While the executive in charge of the sustainability function plays the starring role in any social or environmental initiative, its success often depends on an organization's hidden heroes: its critical midlevel team leaders. But how this group drives sustainability will vary with a company's sustainability maturity. In their work the authors have identified four levels of it and goals and actions that are appropriate for middle managers at each one. At level one, lagging and skeptical, middle managers should focus on getting sustainability on the agenda by exploring customer demand, gathering outside perspectives, and finding easy wins. At level two, building a base, the goal is to develop capabilities and start to embed sustainability into core processes. At level three, accelerating, middle managers increase the speed and scale of efforts through internal councils and by increasing transparency and rethinking business activities. At level four, leading, middle managers strive to build lasting sustainability infrastructure and set up transformative partnerships in their sectors or value chains. With the right skills and priorities, the unsung champions of sustainability can drive progress within companies at any level and across industries.
It's disingenuous for companies to pretend they are passive observers of regulations, laws, or the political climate. Corporate political responsibility is a new variation of corporate social responsibility, describing the ideal ways in which businesses should engage with the key systems of society. It requires companies to manage conflicting views about when and how to use their voices and their political influence.
Both practically and morally, corporate leaders can no longer sit on the sidelines of major societal shifts or treat human and planetary issues as "someone else's problem." For their own good, they must play an active role in addressing our biggest shared challenges. The economy won't thrive unless people and the planet are thriving. In this bold manifesto, consultant and author Andrew Winston and former Unilever CEO Paul Polman describe their vision of a "net positive" company--one that grows by helping the world flourish. Drawing on examples from Unilever and other leading companies, they outline four critical paths businesses can take to prosper today and win in the future. They can operate first in service of multiple stakeholders--which then benefits investors (as opposed to putting shareholders above all others); take full ownership of all company impacts; embrace deep partnerships, even with critics; and tackle systemic challenges by rethinking advocacy and the relationship with governments. No company has yet reached the ambitious goal of becoming net positive. But a growing number have begun the journey--unlocking greater value for their businesses while helping solve larger problems for the benefit of all.
Large companies spend millions, or billions, of dollars directly on energy each year--and millions more indirectly, on supply chain, outsourcing, and logistics costs. Yet outside the most energy-intensive industries, the majority of firms approach energy as merely a cost to be managed. This is a strategic mistake that overlooks enormous opportunities to reduce risk, improve resilience, and create new value. Today energy is climbing up the corporate agenda due to sweeping environmental, social, and business trends, including climate change and global carbon regulation, increasing pressures on natural resources, rising expectations about corporate environmental performance, innovations in energy technologies and business models, and plummeting renewable energy prices. To respond to these shifts, companies must develop a robust energy strategy. This article offers a framework comprising five steps: Create a C-level mandate, integrate energy goals into the vision and operations, track progress companywide, tap new technologies, and engage stakeholders. These steps are not revolutionary--but systematically applying them to a company's energy use is.
As the planet warms, storms and floods are becoming wilder--killing thousands, disrupting supply chains and power grids, and causing billions of dollars in damage. Meanwhile, supplies of all kinds of resources are dwindling, and demand is rising. These two megachallenges--extreme weather and resource scarcity--could have an unprecedented impact on corporate profits and global prosperity, warns Winston. To manage these threats, companies must do what he calls "the big pivot." The big pivot represents a radical change in strategy, operations, and mind-set. Instead of focusing first on short-term earnings and treating environmental challenges as niche issues, firms must prioritize tackling the world's big problems and use the tools of capitalism to do so profitably. That means taking new approaches to vision, valuation, and collaboration: Companies must set long-term goals based on science and pursue innovations that seem heretical (dyes that don't need water, say, or services that replace products). They'll need new ROI tools that factor in unpriced costs and benefits. And they'll have to work with other organizations, including competitors, to reduce resource dependency (for instance, sharing methods for reducing energy use). By making these moves, firms will increase their resilience to volatile resource prices, electrical outages, and shifts in customer needs. They will improve business performance while advancing the common good.