Which framework for your sustainability strategy?
Reflections on my take-aways from attending a sustainability conference.
In a recent article — The right tools for thinking — I reflect on the use of models to support strategic thinking and operational navigation within and between organizations. In the article I mention some of the most universal sustainability frameworks that structure a lot of the thinking and doing around the deep necessary shifts in our societal models.
This week, I attended the Sustainable Brand online conference and noticed the predominant use of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a framework to coin sustainability strategies. Session after session, most speakers explained how they used this framework as a starting point to develop their sustainability strategy and crystalize subsequent operational priorities.
Regardless of size, sector or geographies, most of the organizations represented — Lego group, IKEA, Nestlé, The Food Purveyor, CIMB, etc. — made an explicit connection to those of the 17 goals that were most relevant to their business.
Reflecting on the different presentations, I notice three similarities between the stories:
1. The sustainability team always engages with multiple internal and external stakeholders to co-create the strategy, translate them into operational priorities and foster wide-spread engagement for their implementation. Internally, these stakeholders include the executive team, the board and in some cases the staff; externally, they include clients, communities and partners across their value chain.
2. They leverage the UN SDG framework to legitimise the initiative, create a shared language between all parties, structuring the conversation and the output.
3. They show some system leadership and rely on a strong sense of purpose to engage with their ecosystem, raise awareness and catalyse system change. In doing so, they go beyond the strict imperatives of top and bottom lines and — for some of them — take risks with aspects of their business model.
Later in the conference, Carlota Sanz Ruiz, co-founder of DEAL, shared an overview of the Doughnut model and outlined how businesses can (and why they should) become regenerative and re-distributive by design. While she illustrated her presentation with case studies from SMEs in the Philippines and Australia, the most powerful stories of organizations using the Doughnut model come from the public sector, and in particular from municipalities (Amsterdam, Philadelphia, Portland, Copenhagen, etc.).
I leave the conference with a confirmation and a question.
I am reinforced in my belief that system leadership and multi-stakeholder collaboration are two of the most critical ingredients for systemic change. And I am left to wonder about the contextual attributes that make a sustainability framework more or less relevant for an organization.
I would love to hear your thoughts about this and in particular, your stories of using any of these frameworks or seeing them used in your organizations or by your clients.
