SUSTAINABILITY  JOURNEY

Sustainable businesses can be profitable – Kiran Dhanapala

Corporates are in­creas­ingly playing a vital role in the transition to a sustainable future. But this is easier said than done, and it’s difficult to balance sustainability efforts with strained resources and grow a business at the same time.

And yet, many organisations are doing this with aplomb, pro­ving that a sustainable business is also profitable after investing in sustainability.

Sustainability is a change management process that’s often done well by an external, neutral and skilled facilitator. The external sustainability professional is an expert facilitator but isn’t adept at running a business, which is best known to those who have spent years on the inside. That’s why insider participation is vital too.

An outside facilitator is useful since he or she isn’t invested in any particular group, issues, ideas etc. – and has experience with sustainability issues that transcend organisations. The facilitator should be someone who has both IQ and EQ skills, which will enable him or her to spot latent talent in the enter­prise, which could contribute to its sustainability journey.

A sustainability team goes through various stages over time. Initially, there is great enthusiasm followed by a few storms whereby some may wonder whose idea it was to start on such a sustainability journey in the first place!

With greater understanding and awareness later, as well as collaboration and alliances being formed, there comes a recognition that sustainability is a necessary component of the organisational journey to which everyone can contribute.

Lastly, they’re all performing their various roles and functions associated with sustainability, and feel they are on a roll.

This is where the tipping point comes into play: it happens when a group or large number of em­ployees rapidly and dramatically changes its behaviour by widely adopting a previously rare prac­tice. It also adds value to deploy a process that appeals to both heads and hearts, and one that includes all stake­holders in the enterprise.

The organisation must conduct a baseline materiality analysis with all stakeholders and use the data for sustainability planning. This includes overseas stake­holders as well as local ones. Look for ‘planful opportunism’ – i.e. synchronicities that appear along the journey.

Sustainability is a team sport; it needs many players who are enthused and involved in every department, as well as at every level. This means building bridges with different people and departments. Finding like-minded individuals is important for effective collaboration on specific projects, pilot initiatives and so on.

It is surprising how much innovation comes out of these cross silo collaborative group initiatives – and often, the results are astounding!

Leadership is critical to corpo­rate sustainability initiatives. Visionary leaders will recognise the strategic importance of sus­tainability and some elements in the organisation’s business case for sustainability. Further awareness building will also be necessary as part of a process.

Leaders need to demonstrate that they walk the talk if they want to become credible drivers of change. Their visible commit­ment will provide the necessary support for dedicated staff to spearhead new initiatives in a business or buy into one during the early stages of the sustaina­bility change management process.

However, there are many paradoxes in implementing sustainability.

One is to go slow to go fast. Building incremental momen­tum is useful since it will gradu­ally lead to support and understanding that would further the relevant initiatives.

Another is that small changes yield big results. For instance, energy efficiency measures or small good practices instituted throughout an organisation can yield millions of rupees in savings.

A further paradox is that you have to work on the soft stuff to derive hard results. This involves motivating and incen­tivising staff, and appealing to their personal motivation on what resonates with them best regarding sustainability. It can mean anything from increased profits, a chance to realise that dream project or ensure security for the future of their grand­children.

While we all like targets and find deadlines a necessary rallying point, sustainability doesn’t have a definitive finish line. There’s always something more to do, or a new technology or method of doing things that yields benefits to stakeholders... including the planet.