Culture – The Missing Link

Is culture a critical link often missed in corporate sustainability development? We think so. And according to its 2011 "Greening Your Business" guide, so does financial giant RBC. They argue that the leaders of the pack are transformational organizations, who successfully hardwire sustainability into their DNA and culture.

This is elaborated in the guide’s 'Sustainability Continuum' toolkit. The Continuum locates an organization on a four-category map of sustainability performance and potential achievement, according to whether they are: Compliant, Opportunistic, Strategic or Transformational.

• Compliant organizations are those that do the bare minimum to meet industry regulations and, unsurprisingly, realize few of the benefits more forward-thinking organizations achieve.
• Opportunistic organizations take the occasional sustainability measure for cost savings or a boost to PR, but rarely stand out as best-practice leaders.
• Strategic follow a top-down, thorough approach to pursuing sustainability goals, and often accomplish some successes.
• Transformational organizations successfully internalize sustainable practices as part of their culture, and as a result ideas, opportunities and solutions begin to bubble up from every corner. These organizations, not surprisingly, lead the pack.

To be a credible sustainability leader, an organization needs to create a solid business case for sustainability – one that supports the company’s core product or service commitments, and builds sustainable practices into its strategic business priorities and day-to-day work culture.

Culture is the glue that brings people together around common beliefs, values and standards that influence how people act and think. In business this is often referred to as a company’s cultural DNA – and to change it requires strategic action across a range of key internal practices, including:

• Communicating the meaning and importance of sustainability as a critical aspect of a company’s success.
• Engaging, empowering and supporting employees to step up to the next level of sustainability development in their jobs – enabled with the right tools, knowledge and support.
• Building a culture of innovation that clearly values, recognizes and encourages continuous development of sustainability focused solutions and strategies.

It’s hardly a shock to learn this. An organization is, after all, defined by employees. When it is truly committed to finding innovative solutions to reduce waste and discover new, sustainable profit opportunities, it’s the employees who best know where to look for them, in their own areas of responsibility.

Following this train of thought, one of the best ways for an organization to quickly transform itself into a sustainability leader is to encourage its employees to identify and seize opportunities for such a transformation. This means cultivating a leadership and organizational culture that values sustainability as a core business imperative rather than a sideline.

What do you think?

How critical is culture to successful sustainability development? What is the best way to engage employees to identify and develop sustainable value building opportunities? We would be interested in knowing your views.

The journey continues.