The job of a sustainability manager
Sustainability has become a buzzword in the business world, but what does it really mean for start-ups? Consumers increasingly often make purchase decisions with sustainability, economic viability, and the environment in mind. Meanwhile, 74% of the world's largest investors focus more on ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing.
The business environment is changing, creating an opportunity for all startups (software and hardware) to make sustainability the backbone of the company. As a result, many are contemplating who should drive sustainability initiatives.
In this blog, we will try to find answers on what is the right decision for your company and what to consider when hiring a sustainability manager or consultant.
Who should kick off sustainability in the company?
When it comes to implementing sustainable practices, start-up owners may wonder who is responsible for driving change within their organization. From my experience, you have three options:
Hiring a dedicated sustainability manager with relevant experience and background who works on sustainability-related projects full-time.
Outsourcing this task to a sustainability consultant like myself. This can offer you a comparatively quick way to understand what sustainability means for your business and offer insights into industry best practices.
Or offering the role to someone within a company who knows the operations and is willing to learn and grow with the company.
All of the options have their pros and cons. An in-house manager will have a deep understanding of the company's operations and culture, able to tailor sustainable practices to the business's specific needs. But an outsourced agency may have a broader range of expertise and resources.
Ultimately, the decision will depend on the specific needs and resources of the company. It is important to weigh the options carefully and choose the solution that best supports the company's sustainability goals and objectives.
The role of the sustainability manager
Based on my experience, the best possible solution is to hire an experienced sustainability manager who owns all things sustainability inside the company. Essentially, the sustainability manager's main agenda is to integrate sustainability into the company's business model. That requires a wide range of skills and multidisciplinary knowledge covering environmental, social, and governance matters. Some of the key responsibilities of a sustainability manager are:
Understanding the context of the company and how to balance environmental and social impact and business goals;
Developing, integrating, and communicating the company's sustainability strategy and impact goals;
Guide the leadership team towards setting goals and KPIs in all departments that support the overarching strategy;
Create a process for gathering and reporting ESG and impact data to management and company stakeholders - customers, employees, community, shareholders, and board;
Educate and engage colleagues in social and environmental initiatives;
In reality, hiring a sustainability manager with years of experience might be a challenge - not every company can afford it. And, sometimes, company management isn't ready to commit to a level of change to actually attract A-level experts. In these cases, it might be worth exploring the following options.
Finding a sustainability lead inside your current team
One option worth exploring is assigning sustainability to someone already working in the company. However, it's worth considering the pros and cons of each position before committing to it.
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has the best overview and understanding of the business and future risks;
Shows that the CEO is not only the head of the organization but also the leader employees want to see;
has the authority to mobilize resources toward a goal;
without previous experience with sustainability subject, launching might take too much time and energy from the main focus of the business.
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A significant part of sustainability project management is tracking, accounting, and reporting data. The end goal for any company is to have a solid system for measuring progress toward sustainability goals, and CFOs often have the necessary expertise to quantify the progress and create a process.
CFO is within close reach of rates of the leadership team, making it easier to promote sustainability initiatives and ensure consistent progress;
there is a risk of not having enough communication with employees and customers.
CMO
the sustainability narrative will be strong, ensuring that employees and customers really see the company's progress and can give constant feedback on the next priorities.
for a sustainability story to have substance, there have to be results delivered by other departments. Prioritizing sustainability in other departments can be challenging.
In reality, sustainability often can become the responsibility of people reporting to the previously mentioned leadership team members. This can result in a slower decision-making process and a lack of buy-in on the leadership team level. At the same time, this can create an opportunity for career growth and finding purpose in the current company for an employee that otherwise might look for these opportunities elsewhere.
It's also worth mentioning that assigning leading sustainability to someone already working for the company can become challenging if they don't have appropriate experience and other higher-priority tasks.
Hiring a sustainability consultant
Because of the challenges mentioned in the previous sections (TL;DR: it's hard to find people with experience in sustainability), there's a market for sustainability advisors like myself.
From my experience, companies choose to work with sustainability consultants because:
they have practice-based experience working with a lot of companies;
to save time and resources (especially in the initial research and strategy-building phase);
they want to learn what are the current practices in their industry and how ambitious their goals and KPIs should be.
Sustainability consultants and agencies can also help create and execute a communication strategy. Without the necessary experience in sustainability communication, it's easy to fall into the trap of greenwashing or not saying enough. Hiring someone with experience in the subject can be a time and company reputation saver.
Another formal or informal role that a sustainability advisor has in working with companies is leadership and management team educator and mediator. It's common to have an incomplete understanding of sustainability topics and have different opinions on what truly matters for the company. So the job of the consultant is to help create a common ground of understanding, and a shared North start to strive towards.
The most common challenge for companies working with sustainability consultants is to book enough time to properly onboard the consultant to the ins and outs of the business, as well as dedicating enough time every week to move forward with the work. I would suggest considering this when starting to work with external help.
Final take on who should start the company's sustainability journey
In conclusion,
hiring an experienced in-house sustainability manager may be ideal for some companies, but it will require resources (time and money),
Sometimes it's possible to find the future sustainability manager in your current team, but it will require time to learn about the topic,
outsourcing sustainability consultants can also be a viable option for start-ups and small businesses looking to integrate sustainable practices and a kick-start to the whole journey. If this is what you need - click here and book a free consultation with me!
The time to start thinking about sustainability was yesterday. And if you didn't do it yesterday, today is the next best option. Hope this article helps you on the journey to make your company future-proof.
