How to Write a Sustainability Commitment: A Step-by-Step Guide for Businesses in 2024
Sustainability Commitment and Roadmap from Slaprea, A Food Festival for Good
No, AI didn’t write this and AI shouldn’t write your sustainability commitment either.
It needs to be meaningful, because it’s the first foundational step to starting any organization’s environmental and social initiatives. It’s your goal.
If you’re in the proverbial passenger seat in the creation of the vision and commitments, you’ll risk losing both:
A more successful outcome for all sustainability-impacted actions and decisions because the direction was wrong, unrealistic or poorly-timed
Or the outcomes and execution failing because subsequent decisions from leadership are also just as subsequently lacking in effort
Why does this have such a far reaching impact though?
It’s because sustainability isn’t just about the environment or worker’s rights. Sustainability is how we do everything; from the choice of web hosting that has a better energy and carbon outcome, to procurement of materials locally where the carbon footprint is lower, revenue stays in the local economy and dollars (could) get shifted to suppliers with better working conditions.
“Sustainability is how we do everything”
So if we don’t invest enough in the formulation of the vision and commitments, the organisation’s day to day decisions and actions will continue creating negative impact whether the organisation knows it or not.
Sustainability “Versions”
Your sustainability vision and commitments will evolve as you gain new insights and adapt to market changes. So naturally, they should change and prevent the vision from becoming static and forgotten, allowing it to grow and change with your organization’s progress and market dynamics.
Example of an evolution:
Initial Vision: "We prioritize waste minimization across our organization."
This isn’t a robust vision and doesn’t inspire team members to take much action. The language implies that the company is only looking to minimise waste and not considering how to eliminate it.
Updated Vision: "We strive to be waste-free by adopting circular economy best practices."
This shows more understanding about waste, it includes a framework and a stronger commitment to their waste outcome. Team members reading this will have a better idea of the kind of actions are strategically prioritised. For example, aiming for more circularity in procurement and operations and thus eliminating waste.
Further Update: "We aim to be a waste-free organization, through the adoption of circular economy best practices, starting with eliminating single-use plastics by 2026."
This update is stronger yet again as it gives a clear focus for the organisation to target as well as a more courageous commitment.
Now that we understand the importance of iterating, let’s clarify what we mean by a vision/ version and a commitment.
A vision is inspirational and articulates what the future could and should look like, whereas a commitment is a specific and measurable goal that’s written almost like a promise for the organisation to reach.
You need both. One to inspire and another to keep the organisation on track and accountable.
Here’s a couple of different examples:
Vision
We will provide cleaner energy at all of our events than was there before.
This is visionary and very bold (almost too bold, but hey, it’s their vision), implying that this organisation will help generate cleaner energy to consume at their events - this is clear and very ambitious as energy isn’t just electricity, it includes other fuels such as diesel, petrol and gas that are also used to run events.
Commitment:
We strive to provide cleaner energy at our events, and aim to start by using emission-free electricity generation, through partnering with innovative startups for solar-powered air-batteries at events to replace diesel generators by 2027.
This commitment is S.M.A.R.T (Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Oriented/Bound) and has a very clear and unambiguous path to providing cleaner energy.
The vision/ version shouldn’t be complicated, it can be as simple as one sentence.
What it does have to be is ambitious enough to inspire, meaning it should feel just uncomfortable enough to be a worthy challenge to strive for. If it feels too easy, it’s not a vision.
If it feels too easy, it’s not a vision.
The commitment statement, on the other hand, announces the ideal position your organization is aiming for, followed by a top-level description of how you plan to achieve it.
Here’s a template: "We will/aim/strive to be [future state] by [top level actions]."
And here’s the example:
“We will source 100% of our raw materials from vetted and more sustainable sources by 2025, ensuring third-party vetted fair labor practices and environmental protection in our supply chain”
So where do you start though? Sustainability covers so many areas! Here are 5 options to kick-starting your sustainability vision and commitments.
Use a Framework
If you're unsure where to start, we recommend the Futures Fit Programme because it starts from a shared destination our global society could all agree on, it is aspirational and hopefully one day possible (with all limiting beliefs aside).
“A Future-Fit Society protects the possibility that humans and other life will flourish on Earth forever, by being socially just, economically inclusive, and environmentally restorative”
This includes 8 system conditions that would point us towards that future, below is a diagram on how these conditions correspond with the United Nation’s SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
Future Fit Conditions and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals
This framework uses design-thinking approaches to start with the end in mind, such as using backcasting to “both define the required end state for society and to facilitate planning and action toward it.” Meaning you’re figuring out what your end goal looks like, then identifying the subsequent steps just before the previous in order to plan backwards and reach your very first step.
