How to Make a Corporate Sustainability Program Work at the Local Level

Having a benchmarked corporate sustainability program does not ensure success at the local facility level. Remember the saying "Think Globally, Act Locally"? It is at the local level where the "license to operate" is earned.

There are many local facilities associated with corporate sustainability programs. Many of these corporate programs are keen to the "Think Globally" part, but have a lot of trouble making them operational at the local facility level.

Top management is keen on using the top-down approach to sustainability: "Provide the sustainability targets and see that the facilities met them." Local facilities often see these targets as unfunded mandates that may not necessarily help them meet their responsibilities in the local community. How can a corporate program accommodate a healthy level of bottom-up management that would enhance its sustainability program?

First, the sustainability program must have a shared positive vision for a sustainability future. It should not be focused on "doing less of a bad thing." Creating a vision, mission and core values (guiding principles) that encourage sustainability is a necessary first step and one quite appropriate for senior management to lead. This should not be the simple crafting of a new sustainability policy that will be framed and displayed at each facility. Instead, it is the hard work of revisiting and revising existing documents. The facilities, suppliers, customers and other key stakeholders should be a part of this exercise.

Second, the entire organization should be focused on a common set of performance standards that consist of "leading indicators" such as those found in existing business excellence frameworks. These leading indicators are listed in one of my previous blogs. They can be followed both in the corporate office (this is also a "local" facility) and at all of the company's facilities. Using the 15 leading indicators, some local facilities will do better or worse on each. However, all the indicators are applicable to every facility and provide the basis for aligning the local program with the corporate program. The total score can be assigned through a second-party or third-party audit and trended over time. This effort will drive the continual improvement that is necessary if the overall organization is to continue on the path to sustainability. Remember that companies that use these frameworks outperform financially those that do not use the frameworks.

Third, different parts of the organization will have varying sets of lagging indicators (Global Reporting Initiative, or GRI, results) that will pertain to them. Each facility needs to address these results. Using the leading indicators will help improve the lagging indicators. Using the business excellence frameworks, it is possible to score the results as well. These results are scored by answering four questions for each:

1. Can the result be demonstrated to be important to the sustainable operation of the facility?
2. Was there a formal action plan put in place at the beginning of the year to guide the attainment of this result?
3. Is the result tracked and trended by facility and corporate management on a regular basis?
4. Is the result benchmarked against other facilities within and outside of the organization?

A score is obtained through the use of a matrix that gives no points for a negative answer to each of these questions and gives superior scores to a positive answer with sense of complete control and understanding of the significance of the result. Because scores have no units associated with them, one can roll up the results score to a single score value or can use the five results categories found in the GRI protocol.

Each facility should use some kind of management system to fully integrate its sustainability program into the way it is operated — day in and day out. These management systems can be carefully aligned with the corporate management system. Instead of using top-down prescription, all facilities can conform to a sustainability program that pervades throughout the organization.

The key to making this work is to prevent sustainability from being a separate program (silo) that is driven only from the top of the organization. As you'll hear me say over and over, "Sustainability must be part of what every employee practices on their job every day." Slogans, creeds, policies, principles and standards will never accomplish this without the components mentioned in this blog. Neither will the management concept of "change management." Remember, "An employee never resists their own ideas!" Most companies that want sustainability are finding that employees indeed welcome it, we just need to manage this involvement with a thoughtful blend of bottom-up and top-down management.

Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D., is the practice leader for Business Sustainability at First Environment Inc. and an internationally recognized authority on the topic of business sustainability and process improvement.