Challenge
A largely people and service based organisation wanted to understand sustainability for their business. They had been questioned by clients, were involved in the environment through their agricultural expertise and were also going through a growth period and hiring new staff who were interested in where sustainability sat within the organisation. In addition, they anticipated that a particular industry in which they specialised needed to understand sustainability concepts further so they could be advised on how to integrate these ideas into their business and stay ahead of potential new regulations.
Process
Appleshed Consulting was commissioned to increase awareness and educate the client’s senior team and their specialist client team in Sustainability for Business through a series of workshops and meetings and to then act as an “advisor on progress”. The workshops covered understanding definitions of sustainability, the challenge of mindset, the physical timescales we are all under, where the Triple Bottom Line came from, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and how sustainability relates to ESG (Environment, Society and Governance). In collaboration, we worked to understand how this affected their business and what the best strategic way forward was for them.
We found working with Katrina valuable, as it has helped us to explore our own objectives and how these can be best incorporated into our business strategy. The process has been energising, thought provoking and hugely beneficial.
We are still at a relatively early stage in the development of own Sustainability Strategy, but are looking forward to developing this further and utilising Katrina’s support.
Conclusion
The organisation has recognised that integrating sustainability into their business is a journey and as a first phase, they have defined objectives that linked to the UN SDG’s and their own Sustainability Strategy. Unsurprisingly, many objectives are people based due to their business type, however the process also highlighted how their business interacted with clients that were largely in the built environment or agriculture/land and questioned how the organisation considered their responsibilities in these areas. Currently they are contemplating the “how” of measuring progress and their internal and external reporting requirements. They are also considering whether any accrediations help them achieve their goals. Appledshed remains as as an advisor.
Image credit: eko pramano from Pixabay
