There is no blueprint for how to make sustainability work in your organisation, nor is there a roadmap of how to get there. In the words of an employer at an event, I recently attended, “if there was one [roadmap] it would be wrong”. However, I’ve put together some tips and guidance to support you in embedding sustainability within your organisation:
Have a clear vision and purpose. Give your workforce something to buy into. Make your case with clarity and conviction and be clear about what you want the training to achieve, whilst also being prepared to listen and learn from your workforce. This will help you to identify the right type of training for your organisation.
Look for advocates within your organisation. For example, some employers have “green teams” – colleagues from across the business who are interested in sustainability and driving positive change, rather than it being their employed role. They might be great candidates for training first before rolling it out more broadly. If appropriate, get the most junior levels of your organisation involved – quite often, they will come up with new ideas and approaches. You might find that they ask challenging questions, but that’s great and should be encouraged!
Break down the message. Climate change is a complex and politically charged topic, one that can be difficult to understand and difficult for people to buy into or engage with. At NCFE, we’ve chosen to focus on two of the pillars of sustainability where we can help to make a difference – social development and economic development.
Help colleagues to understand the external landscape. We know that government policy can be difficult to digest – depending on the size of your organisation you might have to report on your carbon emissions (SECR) or adhere to procurement rules. It can be difficult for individuals in your workforce to understand what that means for them in their own roles. By providing opportunities for training on sustainability awareness, you’re helping them to understand the bigger picture and how they fit into that.
Ownership and accountability. This message is true for everyone in an organisation and is as relevant for the CEO and the HR team as it is for an apprentice. It’s great if the CEO leads the way and invests in their own upskilling, but we must all accept a level of ownership for our own development and training needs. Therefore, it’s really important to invest in your leadership team who can help lead the transition to net zero and encourage their teams to get involved and take accountability.
Evidencing achievement. Look at whether you can build sustainability into your in-house training or CPD offering if you have it. There are some great examples now of how augmented reality can support learning and sometimes this means that an employee doesn’t need to spend as long away from their job. It can open up opportunities for your workforce that they otherwise may not have had.
There are also some fantastic regulated qualifications to explore (more details on this here).
However, it’s also worth remembering that not all training will lead to a traditional qualification, there are some great learning opportunities on platforms like Coursera and LinkedIn Learning. Quite often, you can be awarded digital badges, or credentials, which you can add to your LinkedIn profile and use as evidence to demonstrate professional development.
Be bold and innovative - empower your workforce. A principle the more power you give away, the more power you have. For me, this sense of empowerment is why training and education are so important, particularly with sustainability. Understand that by providing training opportunities, you’re allowing people to be agents of change and investing in their human capital.
As an employer, you’re benefitting from a workforce with refreshed skills whilst also providing them with the knowledge, through education, to make positive changes in their own lives too. Ideally, individuals should feel empowered to highlight the training they need and how this will impact themselves, their role, and their organisation.
Collaborate. Find out what other organisations are doing when it comes to sustainability training. Communities of practice are a great way to share best practices and learn from mistakes that have already been made.
Work with education. Tell us what you need - we’re always open to developing new learning solutions! Make sure you engage with your Employer Representative Body as they develop a Local Skills Improvement Plan for your area. If you’re in a region that is covered by a Mayoral Combined Authority, engage with their education and skills teams. When it comes to education and training for sustainability, the pace of change is rapid and by working together, we can be agile and responsive to needs.
This piece follows on from a previous article, The Challenge of Defining Green Skills for Business.
