total footprint without this data. Unfortunately, measuring Scope 3 emissions is much more intensive than your Scope 1 and 2 emissions, but it’s too large to ignore.

Another company shared that they had achieved a “self-verified LEVEL Silver” certification. Unfortunately, there is no “self-verified” Level certification. They must be certified by an independent third-party certifier. Perhaps it’s unintentional, but companies should know better, and ignorance is not an excuse. Consumers have been naive for far too long, assuming that companies do know better. As I have said historically, companies are not people, so don’t expect them to behave like people. I am fortunate to be able to be working with companies that do care, that do want to be better, so let’s not vilify the companies in our industry. Let’s give everyone some grace in this conversation while, at the same time, holding them accountable to figure things out.

Figuring out your sustainability is not easy, but you can make it easier on yourself. I’m not giving away the secret sauce, but I will say this. Organize yourself. Establish a strategy and stop marketing sustainability by the seat of your pants and the whimsy of your salespeople telling you what you need yesterday. At some point you will need to put all those spreadsheets you get every week from different design firms to the side and look ahead at how you want to address climate impact as an organization. Once you develop a strategy that helps you better understand your impact and your priorities, you’ll be on your way to getting out in front of the conversation. If you don’t do this, it will continue to distract your company and cost you valuable time and resources.

Part of your organization, your strategy, should be identifying those impact areas you feel you should focus on. Understand what that work will cost you, assign ownership and give yourself some due dates. If your program is progressive, if your program makes your organization better year over year, it will survive. If it only costs you money and time, then it will very likely fizzle or be value engineered out when you set your budgets next year.

Here’s to 2025. I’m hoping it’s a year of traction and substantial conversations that aren’t so tangled up.