What are some ways to build a culture of collaboration in sustainability?

Sustainability is not only a business goal, but also a shared responsibility that requires collaboration across different stakeholders, such as employees, customers, suppliers, partners, and communities. However, fostering a culture of collaboration in sustainability can be challenging, especially in large and diverse organizations. How can you overcome the barriers and create a collaborative environment that supports your sustainability efforts? Here are some ways to consider.

1 Align your vision and values

The first step to building a culture of collaboration in sustainability is to align your vision and values with your sustainability goals. You need to communicate clearly and consistently what sustainability means for your organization, why it matters, and how it aligns with your core values and purpose. You also need to involve your stakeholders in co-creating and co-implementing your sustainability strategy, and ensure that they understand their roles and responsibilities. By aligning your vision and values, you can create a common ground and a shared commitment to sustainability among your stakeholders.

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Ho Chee Kit

Senior Director at C&W Services - Chief Engineer ("' 积福"工程师) and Net Zero Assets(净零资产管理)
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New ambitions require a new vision. The first action is to conduct a visioning exercise. You will need to gather all the right people around the table and if you don’t know who they are, you need to find out and identify the Sustainability Champions to drive the agenda across business units and functional groups. Beware of the gap between the “real culture” vs. the “surface culture.” The devil is in the details of “how we get things done around here.” Get sense of your organization’s mindset. You will then be better able to judge the potential for the buy-in, participation and engagement level and advocacy you need to achieve the vision.

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2 Empower your teams

The second step to building a culture of collaboration in sustainability is to empower your teams to take action and make decisions that support your sustainability goals. You need to provide your teams with the resources, tools, training, and incentives they need to collaborate effectively and efficiently. You also need to encourage your teams to share their ideas, feedback, and best practices, and to learn from each other and from external sources. By empowering your teams, you can foster a sense of ownership and accountability for sustainability among your stakeholders.

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James Butcher

Strategic Consultant and Speaker (Business Growth, Supply Chain and Sustainability)
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An extremely powerful but simple step is to create social time to discuss sustainability issues that matter to your team. Things that impact their home, friends and family. For example, by having an open discussion about how to reduce energy, allows the team to share ideas. Discuss pros and cons. To establish agency for change and agents for change (and probably save money too). Discussions such as these also face into the fact there is rarely a perfect choice. It empowers action that doesn’t allow perfection to get in the way of doing good. Sustainability should be everyone’s job; the same way we’ve embraced health and safety. It uses both top down and bottom up desire for change. The proposed sessions are on step to achieve this.

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3 Celebrate your achievements

The third step to building a culture of collaboration in sustainability is to celebrate your achievements and recognize your collaborators. You need to measure and monitor your sustainability performance, and share your results and impacts with your stakeholders. You also need to acknowledge and reward your collaborators for their contributions, efforts, and innovations. By celebrating your achievements, you can create a positive feedback loop and a culture of appreciation for sustainability among your stakeholders.

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Birgit Vallmüür, Ph.D.

Helping businesses navigate their ESG challenges | Managing Director | Board Member | Founder Adviser | Speaker
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Make sure recognition and rewards are distributed among contributors as merited - recognising collaboration across functions, and seniority.

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4 Seek new opportunities

The fourth step to building a culture of collaboration in sustainability is to seek new opportunities to expand and deepen your collaboration. You need to identify and engage with new and existing partners, such as NGOs, academia, government, media, and other organizations, that share your sustainability vision and values. You also need to explore and experiment with new and innovative ways to collaborate, such as co-creating products or services, launching campaigns or initiatives, or joining networks or platforms. By seeking new opportunities, you can create a dynamic and diverse collaboration ecosystem that supports your sustainability goals.

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5 Address the challenges

The fifth step to building a culture of collaboration in sustainability is to address the challenges and risks that may arise from your collaboration. You need to anticipate and mitigate the potential conflicts, misunderstandings, or disagreements that may occur among your collaborators, due to different perspectives, expectations, or interests. You also need to manage and balance the trade-offs, costs, and benefits of your collaboration, such as sharing information, resources, or profits. By addressing the challenges, you can create a resilient and trust-based collaboration culture that sustains your sustainability efforts.

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6 Learn and improve

The sixth and final step to building a culture of collaboration in sustainability is to learn and improve from your collaboration experiences. You need to collect and analyze data and feedback from your collaborators, and evaluate the outcomes and impacts of your collaboration. You also need to reflect and identify the lessons learned, the best practices, and the areas for improvement. By learning and improving, you can create a continuous improvement cycle and a culture of learning for sustainability among your stakeholders.

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Ho Chee Kit

Senior Director at C&W Services - Chief Engineer ("' 积福"工程师) and Net Zero Assets(净零资产管理)
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Sustainability must be integrated into the long-term growth strategy to outpace competition and gain new sources of growth revenue. Good governance over the long term requires risk-based thinking , review and assessment rather than risk mitigation. Both concepts are very similar. Risk management is a more formalized process, and it is typically only used when there is a problem that needs to be addressed. On the other hand, risk-based thinking can be used proactively to avoid problems or take advantage of opportunities.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Ho Chee Kit

Senior Director at C&W Services - Chief Engineer ("' 积福"工程师) and Net Zero Assets(净零资产管理)
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Just because the organization states that sustainability is a board-level topic doesn’t necessarily mean that sustainability is emphasized as much as finance and other strategic business growth matters. It also does not mean that we have to look at the entire spectrum of Sustainability topics. Organization should leverage on quality data and emphasize on selected topics only based on their materiality impact to 17 SDGs.

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What are some ways to build a culture of collaboration in sustainability?

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1 Align your vision and values

2 Empower your teams

3 Celebrate your achievements

4 Seek new opportunities

5 Address the challenges

6 Learn and improve

7 Here’s what else to consider

Corporate Social Responsibility

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What are some ways to build a culture of collaboration in sustainability?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Align your vision and values

2 Empower your teams

3 Celebrate your achievements

4 Seek new opportunities

5 Address the challenges

6 Learn and improve

7 Here’s what else to consider

Corporate Social Responsibility

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