Creating a truly sustainable business isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight, and for industries that have long-established practices and processes, that aren’t aligned with modern standards – it can be even more difficult to get to the stage where you can truly say that you’re running a sustainable company.
Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) reporting is becoming more common for industries across the globe, and there is much more of a focus now on being sustainable. As of 2020, 88% of publicly traded companies, 79% of venture and private companies, and 67% of privately-owned companies had ESG initiatives in place, and this figure is expected to grow as more governments put legal obligations into place.
Whether you’re looking at making changes based on your own initiative, or you’re using guidelines and tools set up by larger bodies (such as the UN SDGs), it’s going to take time, effort, and considerable focus to create a strategy that allows you to get your business where you want to go.
In order to reach your targets, you need to break down your plan into short, medium, and long-term sustainability goals, which will allow you to focus your efforts, define your direction, and make necessary adjustments as you go.
Strategic Planning for Sustainability: Where Should You Start?
Before you can start assigning timelines to objectives and goals, you need to know what it is you want to achieve, and the steps that it will take to get you there.
Even if you aren’t planning on using established processes, it’s a good idea to look at different sustainability reporting frameworks, and see what is being commonly reported (such as greenhouse gas emissions, recycling, plastic reduction, etc) – this can help you work out what you want to be doing.
It’s often helpful to have a brainstorming session, and to write down the different ideas, suggestions, and potential goals that you’re looking to achieve.
Once you have this list prepared, then you can start to organise your sustainability goals.