4 Sustainability Mistakes to Avoid and How to Fix Them

Introduction

According to a study of 300 companies, 81% of sustainability efforts fail or achieve mediocre results with only a paltry 4% of organisations achieving their sustainability goals.  Whilst this study is now 5 years old many of the barriers identified like lack of leadership support, insufficient resources, culture change challenges, and organisational obstacles are still prevalent and holding back progress.

Over the last few years I have observed a number of recurring patterns when it comes to sustainability programs. Most start off with positive beginnings and lots of enthusiasm and then something happens – sustainability programs get stuck, targets get downgraded or pushed back for years. The credibility of the sustainability plan takes a hit and this has long term consequences for all future initiatives.

So, what makes sustainability objectives so difficult to achieve? I believe the answer lies hidden inside companies’ methods and practices.

4 Mistakes Derailing Your Success

Most organisations have methods and practices designed to deliver a specific business model and to create a predictable outcome time after time. These practices are fantastic for something that is static, repeatable, and you have done many times before.

The problem is they are not fit for purpose when you are trying new and more complex things like working towards net zero emissions or circular economy outcomes because these processes do not cope well with uncertainty.

Here are four mistakes that are likely sabotaging your sustainability efforts…

1.  You haven’t clearly identified the mission of your sustainability strategy and how it supports your organisation to achieve its core function.  Simply doing something good for the planet is not enough.

2.  You assume that everyone cares about sustainability as much as you do.  How many people do you think woke up this morning thinking about how to reduce their carbon footprint?

3.  You’re using old 20th century management tools and methods to solve new complex 21st century problems.  If your sustainability initiative has a pretty looking gantt chart then you are likely using these old 20th century methods.

4.  You are putting lots of time and effort into educating people about sustainability and why they should care about it.  Research shows that education alone has no impact on sustainable behaviours.

Developing successful sustainability solutions requires a different approach because no one has ever had to solve the scale of problems we are facing today. There is no rule book where you can simply pick a solution that is tried and tested and press go.

That’s where innovation methods and processes come into play. Innovation provides a framework for managing the uncertainty and complexity associated with sustainability.

5 Essential Practices for Success

Here are five innovation practices that you can use to greatly improve the success of your sustainability initiatives.

Practice 1 – Have a Mission Focus

This practice is about identifying what matters most to your organisation. It is aimed at helping you define and understand your why and your mission – the reason why you do the things you do, or the reason for your organisation to exist.

Too often organisations waste time and effort pursuing what they believe to be a good idea without ever taking the time to consider if this is moving the organisation forward. They get wedded to the idea and not the outcome.

Defining your mission clearly allows you to manage the myriad of sustainability ideas that you have. Ideas that no longer support the mission get retired.

Learn how to create an effective mission statement with our FREE online mini course “How to create a powerful mission statement”.

Practice 2 – Systems Thinking

To achieve significant change to address sustainability issues it is important to understand the system in which you are operating.

Understanding the ecosystem in which you operate allows you to identify points of influence.

Did you know … we have a free online mini course that will introduce you to one of my favourite system thinking methods called ecosystems mapping.

Practice 3 – Human Centred Design Thinking

One of the biggest mistakes I see sustainability people make is that they assume that everyone else cares about sustainability as much as they do. The simple fact is that the majority of people rarely think about sustainability like you do and therefore it is not an issue that is important to them.

How many people do you think woke up this morning thinking about how they could reduce their carbon footprint?

Human centred design helps you understand what people do care about and how you can then link this to your sustainability solution.

Practice 4 – Prototyping

Do you think that when Apple developed the iPhone that the engineers simply got together to create a design and put it into production? Of course not, they probably went through hundreds of concepts, iterations, and prototypes before the product was even considered for full production.

So why do you think you can just put together a new strategy to transform the sustainability of your organisation in ways it has never tried before and just expect it to miraculously work?

To prevent your idea from failing you should validate your solution through prototyping and piloting.

Practice 5 – Business Model Design

We usually associate an industry’s transformation with the adoption of a new technology or innovation. But although new technologies are often major factors, they have never transformed an industry on their own. What does achieve such a transformation is a business model that can link a new technology to an emerging market need.

Consider the following:

• Facebook is the world’s largest media company but creates no content;
• Bitcoin is the world’s largest bank, with no actual cash;
• AirBNB is the world’s largest accommodation provider yet owns no real estate;
• AliBaba is world’s most valuable retailer but has no inventory of its own; and
• Uber is the world’s largest taxi company yet it owns no vehicles.

What allows these companies to achieve such large-scale transformation is not a new technology or innovation, it is the business models upon which they are built.

Business model design allows you to achieve amazing results from your sustainability strategy.

This video from our Youtube channel explains the 11 key parts of a successful sustainable business model.

Conclusion

These practices are not intended to replace traditional management; rather, they are frameworks that are designed for managing twenty-first century uncertainty.

To thrive in the coming century in a sustainable way, every organisation needs the ability to experiment rapidly with new products and new business models; to empower their most creative people, and to engage repeatedly in a process of innovation in order to unlock new sources of growth and productivity.

Want to measure how your sustainability strategy stacks up to these 5 practices?  Complete the free quiz below.