As part of our New Year’s Resolutions campaign, we are hearing that a good number of sustainability professionals are taking this year to step back and re-think their strategies, but bringing together an overarching strategy with metrics, targets and workplans for the next five years is no easy task, and it can often feel overwhelming to know where to start.
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It’s always important to review and update your sustainability strategy – every year, every week and especially during the reporting period.
Businesses should be reviewing their data, processes and overarching pillars and promises to ensure they are still fit for purpose and representative of the business’ ambitions. However, there are key inflection points in a strategic process, and many businesses that set out their sustainability strategies over the last five years are now nearing the end of that timeline and revving up for the next generation of their strategic approach.
A moment of change and excitement
This marks a powerful moment of change for sustainability teams, but also an exciting one, where they can share with the wider business their read on the market – challenges, achievements, evolving trends – and what they want to aim for over the next five years. It’s also an opportunity to look beyond regulation, compliance and the “must do” and focus more on the “could do” and the long-term sustainability ambitions for the business.
With global frameworks such as the CSRD, ISSB, and TCFD raising the bar for disclosures and integrating double materiality principles, the next five years are pivotal for businesses navigating the complexities of sustainability. The frameworks require companies to assess their environmental and social impacts alongside financial risks and opportunities. They also push for greater engagement with multiple stakeholder groups and across businesses’ supply and value chains in a way that might broaden their strategic aims like never before.
How to do it and what to think about
As part of our New Year’s Resolutions campaign, we are hearing that a good number of sustainability professionals are taking this year to step back and re-think their strategies, but bringing together an overarching strategy with metrics, targets and workplans for the next five years is no easy task, and it can often feel overwhelming to know where to start. There are five core principles that we find help our clients in forging their future direction:
1.
Start from core strategy
It sounds simple but looking at how business strategy has changed over the past few years – which might have included pandemic-related shifts, employee changes, product and services shifts – is the ideal starting point for your sustainability strategy refresh.
2.
Be brave, stand back
If things have changed in the business model, and you have to reset, re-baseline or re-think your sustainability strategy – that’s ok. It’s important to reflect on the last process of strategy development, where it led you to, and how it has been realised since.
This should be done in a proactive way – there is no need to defend where ambitions haven’t been met, but be honest and realistic and invite stakeholders to join you on the next steps of your journey.
3.
Nature, water, soil and biodiversity: the next frontier in sustainability
These evolving topics are key to incorporate into a forward-looking strategy, even if your business feels like it doesn’t currently have a large footprint or significant risk exposure. These strategies are bolstered by scenario analysis and emissions heatmapping to create targeted, measurable strategic pathways. Human rights and supply chain thinking is deeply bound up in these areas, where the social and environmental really come together.
4.
Line up with the regs
CSRD, ISSB and CSDDD shouldn’t confine your ambitions; they should enhance them (as we discussed in our recent ‘The Sustainability Report is dead’ webinar.
Get stuck into the reporting requirements, whether you have to comply or not, and use the language and the data requirements to help inspire your activity. Again, they might take you deep into your supply chain, where opportunities and risks may surface that you weren’t aware of and that can transform your strategic approach.
5.
Rethinking data collection
How have you found the past four to five years of data collection? What’s been tricky, and what’s been easy? A warts-and-all audit of how data flows, and how it is checked and analysed, throughout the business will help you identify joy and pain points and build these processes better next time.
What to do next
We would say this – but call the experts and have a chat with us! We are currently advising clients and sharing best practices and thought leadership on sustainability strategies. We’re sure we can support you towards an impactful and achievable strategy roadmap.
For expert advice and support in developing an impactful and achievable sustainability strategy, book a New Year’s Resolutions call with us today!
What we do
• Sustainability and ESG strategy
• Carbon, climate and nature
• Reporting and communications
• New thinking and research
Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash