LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION TO WINNING SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES
Trends in Sustainability?
Moving from......
- Company towards supply chain: which is quite difficult. If you are in the fashion industry and
you have all kinds of agreements how you make sure children are not in the backyard
somewhere working on that. Companies like Siemens they have 3090 suppliers. If they say
to their suppliers, they have to be sustainable this is quite a big operation.
- Environment towards human: At the beginning it was quite about what about your waste,
your energy, … now we still have all this environmental stuff but we now do care about the
social dimension, how are your workers conditions, etc.
- Check the box towards making-an-impact: now you see companies report on impact, the
real performance.
- Top-down toward bottum-up: now when you discuss sth like sustainability comes from the
people, community. Is not only the CEOs.
- Nice-to-have towards need-to-have: you could be out of business or you cannot comply any
more towards regulation, regulations set a bar, and companies that cannot fullfil that are
now out of business.
- CSR director towards CFO: more and more the financial impact of sustainability and
sustainability risk is in the BS or its priced. Not always but more and more.
Purpose... If you want to work somewhere what’s the purpose?
“If you want to become a billonaire, help a billion people”
The Quest for Purpose
- In search of the Why
- Sustainability as a Source of Purpose
o Talent Attraction and Retention (p 40 DJSI)
- Purpose statement formulation
o Interface: Zero
o Tony’s Chocolonely’s Slave-Free Chocolate
o Q: any other examples? Netsel and Tonys teamed up. What if (Tonys talking) we join
the bigger ones (Nestle) and we make nestle more sustainable. Interesting strategy.
Why do firms care?
- Increasing revenues
- Saving costs
- Reputation:
- Attracting talent
,The CSR Hierarchy
Economic responsibility
- To produce an acceptable return for investors (Unilever)
Legal responsibility
- To act within the framework of laws and regulations drawn up by the government and
judiciary (what about Shell and Nigeria?)
Ethical responsibility
- To do no harm to its stakeholders and within its operating environment (an Oath?!)
Discretionary responsibility
- Companies have more pro-active, strategic behaviors that benefit themselves or society, or
both (Unilever soap in rural India, Tony Chocolonely, Tiny House Heijmans, van Oord, etc)
Introduction to Winning Sustainability Strategies:
Identifying key drivers and Archetypes of Sustainability (page 27)
- Traditional: inherent risks (tobacco, weapens), compliance driven and focus on reporting to
regulatory affairs
- Communicative: opportunity seizing is complicated because sustainability measures are
costly (automotive, insurance): Focus on risk reduction and compliance.
- Opportunistic: opportunities offered by sustainability (energy/renewables)
- Transformational: companies that have embraced. Sustainability in holistic fashion.
Sustainability programs are more closely tied to business operations.
Materialities that matter: generating a materiality matrix (page 68)
Sustainability is a broad concept involving many different issues.
A materiality assessment helps to identify and prioritise the sustainability issues that matter
most to a business, and her stakeholders- such as consumers, customers (retailers), and
employees – and they expect the business to act upon.
Identifying these issues helps to keep businesses alert to stakeholder concerns and expectations,
as well as to issues it believes presents the greatest risks and opportunities for the business.
,Materiality assessment matrix:
Six step approach to generate a materiality matrix:
1) Select and assess relevant stakeholders
, 2) Define a long list of sustainability topics (risks)
3) Rank the topic and create short list
4) Rate the business impact in terms of risks and opportunities
5) Construct a concept of Materiality matrix
6) Get sign-off by senior management and document the process.
Stakeholders: government, students, staff, tax payers, future employers, …
Kind of sustainability issues: diversity, teaching environment, housing problems, accessibility, …
When constructing the matrix, there is no right or wrong:
Trends in Sustainability?
Moving from......
- Company towards supply chain: which is quite difficult. If you are in the fashion industry and
you have all kinds of agreements how you make sure children are not in the backyard
somewhere working on that. Companies like Siemens they have 3090 suppliers. If they say
to their suppliers, they have to be sustainable this is quite a big operation.
- Environment towards human: At the beginning it was quite about what about your waste,
your energy, … now we still have all this environmental stuff but we now do care about the
social dimension, how are your workers conditions, etc.
- Check the box towards making-an-impact: now you see companies report on impact, the
real performance.
- Top-down toward bottum-up: now when you discuss sth like sustainability comes from the
people, community. Is not only the CEOs.
- Nice-to-have towards need-to-have: you could be out of business or you cannot comply any
more towards regulation, regulations set a bar, and companies that cannot fullfil that are
now out of business.
- CSR director towards CFO: more and more the financial impact of sustainability and
sustainability risk is in the BS or its priced. Not always but more and more.
Purpose... If you want to work somewhere what’s the purpose?
“If you want to become a billonaire, help a billion people”
The Quest for Purpose
- In search of the Why
- Sustainability as a Source of Purpose
o Talent Attraction and Retention (p 40 DJSI)
- Purpose statement formulation
o Interface: Zero
o Tony’s Chocolonely’s Slave-Free Chocolate
o Q: any other examples? Netsel and Tonys teamed up. What if (Tonys talking) we join
the bigger ones (Nestle) and we make nestle more sustainable. Interesting strategy.
Why do firms care?
- Increasing revenues
- Saving costs
- Reputation:
- Attracting talent
,The CSR Hierarchy
Economic responsibility
- To produce an acceptable return for investors (Unilever)
Legal responsibility
- To act within the framework of laws and regulations drawn up by the government and
judiciary (what about Shell and Nigeria?)
Ethical responsibility
- To do no harm to its stakeholders and within its operating environment (an Oath?!)
Discretionary responsibility
- Companies have more pro-active, strategic behaviors that benefit themselves or society, or
both (Unilever soap in rural India, Tony Chocolonely, Tiny House Heijmans, van Oord, etc)
Introduction to Winning Sustainability Strategies:
Identifying key drivers and Archetypes of Sustainability (page 27)
- Traditional: inherent risks (tobacco, weapens), compliance driven and focus on reporting to
regulatory affairs
- Communicative: opportunity seizing is complicated because sustainability measures are
costly (automotive, insurance): Focus on risk reduction and compliance.
- Opportunistic: opportunities offered by sustainability (energy/renewables)
- Transformational: companies that have embraced. Sustainability in holistic fashion.
Sustainability programs are more closely tied to business operations.
Materialities that matter: generating a materiality matrix (page 68)
Sustainability is a broad concept involving many different issues.
A materiality assessment helps to identify and prioritise the sustainability issues that matter
most to a business, and her stakeholders- such as consumers, customers (retailers), and
employees – and they expect the business to act upon.
Identifying these issues helps to keep businesses alert to stakeholder concerns and expectations,
as well as to issues it believes presents the greatest risks and opportunities for the business.
,Materiality assessment matrix:
Six step approach to generate a materiality matrix:
1) Select and assess relevant stakeholders
, 2) Define a long list of sustainability topics (risks)
3) Rank the topic and create short list
4) Rate the business impact in terms of risks and opportunities
5) Construct a concept of Materiality matrix
6) Get sign-off by senior management and document the process.
Stakeholders: government, students, staff, tax payers, future employers, …
Kind of sustainability issues: diversity, teaching environment, housing problems, accessibility, …
When constructing the matrix, there is no right or wrong:
