How To Convince Your Company To Become Sustainable
Frustrated that the company that you're working for doesn't see the value in sustainability? In this blog post we share tips on how you can enact change in your workplace.
In an ideal setting, the company that you work for should reflect your values and advocacy. As someone who supports sustainability and its practices, it can be frustrating to work for a company that doesn't see the value in it or prioritizes it. If you're on the same page, keep on reading as I will be laying down some general tips and my 4-step plan on how you can enact change in the company you're currently working for.
Before I elaborate on the 4-step plan, let's begin with some general tips.
Set up a volunteer sustainability committee. You can’t be the only one that feels that way in your company. Socialize and involve other people in your company. Make sure to reach out to people at the same level as you, above you, and below you.
Figure out who your champions would be. It doesn't necessarily equate to people with big titles or positions such as the CEO, but they need to be known internally. They should be influential and credible within the company.
Pace yourself — keep in mind that you’re not going to change the company overnight. It might take weeks, or months, or even years to shift your company toward sustainability. Make sure you don’t burn yourself out.
Now that we’ve breezed through the general tips. Let’s now proceed to the 4-step plan on successfully convincing your company to become sustainable.
1. Make Your Company See The Value Of Sustainability
Show them that sustainability is, in fact, valuable and worthwhile to put their resources into. It's best to look into your company's target demographic.
Do the current customers find it valuable? If the target demographic is millennials and Gen Zs, the answer to that is most likely 100% yes. If perhaps your current demographic skews older and the excuse is that your customers don’t care, then position more on the long-term survival of the company. Eventually, your customers are going to age off so you need to think about the pipeline of new customers which may be millennials and Gen Z who care about sustainability. Make sure to showcase its appeal to future customers.
Look into government regulations and trends. Most governments want companies to have a sustainability strategy. It’s best to get ahead of the curve and couple it with the fact that it’s more profitable for the business in the long run.
Leverage sustainability as a way to attract and retain talent. As previously mentioned, millennials and Gen Zs care about the environment. Nowadays, people care about the values of the company they work at and with sustainability on hand, it will help the company produce a competitive talent pool.
Appeal to their sustainability values. Look into individual hobbies and activities the executive team is into. Find connections and allow them to realize that these activities are related to the environment therefore, one must contribute to protecting it to keep on enjoying their hobbies.
2. Make It Easy
If the executive team doesn’t have to do anything aside from giving you directions, budget allocations, and the timeline, then there’s a higher chance that you’ll be successful when it comes to convincing them.
Make the volunteer sustainability committee convenient for everyone. Volunteers can work on tasks after work hours - or maybe Friday afternoons. It doesn’t have to overlap with actual work tasks.
Present an efficient timeline and updates so the executive team will find it easier to sponsor your projects.
3. Set Up A Roadmap And Plan
If you’re trying to get buy-in, you want to tackle low-hanging fruit first and show results so that you get the resources and budgets to continue. Look into low-effort, high-reward projects such as rethinking the packaging of your company, sourcing new materials, or meeting with the design team to make timeless designs.
Work with your champions and sponsors to ensure the low-hanging fruit would be worthwhile wins.
Try to be able to measure the results of these efforts so that you can present it back to the higher-ups to get more budget and resources
4. Bring In The Experts
Once you have established the need and shown that it’s working, bring in experts to help you! It is cheaper and more efficient to get help at the beginning and have them help you set up as compared to hiring a completely new sustainability team and integrating them into your company.
If you’re going through this situation, it can be hard and frustrating but just remember that you can make a difference in your organization but you don’t have to do it alone. Find other people and your champions, and together, you can make a difference.
If you’d like help with your sustainability strategy, sustainability priorities, sourcing materials and manufacturers, reporting impacts, and communicating efforts to customers — we can work together through our Sustainability Consulting Services. Our team only works with a limited number of clients every year so if you’re interested in working together, you can request a complimentary consultation to see if it’s a fit to work together and create a tailored consulting package for your needs.
