Your company is lagging in sustainability efforts. How can you convince your colleagues to prioritize it?

Strategic Fit: Demonstrate how sustainability aligns with the company’s core values, mission, and long-term strategic goals. Risk Management: Explain how proactive sustainability efforts can mitigate risks related to regulatory changes, supply chain disruptions, and reputational damage. Workshops and Seminars: Organize educational sessions to raise awareness about the importance and benefits of sustainability. Success Stories: Share case studies and success stories from other companies or industries to inspire and motivate colleagues.

Em minha organização o time de TI realiza mensalmente palestras sobre temas sobre tecnologia. Estou pensando em realizar participar fazendo palestras sobre sustentabilidade aplicada às áreas dos subsetores de TI de minha organização: * Desenvolvimento de Softwares; * Infraestrutura de TI; * Governança de TI; * Cyber Segurança; * HelpDesk; * BI; * Análise de Negócios. Algumas sugestão para cada uma desses áreas?

Initiate change by educating colleagues on sustainability's significance through workshops or seminars. Cover basics like sustainable practices and the triple bottom line, emphasizing cost savings and efficiency gains. Solid understanding fosters meaningful action.

Rather than starting with education, I'd recommend starting with talking to your colleagues and understanding their perspective. Take a "curious" open-minded approach without any judgement. Ask open explorative questions to understand their views on different aspects of sustainability. And understand their highest priorities for the next year, and their objectives.

Comece educando seus colegas sobre a importância da sustentabilidade, destacando como ela impacta o meio ambiente, a sociedade e a própria viabilidade da empresa. Use dados concretos, estudos de caso e exemplos de outras organizações que tiveram sucesso ao implementar práticas sustentáveis.

Once colleagues understand sustainability, illustrate its benefits: enhancing brand reputation, attracting eco-conscious customers, and saving costs through efficient resource use. Highlight improved risk management and regulatory compliance incentives. Use industry examples for a compelling case.

Education is key. Colleagues need to understand sustainability and how the company's operation procedures impact climate change. It is also essential to educate them on their part in this whole phenomenon. We, as humans and employees, play a crucial role. If we don’t understand how our daily habits impact the environment at work and home, we can’t advocate for change.

Mostre os benefícios tangíveis que a sustentabilidade pode trazer, como redução de custos operacionais, melhorias na eficiência energética e uma melhor imagem da marca. Demonstre como essas vantagens podem ser alcançadas rapidamente, incentivando um engajamento imediato.

After establishing a solid understanding of sustainability, it's essential to showcase its tangible benefits. Emphasize how sustainable practices can enhance our brand reputation and attract eco-conscious customers, driving market differentiation. Highlight potential financial savings from efficient resource use and improved operational efficiency. Discuss how prioritizing sustainability often leads to better risk management and compliance with evolving regulations. Strengthen your case with examples of successful initiatives in similar industries, demonstrating how sustainability has driven growth and resilience for other companies. This approach will underscore the strategic value and competitive advantage of sustainability efforts.

Rather than just presenting any benefits of sustainability, look at how sustainability can help them deliver on their priorities or achieve their objectives. Look at how the benefits of sustainability can be connected into what they care most about. For example, if the Chief People Officer is concerned about attracting and retaining great people then talk to how progressing with sustainability can help address this. Or if the Chief Financial Officer is trying to reduce cost, talk to how efficiencies (e.g. in use of electricity or raw materials) could help. This will achieve both a sustainability objective (yours) and a cost saving objective which is what's currently front of mind for them.

Address colleagues' concerns about sustainability: costs, operational disruption, and effort. Offer phased implementation or external support solutions. Reassure them of long-term benefits in cost savings, reputation, and compliance.

Escute as preocupações e hesitações de seus colegas em relação à adoção de práticas sustentáveis. Forneça soluções claras e viáveis para os desafios mencionados, reforçando que os benefícios superam as dificuldades iniciais.

To address concerns about prioritizing sustainability, acknowledge worries about costs, operational disruptions, and the effort needed for change. Offer solutions like phased implementation to spread out costs and minimize disruption. Suggest seeking external support or consulting services to ease the transition. Reassure colleagues that while initial investments are necessary, the long-term benefits—such as cost savings, enhanced reputation, and improved compliance—will far outweigh the initial challenges. By presenting a balanced view and practical solutions, you can alleviate apprehensions and foster a supportive environment for sustainability initiatives.

