After 2 Years as a Sustainability Manager: This Is What I’ve Learned
A heavily increasing number of firms of all sizes start hunting a rare species: Sustainability Managers. Why? Because key stakeholders start realizing the long-term unsustainability of business. Maybe not in terms of profits — not yet — but in terms of the social and environmental capital — the foundation of business success. But the transition from “business as usual” to the sustainability champions league is complex. And to master this transition, new key capabilities are necessary.
Until recently, most firms followed the credo of Milton Friedman:
“The business of business is business.”
Therefore, firms have focused to do only one thing: making money. Today, more than 50 years after the famous quote by Friedman, the business environment has changed. Firms are increasingly judged by all stakeholders based on their sustainability strategies and reports. But implementing social and environmental goals along existing economic ones is rather an art than just a project. Conflict of interests emerge. Everywhere. To find balance and peace in the boardroom as well as at the general assembly, Sustainability Managers are called to the table. They are individuals that are responsible for ensuring that firms set and meet environmental as well as social goals. They develop policies and initiatives that emphasize the proper use of environmental and social resources with a focus on sustaining these resources for the future. This vacancy description sounds — like so many others — tempting. But what is the work actually about? And what are key characteristics of a Sustainability Manager to be successful? After two years as a Sustainability Manager, here is what I have learned.
Be Proactive
This is always key — you might think. True. But as a Sustainability Manager, this must be the key habit. Most people in your firm are not familiar with what it means to do business sustainably. They might believe that the economy might always be in conflict with nature and people. Or they have some rudimentary knowledge about what sustainability is and want to dictate your agenda.
Whatever the external circumstances, proactivity is about you and your realm of influence. You are the expert; you know where the hotspots are. Pin them to the top of your agenda. If you don’t set your own agenda, others will set them for you. Once you have your agenda, prioritize it. It is so much easier (and ineffective) to get caught up by daily stuff that comes your way. You always have a choice. Choose what’s important to do right now to get closer to your long-term goals.
The Eisenhower matrix can be a great tool to help you with making your choices. What you want to focus on and spend most of your time lies in quadrant 2, the important but not urgent stuff. Why? Because sustainability is never urgent. It is long-term. Make it short-term.
Have a Vision
The words of one of the greatest management teachers in history — Peter Drucker — shall remind you that you are not just a manager (despite your title), but you must be a leader to be successful:
“Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things.”
If you are a treasure hunter in the Amazon rainforest, management is the efficiency with which you cut through the jungle. Leadership means to determine if you are in the right jungle in the first place in order to find the treasure. If you are just a manager without leadership, you will get lost. What you need is a clear vision of what you and your team want. It’s the North Star that is fundamental to your daily work. Building a vision takes time. Take that time to really adjust it right in the very beginning — for yourself, for your team, for a project, for the next year — and it will pay off 100-times in terms of effectiveness. Vision is the centerpiece of your purpose and work.
Don’t judge
It’s so easy to judge other people for not being “sustainable enough”. The bottom line is, it doesn't help anybody — not you, the other person, or the firm. It will most likely lower your own motivation to act and pushes you down a spiral of negativity (be aware of our natural programmed negativity bias). And it will push your colleagues further away from you because they feel judged and thus are even more unlikely to change anything.
Ultimately, it will slowly deteriorate any healthy corporate culture. Instead of complaining or judging, you can choose to be positive. Despite what happens in your external environment. Of course, it is easier said than done. Especially in the realm of sustainability where bad news is our daily business. But ask yourself: when do you work most effectively? It is most likely that you are when being in a positive rather than a negative mood. You always have a choice.
Be a Generalist
That is one of my favorite. Many jobs get more narrower by the year. You specialize and specialize and specialize so in the end no one understands anymore what you do but you. It might pay financially but — in my opinion — it costs you mentally. One of the beautiful things about being a Sustainability Manager is the diverse richness of your tasks. You create carbon footprints, write reports, set up strategies and goals, communicate in internal and external events, engage with people, and much more.
I remember one of my professors saying in one of the first lectures, that we will be ducks after our bachelor's degree. We could do many things, but nothing good. Today, I think being a generalist instead of a specialist is a great advantage when you want to be a Sustainability Manager. I experienced the advantage of being a generalist when working with folks of either a business or natural science background. Often — not always — these circumstances lead to a general misunderstanding between these two divisions. The prejudices: either you are only interested in money or you are just an idealist with pinky glasses. As a Sustainability Manager, you are often in between these lines of conflict. Being able to understand the language of both sides will help you to negotiate between all stakeholders, create a common understanding, and utilize the expertise of specialists to move forward.
Understand your Organizational Culture
Another famous quote by Peter Drucker:
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
It expresses that even the greatest sustainability strategy (or any strategy) is meaningless if the organizational culture isn’t aligned to it. Simply put, strategy is about what we want to achieve. Culture is about who we are. It comprises values, behavior patterns, and basic assumptions. It is not visible and therefore hard to grasp. If you want your sustainability strategy to work, invest time and resources to understand the organizational culture and make it visible. It will help you and the management team to surface the discrepancies between “what we say” and “what we do”, a rather common phenomenon in today’s business world. Understanding culture is one of the first steps to align values with action and to make your strategy fly.
Be a Role Model
As Brené Brown describes in her book Daring Greatly:
“Who we are matters immeasurably more than what we know or who we want to be.”
Full stop. You can talk about justice, peace, and environmental consciousness. But if you don’t live it, if you don’t walk the talk, there is zero chance of success. This is a critical characteristic of any change process. Obviously, we cannot be perfect all the time. And it’s not about if you have used the plastic cup once or not. It is about living your values and at the same time being able to embrace imperfection.
Those were my learning lessons made so far in the field. And I hope they will support you on your own growth journey. I would be happy to hear about your lessons and how you have learned from them. Share below in the comments — I’d love to hear them!
If you like to hear more about my perspectives on sustainability, innovation, and change, feel free to follow me on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/gregor-braun
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Gregor Braun is a Sustainability Manager, Consultant, and Scientist in Switzerland. Gregor works closely with industrial partners to develop actionable sustainability strategies. He writes about science, innovation & transformation.
