How can you stay up-to-date with sustainability trends and engage your employees?

There's a befuddling and ever growing number of relevant sustainability sources, which makes it difficult to know what to follow. Two standout sources that I keep coming back to are Eco Business (eco-business.com) and Mongabay (Mongabay.com): highly recommended for serious and balanced environmental journalism. You can also try Anthropocenemagazine.org and Grist.org for a more cheeky take on what are often pretty drab news. I'd also recommend finding groups of people with a shared environmental interest, so that you can build your analytical muscle over spirited debates :-)

To stay up to date with sustainability trends, you can follow relevant industry news, attend conferences and webinars, and join sustainability-focused communities. To engage employees, you can provide training and education, encourage open communication, involve them in decision-making, and recognize and reward sustainable practices.

To stay updated with latest sustainability trends, one should: 1. Follow Newsletters on Sustainability (nature.com, csrwire.com etc.) 2. Connect with relevant professional networks on twitter(X) or Linkedin 3. Join Sustainability groups 4. Attend Workshops/webinars/ conferences To communicate latest trends to the company employees, 1. You can email the relevant email 2. Discuss these trends in meetings 3. Arrange trainings

I have been a practicing environment and sustainability consultant since 2004. Additional sources I recommend are: - Environment Analyst (environment-analyst.com) - Transform and IEMA (iema.net) - Guardian Environment (theguardian.com) - ENDS Report (endsreport.com)

Taking an active role in a professional or industry organization has many benefits including keeping you up to speed on new and emerging trends. If the opportunity presents and your time commitments permit taking on another activity, I recommend serving on a board or in a leadership position.

For professional networks, the largest body for environment and sustainability professionals is IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment). IEMA has over 20,000 members and has international membership. IEMA members benefit from webinars, events, policy papers, professional guidance, training, professional registers and corporate memberships. IEMA also has active member networks on key topics such as: Climate and Net Zero, Biodiversity, Circular Economy, Impact Assessment, Environmental Management, and Sustainable Finance. If you are serious about being up-to-date with sustainability then IEMA is strong contender for best professional network. Highly recommended - I have been a member since 2004.

To stay at the vanguard of sustainability and the green economy, professionals should consider affiliating with networks like the Global Association for Transitioning to a Green Economy (GATE) or the International Sustainable Finance Centre (ISFC). These organizations are dedicated to advancing the integration of sustainability into the financial and economic sectors. They offer rich resources for professional development, including specialty webinars, workshops, and conferences that discuss the latest in green finance, renewable energy investment, and sustainable business models. Engaging with these networks can not only enhance your knowledge but also provide strategic connections that drive both personal and sector-wide progress.

I have attended a number of Conferences, Summits and Joint Sitting where presenters and exhibitors do address current trends, challenges and solutions, however, it is up to you as the organization to grasp what can keep your organization inline with sustainability policies and trends. Academics are also another solution to this aspect as they are researching on issues pertaining to current trends , their findings and recommendations are based on more than 100 articles which means they have more to offer in the field.

Eu penso que para além de selecionar cuidadosente as fontes e necessário também analisar a informação disponível de forma crítica e por sempre em primeiro plano aquilo que lhe parece razoável. Não obstante é importante saber o que as fontes menos fidedignas está comentando sobre o assunto.

Sustainability is not a trend. It's not fashion and it doesn't change each season. It should be based on science and an understanding of the source of impacts, pathway of effects, and receptors of potential impacts. This requires an assessment of your project or company by a competent professional. You can recruit these to be a core competence within your team, which is recommended for corporate sustainability. Or hire consultants, which is likely to be better at a project level. That will then guide your mitigation (of negative impacts) and enhancement (of positive impacts). These actions form the basis of your commitments your company makes, monitors, and discloses. This is both the basis of employee engagement and audits.

Regarding audits, there are a few things to consider. - Use a competent expert to undertake the audit. - Consider using an independent auditor. - Audit against Standards, Policies and Benchmarks, such as set out in an Environmental Management System (EMS) On experts: IEMA has a register of Registered Auditors, which have been independently vetted. Always look for qualified and experienced environmental auditors. On Standards: ISO (International Organization for Standardization) has several auditing standards. ISO 19011:2018, provides guidelines for auditing management systems. Audits can be used with management system standards, such as ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management).

Sustainability is a continuous process. It is not something that a company can achieve once and then forget about. It requires ongoing evaluation, checks, and audits to ensure that the company is meeting its sustainability goals and staying up-to-date on the latest environmental regulations, policies, and green technologies. Sustainability is more than the environment. It is also about how a company treats its customers, stakeholders, and employees. A sustainable company will be transparent about its risks and opportunities, and it will engage with its stakeholders to get their input on how to improve.

As a manager it is critical to understand the sustainability vision, values, and goals of the organization yourself, so you can inform and engage your employees. By modelling the role of a sustainability advocate to your team, you will enable them to get involved and informed. This in turn will generate new ideas and momentum to meet the organization's goals.

Have a proactive Sustainability Strategy. Due to its continual improvement nature, incorporating the 'Plan-Do-Check-Act' approach into a Sustainability Strategy that includes benchmarking ("seeking inspiration from others") and risk prioritization 'Planning' activities, as well as 'Checking' / "conducting regular audits" among other activities will ensure predictability of trends in addition to being a change management tool. A proactive Sustainability Strategy ensures stakeholder interests are addressed, including employee engagement especially during the 'Do' (e.g., implementation of processes, communication and training) and 'Act' (e.g., reporting) phases of the cycle.

I agree - speak to your employees; they can read and research way more than we can by ourselves! Get their input; I was recently speaking with an employee who asked about recycling steel toe work boots (they get a new pair each year). I had no idea, but looked in to it, and found a non-profit who re-purposes used foot wear. So now we have a program for this at our site - awesome!

Sustainability is a learning process. Organisations should consistently and constantly encourage and reward their own people, clients and stakeholders to identify ways to reduce the negative impacts and increase the positive impacts of their activities, products and services.

All of the points made so far - albeit a rather brief and limited set - are relevant and have some validity. But to the lead question, it’s hard not to give a Brains Trust response, ‘it depends’! What is the corporate context? What is the mission, product, offering, resource base, staffing etc etc. Being able to set and manage a corporate strategic framework and engage staff in shaping those m, and implementation are crucial. It also matters a great deal if government policy, control, resouces and scientific reality allow real progress. At present, we have wandered or rather blundered so far off the path, on pollution, climate and ecology, that many good local or individual sustainability actions simply can’t counteract the broader mess.

I encourage people to enroll in online courses or certifications related to sustainability. Many universities and organizations offer courses that cover a wide range of sustainability topics and these are often reviewed and updated by the universities to stay relevant. Reviewing sustainability reports published by leading companies and organizations will also prove relevant as they are often early drivers of process innovation and early adopters of policy innovation in sustainability.