SMART Goals: Establish Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals for sustainability initiatives. Performance Metrics: Integrate sustainability targets into performance reviews and business metrics to ensure accountability.

Trabalhe com sua equipe para estabelecer metas SMART (específicas, mensuráveis, alcançáveis, relevantes e temporais) em sustentabilidade. Essas metas claras e bem definidas ajudarão a guiar os esforços e manter a equipe focada no objetivo comum.

Setting clear, achievable sustainability goals will ensure reaching the set goals easier. These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. With both short-term milestones and long-term objectives to maintain momentum and track progress. Goals might include reducing energy consumption by a certain percentage within a year or achieving zero waste to landfill.

Sustainability thrives on teamwork, requiring collaboration across all departments. By fostering a unified effort, we harness diverse expertise, drive innovative solutions, and achieve our environmental goals, ensuring a sustainable future for our organization and the planet.

Incentive uma cultura de colaboração, onde todos os departamentos da empresa possam contribuir para as iniciativas de sustentabilidade. Organize workshops, reuniões e grupos de trabalho para fomentar ideias e soluções coletivas.

Sustainability in corporates today is driven on the back of regulations underpinned by UN SDG goals. This is a very vast, interlaced and complex subject that can be undermined with limited comprehension of employees trying to link it with just carbon footprint calculation and saving energy. While those two are important, it is essential for everyone in the organization to appreciate the desired outcomes rather than just the board and reporting team. Working in team has many psychological and research backed benefits which should be utilized to work on goals based assignments for implementing both compliance and operational efficiencies of the business, either in domain of expertise or in a new area. This will collectively build knowledge.

Sustainability requires a collective effort, making collaboration across all departments essential. Encourage colleagues to brainstorm and share ideas on implementing sustainable practices within their teams. Form cross-functional groups to address larger sustainability projects, ensuring everyone is invested in the outcomes. This collaborative approach generates diverse ideas and fosters a culture of shared responsibility and commitment to sustainability goals.

I ensure to use only handkerchief instead of tissues or hand dryers after washing hands. this way, I don't "preach" sustainability but I live it.

Demonstre seu compromisso com a sustentabilidade por meio de suas próprias ações e escolhas. Seja um modelo de comportamento sustentável no trabalho e mostre como pequenas mudanças podem ter um grande impacto, inspirando seus colegas a seguir o exemplo.

There is absolutely no doubt that Sustainability has to be a top priority for every business. Now “business” is the key word. Every sustainability professional will need to learn the art of articulating the business outcome and value of prioritising sustainability initiatives and efforts. While People & Planet perspectives are the driving force, we can’t lose sight of the fact that Profit will be a key enabler from a business perspective to achieve the larger goals.

To convince colleagues to prioritize sustainability, align it with their existing priorities. Engage stakeholders to understand their goals, highlighting how sustainability can enhance financial and operational efficiency. By organizing educational workshops showcasing the tangible benefits of sustainable practices and integrating sustainability into KPIs, each department can see the direct impact on their objectives. Implementing successful pilot projects can further demonstrate the practical benefits, fostering a commitment across the organization.

Embedding a sustainability focus in a company is cultural - building value for the concepts, respect for stakeholder engagement, capacity fir effectively integrating stakeholders into broader strategy and executing against this strategy. A company that isn’t clear on how it will bake sustainability into the DNA of its broader culture is a company that won’t be operating sustainably over time. A cultural focus starts with leadership, the board and c-suite. Understanding whether they value and insistent on sustainability in the organization is the start of understanding whether the company is intent on sustainability integration into corporate culture.

Talk about optimising, efficiency and saving money. I feel the word sustainability has become a word that is causing people to shut down and stop listening, use words that keep business leaders engaged and prioritising action.

It is ideal if sustainability is integrated into your core business strategy, objectives and business plan, KPIs and decision making criteria. Without this then it will always be hard to make the progress you would like. Therefore, it makes sense to work with the Exec Team, CEO and Board to try and influence getting sustainability included in the next iteration of these.