The Sustainability Mindset and Corporate Culture
There’s a ‘great correlation’ between a good company culture and profits, ESG investors say
The concept of a sustainability culture refers to an organization in which sustainability principles are embedded at all levels of the organization. This results from enabling the Sustainability Mindset to institutionalize throughout the organization and results in promoting sustainability in both communication and education of leadership and employees alike.
When I consider organizations that have succeeded in developing a sustainability culture, a few come to mind. Perhaps most prominent is Interface Carpet. I have mentioned the late Ray Anderson in previous posts, but as the CEO, Ray was uniquely positioned to embed sustainability into every decision the company made.
If you are not familiar with the story of Ray Anderson and Interface carpet, his classic text, “Confessions of a Radical Industrialist,” is a must-read and worthy of making your holiday list. In his book, Ray Anderson describes his realization that his company's actions were harming the planet. He says it best in his own words:
With that epiphany, Ray Anderson launched Interface towards a journey he called Mission Zero and set a target of having zero environmental impact by 2020. While Ray sadly passed in 2011, his company reached that goal and set a new goal of being carbon positive through an initiative called Climate Take Back. If you ever have a chance to meet anyone at Interface, you can tell in speaking with them - that culture is real and runs within everybody at the company. While at Greystar, I had the honor of befriending Lisa Conway, VP of Sustainability at Interface. Lisa leads the Climate Take Back program, and Ray would be proud that his legacy lives on in her and the rest of the team at Interface.
So what happened at Interface? How did they manage to succeed to embed a culture of sustainability within their organization?
It starts with Mission, which includes a clear strategic direction and intent. When you hear Ray’s own words talk about that experience, there is no doubt that he was clear-eyed on what needed to be done. He had a vision of where they needed to go. Along with strategic direction and intent, we also need to include goals & objectives. Targets help us track towards goals. Finally, it is critical that employees see their leadership align with their values, they feel safe expressing their support. When leadership provides public support, it helps to validate the importance of the goal. It is why virtually every CSR report includes the CEO statement.
What happens next can be described as magical. Employees seeing that it is ok to express their ideas and innovation start to unmask inefficiencies that perhaps the organization never realized existed. Those ideas percolate, and as leadership circulates through the organization, they can support, promote, and encourage those ideas. This top-led but bottom-fed approach can propel an organization towards innovation, reduced environmental impact, employee empowerment, and increased profitability.
Along with setting a clear Mission, Consistency is key. Identifying and reinforcing core values and encouraging coordination and integration. This includes the development of the employee base and aligning performance expectations with that vision. I have often said, I will know that I am on the right track when I see sustainability included in every employee’s annual performance review.
Finally, adaptability is key. We are creating change and that requires intent and careful planning. It requires considering the consequences and having the courage to move forward. For customer-facing organizations, it includes understanding your customers and focusing on their needs.
Some questions you may want to ask yourself as you think about your sustainability program and where you are heading:
Does your team understand the link between sustainability and achieving your organization’s mission? Do they understand what it will take to get there?
Does your team believe the firm can stay competitive and adapt to changes in the market? Are they aware of the changes in the market?
Are your people involved? Do they need training? If they aren’t involved, what is holding them back?
Have you made your values clear? Do you consistently live out those values?
One valuable tool in understanding your organization is to survey it. The Denison Organizational Culture Survey is one that Interface used to provide insight into their organization and identify what they needed to work on.
If you would like to read more about Interface and how they leveraged the Denison toll and other tips for embedding sustainability into your culture, this interview of Erin Meezan, Chief Sustainability Officer at Interface, is particularly interesting: 10 Minutes with Erin Meezan.
You can help reduce the impact of the built environment by sharing this blog with your peers. Together we can impact the 39% of greenhouse gasses attributed to the built environment. It starts with awareness, and we succeed with teamwork.
Stay well!
Chris Laughman is the ThirtyNine Blog author, a blog dedicated to reducing the impact of the built environment. When not blogging, Chris is helping the real estate industry reduce energy and water impact as the Vice President of Sustainability for Conservice, the Utility Experts. Whether Multifamily, Single Family, Student Housing, Commercial, or Military, we simplify utility billing and expense management by doing it for you. Our insight into your utility consumption provides an opportunity to identify risks. Leveraging innovation and experience, we ignite solutions with real impacts and track performance to ensure the trendline stays laser-focused on the goal. At Conservice, we have developed a true bill-to-boardroom solution to help truly make a difference. We have before us a tremendous opportunity. Standing shoulder to shoulder, we will get this done. Contact me at claughman@conservice.com for more information.
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