Transforming Sustainability Strategy Into Action

"A highly informative and brilliant contribution to the growingsustainability literature." -Dr. Brian and Mary Nattrass Managing Partners of SustainabilityPartners and authors of The Natural Step for Business and Dancingwith the Tiger The goal of sustainable development, a recent focus in thecorporate world, is to "ensure a better quality of life foreveryone today and in generations to come." The challenge facingindustry leaders is how to reconcile economically competitivestrategies with environmentally sound and socially responsiblepractices. Transforming Sustainability Strategy into Action: The ChemicalIndustry presents proven practical techniques to help managers inthe chemical industry identify and assess options for improving thesustainability of their organizations, with a pragmatic emphasis onoperational aspects, decision support, and guidelines for measuringprogress. Employing a systematic approach and introducing globallyproven problem-solving and decision-making tools designed toprovoke questioning and creative thinking, the authors address someof the most challenging issues for the industrial worldtoday. The authors' combined expertise and extensive experience intranslating sustainability strategies from theory into action makethem uniquely qualified to deliver the kind of hands-on, responsivebusiness solutions that will give corporate leaders the competitiveedge in preparing for tomorrow's socially and environmentallyconscious marketplace.

This casebook demonstrates how companies can design and execute corporate sustainability strategies into their overall business strategy to achieve sustainable transformation. It offers a set of case studies from different industrial sectors such as aerospace and defence, beauty, energy, engineering and construction, fashion retail, financial services, food and hospitality, life sciences, motorsports, pharmaceutical, software, toy production. Each story presents practical and concrete actions taken by companies to develop their sustainability strategies, as well as challenges and issues faced during the process. Concluding with best practices emerging from the cross-case analysis, this book is beneficial for sustainability and management professionals, students and scholars.

The Sustainability Transformation is a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of what is happening to our world – and wanting to change it for the better. Renowned consultant and communicator Alan AtKisson, author of the sustainability classic Believing Cassandra, cuts through the jargon and illuminates the essentials in this highly readable and motivational work. The Sustainability Transformation covers theory and practice, tools and strategies, the opportunities and the obstacles, illustrated with in-depth case studies and poignant personal anecdotes. AtKisson's aim is to empower the reader and to help grow a global 'army of change agents,' working effectively to overcome the great challenges of our times. At the heart of the book is AtKisson's potent ISIS Method, used by business, governments, and organizations around the world. ISIS - Indicators, Systems, Innovation, Strategy - helps professionals, students, and amateurs alike to put sustainability to work and accelerate change, even when facing difficult circumstances. AtKisson also introduces the reader to many inspiring people, unsung heroes whose success stories provide a solid foundation for hope. Previously published in hardcover as The ISIS Agreement.

Sustainability is a top priority for organizations and a key strategy in corporate agendas, but the effective deployment of any strategy demands that the strategy is consistent, functional, and aligned. This Handbook advocates sustainability strategies that encompass environmental, social, and economic dimensions at department-level.

Despite recent optimism and global initiatives, the implementation of corporate sustainability programs has been slow at best, with less than a third of global companies having developed a clear business case for their approach to sustainability. Presenting numerous award-winning cases and examples from companies such as Unilever, Patagonia, Tumi, DSM and Umicore alongside original ideas based upon 20 years of consulting experience, this book reveals how to design and implement a stronger sense of focus and move sustainability programs forward. This proven combination of purpose, direction and speed is dubbed “Vectoring”. Based upon practitioner cases and data analysis from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Vectoring offers a plain-spoken framework to identify the relative position of companies compared to their peers. The framework and its 4 archetypes deliver insights for practitioners to locate inhibitors and overcome them by providing practical suggestions for process improvements. This includes designing and executing new sustainability programs, embedding the SDGs within company strategy and assessing the impact of sustainability programs on competitiveness and valuation. Offering directions for CFOs to shift companies from integrated reporting to integrated thinking in order to accelerate their sustainability programs, Winning Sustainability Strategies shows how to achieve purpose with profit and how to do well by doing good.

This illuminating new book presents a series of in-depth case studies from around the world based on numerous personal interviews with organizational leaders and focusing on their journey towards sustainability. The aim is to provide visions of a more sustainable future, and shed light on the path, milestones and solutions – in particular the management processes these organizations employed – to provide a reliable compass that others can follow. Although each organization must take steps to fit its particular circumstance, business conditions and culture, Mapping the Journey proves that valuable lessons can be learned by setting aside critique as to where these organizations may yet make progress and instead focusing on the guidelines, targets, measures of success, tools and techniques and valuable wisdom about how pioneer organisations are travelling toward a prosperous, sustainable future. Each organization included has crafted its own unique strategic responses to an identified need for increased sustainability. While none can be said to have reached the end-point of a sustainable development strategy, all have found that, by addressing the challenge of sustainable industrial practices, they have found innovative solutions, new opportunities for revenue generation, better relationships with customers, new business and product opportunities and a boost to morale from the executive ranks to front-line employees. Mapping the Journey examines both public and private organizations worldwide: SJ Rail of Sweden; Sony Corporation; SC Johnson; TransAlta Corporation; Patagonia; Henkel; Volvo; ASG; Interface Flooring Systems; Suncor; DaimlerChrysler; AssiDoman; Germany's Centre for Technology Assessment and the Dutch National Environmental Policy Plan. These case studies provide an inspiring framework of effective processes for defining a sustainable development strategy and transforming it successfully into actions and results.

Solving today’s environmental and sustainability challenges requires more than expertise and technology. Effective solutions will require that we engage with other people, wrestle with difficult questions, and learn how to adapt and make confident decisions despite uncertainty. We need new approaches to leadership that empower professionals at all levels to tackle wicked problems and work towards sustainability. Leadership for Sustainability gives readers perspective and skills for promoting creative and collaborative solutions. Blending systems thinking approaches with leadership techniques, it offers dozens of strategies and specific practices that build on the foundation of three main skills: connecting, collaborating, and adapting. Inspiring case studies show how the book’s strategies and principles can be applied to diverse situations: Coordinating the activities of widely dispersed individuals and groups who may not even know they are connected, illustrated by the work of urban planners, local businesses, citizens, and other stakeholders advancing ambitious climate action goals via a Community Energy Plan in Arlington County, Virginia Collaborating with diverse stakeholders to span boundaries despite their differences of opinion, expertise, and culture, as illustrated by the bold actions of a social entrepreneur who transformed the global food service industry with the “plant-forward” movement Adapting to continuous change and confounding uncertainty, as a small nonprofit organization mobilizes partners to tackle poverty, water scarcity, sanitation, and climate change in rural India Readers will come away with a holistic understanding of how to lead from where they are by applying leadership principles and practices to a wide range of wicked situations. While the challenges we face are daunting, the authors argue that these situations present opportunities for creating a more just, healthy, and prosperous world.

Building better organisations, with a clear sense of purpose, is a common challenge faced by many entrepreneurs and executives in industry. A fully integrated corporate sustainability strategy can help organisations to better manage risks, to win business opportunities and to ultimately strengthen reputation. Building on the experience of renowned strategists, sustainability, finance and academic experts, this book offers practical tools and approaches that can be used to develop and implement fully integrated corporate sustainability strategies.