How can you create a sustainability mission statement?

The most effective sustainability mission statements often incorporate the triple bottom line principle, which emphasizes three dimensions - People, Planet, and Profit. This approach recognizes that a truly sustainable business not only has to be profitable but also needs to benefit society and minimize its impact on the environment. Crafting a sustainability mission statement isn't just about stating a commitment to the environment or social responsibility. It’s about integrating these values into the very DNA of an organization.

To craft a meaningful sustainability mission statement, its imperative that a company understand the scope, current state, and stakeholders' prespectives. a comoany can do this by Conducting an industry research to identify current trends and necessary regulations. Actively engage with stakeholders to gain a comprehensive view of sustainability challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Its vital to harmonize these sustainability objectives with your overarching business goals, leveraging the inherent strengths of your organization. Ensure a level of flexibility in your approach to navigate evolving challenges, and integrating these insights into your sustainability strategy.

As a service company, my key stakeholder when it comes to sustainability is my team. We need to create the culture of responsibility when it comes to key sustainability pillars: our people, our community, our shareholders, and our environment. Building this culture and explicitly communicating internally and externally is what we aim to achieve

My advice for an industry agnostic, Sustainability Mission Statement: "Create enriching and inter-dependent experiences based on people's passions and interest, within the ecological boundaries", by: 1. Environmental Restoration mindset in all human activity (traditional and new topics) we are beyind protection mode requirements. 2. People being the creators, the users of your creation (service, product), contributers, public sphere, communities. Favor a friendship approach - exponential benefits. 3. Always seeking a win-win deal or no deal at all, until the context enables a win-win. Why focus on experiences?! Because the only, most important aspect in your life is your time here.

As way of example: "Our mission is to innovate for a sustainable future by reducing our environmental footprint, empowering communities, and driving economic growth through responsible practices."

As we face environmental challenges, embedding sustainability into our corporate DNA is vital. 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Purpose-driven progress: 📍Scope Clarity: Define areas of impact – carbon, ethics, community. This sets boundaries for impactful initiatives. 📍Key Concerns: Tackle issues – waste, inequality, scarcity. Pinpointing fuels your mission. 📍Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborate with staff, customers, communities. A resonating mission galvanizes. 📍Value Alignment: Fuse sustainability with values. Mismatch erodes trust. Match innovation with eco-goals. 📍Strategic Pathway: Transformative answers lead to strategy. Address issues, engage stakeholders, align values.

Research best practices: 1. Engage stakeholders for diverse insights. 2. Benchmark against industry leaders. 3. Align with global sustainability goals. 4. Ensure clarity and actionability. 5. Regularly review and adapt to emerging trends.

This is where suggestion 2. sits. Link to strong external standards that have traction - be a B Corp, drive ISSB accounting standards, .. do not rest on bland net zero or UN SDG pledges - commit to something under the surface, again, rescuing authenticity.

To help ourselves first and effectively evangelize our mission to our stakeholders, we created a framework called Insightful Organization Framework that organizations can use to create the organizational cultural shift leveraging what we called Sustainability Bearing Layer that smoothen the execution of your sustainability mission leveraging technology, integrated reporting, recognition, change provoking, innovation engine, and alliance eco-system.

𝗙𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀: 𝗧𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 1.Your Organization's Identity: Start by stating your organization's name. This anchors the statement to your brand and establishes ownership. 2. Sustainability Goal: Clearly articulate the core sustainability objective you're striving to achieve. Whether it's carbon neutrality, ethical sourcing, or community empowerment, make it the centerpiece of your statement. 3. Sustainability Actions or Strategies: Describe the steps you're taking to fulfill your sustainability goal. These actions should align with your mission and reflect your commitment to responsible practices.

A sustainability mission statement should articulate core values and purpose, emphasizing environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and economic viability. It must commit to specific, actionable sustainability strategies, highlight stakeholder engagement, and express dedication to continuous improvement and alignment with global standards like the UN SDGs. This concise approach ensures clarity and direction in sustainability efforts.

To quickly grasp what it means to have a clear, compelling, and exciting mission statement, think about NASA's mission to the moon announced in 1961. It should also be time-framed (10-20 years) and very ambitious. Remember, you are not doing it because it is easy, you do it cos it's hard. Especially when we talk about saving our Planet. Good luck!

Refining your sustainability mission statement is vital. Evaluate its alignment with core values, relevance to stakeholders, achievability, measurability, distinctiveness, and memorability. Also, gather feedback from employees, customers, suppliers, and partners for a statement that resonates and fosters impactful change.

Utilize diverse channels like websites, social media, newsletters, reports, presentations, and events to disseminate your statement effectively. Enhance its impact using: ✔Stories: Narrate real-life instances to exemplify your commitment. ✔Visuals: Incorporate graphics that visualize your initiatives. ✔Testimonials: Share experiences of those influenced by your efforts. ✔Data: Use facts and figures to demonstrate your achievements. Consistent sharing not only informs but also fosters trust, credibility, and engagement with your audience and stakeholders. The more transparently you communicate your mission, the stronger your impact becomes.

Sustainability mission statements are living documents and they should be reviewed regularly to ensure that they continue to reflect the most accurate current vision of an organization. As businesses refine and refocus their activities based on market conditions, organizational risks and stakeholder demands, so will their sustainability objectives. For example, issues around climate change have enjoyed prominence in the past few years, but are now making way for greater engagement on biodiversity impacts.

Here´s suggestion 3, + a 100 word story of encouragement.. 3. Draw the connection to your core business - be honest, you are in ESG to enhance a transition, drive it, and benefit from it. Link it. If you are a tech firm describe how you see your statement driving tech development. If you are in fast fashion, how you see more sustainable process meaning more success. Again, believable, real. Now the story - one massive global tech platform gets its statement imperfectly out there around 2018. It opens up to stakeholders, shares iterations, failings, learnings. By 2023 it is defining ESG products across sector, at profit. Another is afraid it has no story, or not quite enough. Says nothing. And now.. will never catch up. Good luck!