4 Steps to Developing a Sustainability Strategy

Step 1: Identify where you can make a difference

Before you start developing your sustainability strategy, you first need to identify which sustainability issues are important to your business, and where you can actually make a difference. All companies are different, depending on, among other things:

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• The industry in which the company operates
• The size of the company
• Geographical location of the company
• The company's place in the supply chain‍

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‍The Three Dimensions of Sustainability ‍

The United Nations has developed 17 global goals for sustainable development, which provide an overview of what sustainable development is all about. These goals are a good place to start, to create an initial understanding of what sustainability means.

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However, companies are rarely able to effectively work towards all goals at the same time. So in line with the “no one can do everything, but everyone can do something” mindset, it is crucial to understand which specific factors and issues are most relevant to you and your business. This is to ensure that your sustainability strategy has the greatest possible impact and has the greatest impact.

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In order to make the best assessment possible, you can advantageously start from the three dimensions of sustainability:

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• Ecological sustainability
• Social sustainability
• Economic sustainability

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In a previous article explaining sustainability, we have described each dimension in more detail, but the point is that your sustainability work should be carried out in all three dimensions to be effective. Therefore, collect relevant data and evaluate these three areas carefully to create as accurate a picture of your reality as possible, which will then help you identify which sustainability issues you can actually influence and should work on.

Step 2: Determine your long-term vision and mission

Once you have finished your evaluation and come to terms with which issues are most important to you, and in which areas you can make a difference, it is time to formulate a long-term vision and mission. These two statements are extremely important for effective strategic work and future planning, as a clear vision and mission contribute to continuity and set a clear framework for how the company operates.

An ideal future

A mission statement is a statement with a shorter time horizon that focuses on the current situation in which the company is in. The mission provides a brief summary of the company's core values, main objectives and objectives. A vision, on the other hand, is a statement with a longer time horizon that describes the company's future ambitions and in what way it wants to make an impact on the outside world, how does it want to be remembered?

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Together, the vision and mission form a kind of guide that can help organizations make decisions that align with their philosophy, values and goals. You can see them as a kind of direction of travel that points the way towards the long-term state that companies want to be in within a certain amount of time.

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Consequently, it is important that the vision and mission reflect your previous assessment of what sustainability issues are important to your organization. This will help you make the right sustainability priorities and ensure that every decision you make brings you closer to your ideal future.‍

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Step 3: Formulate your sustainability strategy‍

In the third step, you can finally start designing and designing your actual sustainability strategy, which can be seen as a more short-term translation of your vision and mission. Your sustainability strategy should cover all the sustainability issues you identified relevant to the company (step 1). And more specifically, you need to decide what goals you need to achieve in the short term in order to also meet your long-term goals, that is, your vision and mission (step 2). By breaking up the vision and mission into more short-term milestones, your sustainability strategy will become more concretely manageable. ‍

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(SMART) Goal formulation ‍

There are lots of methods and schools to lean on when formulating goals. And no one is actually worse or better than the other, as long as your goals are clearly articulated, perceived as meaningful by the organization and employees, and represent an objective picture that helps you assess your progress.

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However, one of the most classic methods when it comes to goal formulation is the so-called SMART model, which describes that the objectives need to be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Accepted
• Realistic
• Time Satta

Specific

A specific target should be able to answer five different questions:

• What is to be achieved?
• What is the purpose?
• Who or who is involved?
• Where should the goal be achieved?
• What conditions must be met?
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Measurable

Measurability is, of course, a prerequisite for a goal, regardless of context, to be useful. This also applies to sustainability goals. How else will you know if you are getting better or worse, if you are moving closer to your vision and mission? To simplify measurability, it is usually an advantage to quantify the target, and have it answer questions such as:

• How much?
• How many?
• How do we know that the goal has been achieved?

Accepted

Another important prerequisite for goals to actually be met in practice is that those affected by it also accept the goal, and see it as meaningful. Because if everyone in the organization, from management to the front line, accepts the same goals and pulls in the same direction, your sustainability strategy will, for obvious reasons, be more effective.

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Realistic

Realistic goals aim at goals that not only sound good in theory, but are actually feasible in practice and, moreover, do not violate other objectives, regulations or laws. A goal is realistic in cases where:

• The goal is possible to fulfill in relation to the investment of time and resources.
• The goal is relevant in relation to the organization's activities and the world around it.
• Those who should meet the goal are people who have the resources, skills and motivation to meet it.

Time Satta

Timed goals are aimed at goals that have a clear deadline. By setting deadlines, you can often more successfully meet your goals, as those who work towards the goal focus better and perceive it as more urgent when it is put in competition with other tasks. However, there are no obstacles to having multiple deadlines, which can be good when it comes to sustainability goals, as they are often ambitious in their design. However, if you can divide your long-term sustainability goals into shorter milestones with clear deadlines, you can also often ensure that everyone works more focused towards achieving the specific target. ‍

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Step 4: Implement your sustainability strategy‍

Now all that remains is to implement your sustainability strategy, put it into operation and ensure that it is adhered to in daily work. This is, of course, much easier said than done (and is probably worthy of an article in itself). However, if you have followed the previous steps, you can at least feel confident that you have laid a good foundation for your sustainability strategy to succeed. You know that it is both relevant and effective based on your specific business. Thus, the chances of achieving your sustainability goals should also be good in the near future. ‍

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Be more sustainable with XLNT Workplace

At XLNT Workplace, we live and breathe sustainability. We have extensive experience in all types of sustainability work related to the workplace. From eco-friendly, sustainable and Nordic office cleaning to large moves and office adaptations. With our sustainable services and end-to-end solutions, we help you realize your sustainability strategy and reach your sustainability goals.

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Do you have questions about sustainability, or want to know how you can make your office more sustainable? Get in touch and we'll take it from there.