The process of backcasting can be mentally and emotionally draining as large information gaps start to form. It’s recommended to park information gaps as initiatives to tackle in the near future, as opposed to conform information gaps as reasons not to start.
For most companies, diving into all the 8 conditions or 17 SDGs may not be equally relevant nor financially feasible and thus lose buy-in from leadership across an organisation.
Instead, it may help to start with conditions that are most relevant to the company first.
Here are extracted statements from Slaprea, Cambodia’s Biggest Food Festivals, that were inspired from and reinterpreted from the Future Fit framework:
We have strengthened community relationships and diversity whilst empowering local culture through food, connection and entertainment
We have no waste at our events, and have helped our stakeholders improve their waste journeys with education and infrastructure we have put in place
We generate little to no emissions, and have helped our fans and vendors reduce their emissions through partnering to scale efficient technology and solution providers
If starting with a framework doesn’t resonate, or is unlikely to help gain buy-in from your organisation at the current time, you can start with what is considered as the lowest and minimum standard to being; regulatory and compliance areas.
Regulatory and Compliance
This is where you start with what you must do to meet current and upcoming regulations. For instance, if you're a construction company and stricter waste minimization standards are being drafted in government, focus your commitments on waste reduction first.
Alternatively, if a framework seems overwhelming and unable to gain traction, and the regulatory and compliance approach is insubstantial enough, you can lean on two other related approaches; Customer driven demands and Organisational intent.
Customer Driven Demands
This is where customers and clients communicate to the organisation their most pressing concerns. For example if customers have been providing ample feedback on the wasteful nature of a company’s packaging, it will serve the company and its consumers to address this specifically with a circular economy commitment, then expand the commitments into other priority areas.
Organisational Intent
This is where internal stakeholders such as the team, shareholders and/or leadership are the source of which problems and/or opportunities to tackle. Conducting internal surveys and dialogue is key to discovering what the organisation collectively wants to do. This source has a higher likelihood of succeeding as an entire segment of the organisation has clearly expressed buy-in, which typically is one of the biggest blockage to sustainable change.
Resource Scarcity
This is where the organisation prioritises initiatives based on resource availability, geographical context, and estimated risks. This approach is typically conducted from a journey-mapping exercise, where the business value-chain is mapped, and opportunities to improve the sustainability outcomes across the brand experience are identified at any and every stage, regardless of whether its emissions, biodiversity or social sustainability for instance. We’ll be sharing a series of videos and a blog on journey-mapping for sustainability soon, stay tuned!
How do you write a commitment if you’re a large organisation that engages in many different sectors?
This was a great question from our very first mastermind session from a large organisation with over 2,000 staff working across a large region in New Zealand over many different sectors.
How do they sum up everything that they should aspire to be, across all those different things which don’t have clear data yet, that not all the leadership team will buy into?
Start with the truth.
The truth is, that each business unit is completely different, and therefore requires a different commitment that fits each area. Organisations risk greenwashing and reputational damage when commitments are contrary to their actions, or even when their messaging and commitments seem poorly drafted. Losing trust really hurts a business. A Harvard business school study found that highly trust brands outperform the market by up to 400% when it comes to market value.
Start with individualised commitments across business units and departments. Once each commitment is complete, cluster the commitments into key areas and periods.
For example, Business Units A, B and C sell completely different products, however have similarities in their waste journey that they aim to be waste-free within a year or two of each other. In this situation, the organisation can commit to the farther timeline, and commit that they ‘aim to be waste-free, through [business unit A strategy], [business unit B strategy] and [business unit C strategy].
This approach becomes much more robust and time intensive, however ensures a truthful and more accurate commitment. If this approach is deemed too time expensive, then we recommend taking the framework approach as listed above. Lastly, if the statements don’t feel completely robust, that’s okay - these will all be reiterated soon anyway!
Sustainability visions, versions and commitments have a powerful ability to bring people together, we see the effect of just these few sentences on consumers and for recruitment. These values and messages matter. A carefully articulated and well-prepared commitment tells the market what kind of organisation that you work for and lead. So think carefully, what are you telling the world?
If the time and resource commitments to getting started are outside of your organisation’s capacity, we can help.
Contact us at greatchangestarts@theideaconsultants.com for help, and join the Sustainability Mastermind programme for an affordable and effective way to get there.
Best of luck!