Five ways to shift your organisation’s culture to embed sustainability

If you really want to achieve net zero and wider sustainability goals, you need to be thinking about whole scale business transformation. Here are some top tips from the CBI Sustainability Community to help you do it.

1. Start by understanding where you are currently

You can’t make real cultural change without first gathering insight into where you are at currently.

Some businesses undertake assessments using tools such as the Climate Action Readiness Assessment (CARA) to get a holistic picture of their workforce’s attitudes towards climate change. Others have developed their own models including workshops and surveys to get a better understanding of their employees’ perceptions. Be as specific as possible when undertaking such assessments. And make sure you can  highlight the sticking points – whether that’s a certain team, level of management or function within the business – so you can tailor your solutions.

A word of advice from members to guide your thinking:

• Move beyond the ‘top of the iceberg’ to the parts that you cannot see, such as people’s core motivations, beliefs, personal priorities, any assumptions they have relating to climate, and underlying attitudes.
• Be aware of the ‘say’ and ‘do’ gap when surveying your workforce. The staff are likely to be more open to initiatives and adaptations when answering questions in theory. However, in practice, their responsiveness is likely to be lower, especially if they perceive any climate related activities as competing with their work priorities. 

2. Develop a robust case for why a sustainability culture matters to your business

A strong vision and an accompanying narrative are essential for pushing forward with an ambitious sustainability agenda. A big part of this will be figuring: why does it matter for people in the organisation? What does this mean to their job? How does it impact on their career path? Be prepared to answer these questions, reaching out to different areas of business, and collaborating to develop guidance. It means managers across the business will  have a sense of ownership too.

When developing a strategy for embedding sustainability across an organisation, be prepared to work in a more abstract terms. You may be used to looking at emissions’ data and cost-reduction calculations, but changing culture is a more qualitative exercise. Having said that, some businesses quantify the advantages based on employee retention, and the necessity of employee buy-in to deliver all elements of decarbonisation.

3. Switch from strategy to action by following peer advice

The Community shared some practical principles on creating a culture of sustainability:

• Be patient and adaptable. Shifting behaviours may take many different approaches, so patience and flexibility are crucial. Some firms follow a ‘carrot and stick’ approach, balancing incentives to encourage positive action with adopting more formal initiatives, e.g., by aligning climate goals with career progression or introducing carbon budgets.
• Get comfortable with failure. One of the Community members stressed that 75% of change projects fail, which is a far higher rate than other types of projects. You’ll need to get comfortable with going back to the drawing board and trying something new, having gained more knowledge each time.
• Don’t forget middle management. Often when we talk about buy-in we focus on the first step, i.e., the C-suite. With culture change, it’s middle management that will have to ensure that change doesn’t sit at the top, or solely with new recruits.
• Use data thoughtfully. Data can be a key to winning the hearts and minds of those who are less personally motivated. But don’t let it become overwhelming and counter-productive. Make sure you use it as evidence to support an overarching narrative, keepingyour message clear and relevant to everyone across the business.
• Pick the low-hanging fruit. Some of the changes to help embed sustainability across an organisation are extremely low cost, like reducing climate jargon and enabling employees to upskill each other on climate.
• Focus on the least friction approach. The aim should be to find a soft spot of making progress towards sustainability goals while not annoying employees too much with the changes. The challenge is to get to peoples’ hearts without getting them depressed!
• Include your supply chain. All of this applies when working to decarbonise across your scope 3 emissions. If you can master your strategy internally and develop strong support structures, similar models can be applied to your suppliers too. 

4. Cut the jargon and ensure knowledge transfer.

Sustainability language can be confusing and slow down employee engagement. Providing technical pre-read materials before meetings and avoiding acronyms is a good start. For non-sustainability directors and C-suite members, breaking down why the information matters to them can help with buy-in.

To ensure longevity of any culture change, passion and progress can’t be tied to any one person. To avoid losing momentum if they leave, or become overburdened, support these individuals to share knowledge and responsibilities across the organisation.

5. Be creative

The Community shared some helpful examples on how to get started on embedding sustainability in your business:

• Introduce a no business flights policy.
• Encourage sustainable travel by giving extra days of leave if using slow travel options for personal holidays.
• Run workshops with the end-users of your product to understand where any waste occurs, and scope ideas for circularity.
• Change meal subsistence that encourages lower carbon options – incentivising people to make environmentally-conscious choices by allowing higher expense if meals are vegan/vegetarian.
• Trial a no company cars policy to encourage public transport.
• Encourage walking to work or subsidising via cycle to work scheme.
• Run an internal communications series on sustainability, e.g., podcasts, newsletters, mini briefings, webinars.