“Sustainability is a craft that needs to be learned from scratch” –
fors founder Frank Sprenger on challenges and opportunities in sustainability management and sustainability consulting (part 1)
In our daily work at the sustainability consultancy fors.earth, we are increasingly finding that many of our contacts on the client side, be they sustainability managers, sustainability officers, corporate social responsibility managers or corporate sustainability officers, feel that they are not taken seriously in their companies and are often overwhelmed. The frustration is high, as is the resignation rate. Why is that? Our colleague Julia Winderlich wanted to know this from our founder Frank Sprenger, who has been running his own personal sustainability marathon for over 30 years.
In the first part of the conversation, Frank looks back at the sustainability managers of the first hour, explains how their role has changed over the years and names success factors for the implementation of sustainability initiatives in companies.
Frank, can you first give us a brief overview of the role and background of sustainability managers?
If we look at the role of sustainability managers, there are two basic mechanisms. Firstly, there are the environmental managers, who came onto the scene around the 1990s. These positions became established primarily with the advent of the European environmental management system EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme). That was the first time that it systematically became a management task. Previously, this area was heavily influenced by law; for example, there were water protection, waste or emissions protection officers who had a more engineering background. Over time, the role of these officers became more and more important, especially because environmental management was legitimized by law. They had the right to speak to management and justified their position with the threatened penalties for violations of environmental regulations.
With the emergence of environmental management systems such as ISO 14000 or EMAS, environmental management officers were defined, who in many cases were recruited from the classic officers just mentioned. The big difference here is that documented management systems now had to be set up and – as in the case of EMAS – communicated; an environmental statement had to be submitted and checked by an independent environmental auditor.
Documentation infatuation instead of business orientation
The work became more management-oriented, but the officers still liked to use "the environmental auditor" as a lever, who in the worst case would not approve the document. Internal resistance caused many environmental officers to become "documentation-obsessed" and they focused too much on documentation instead of acting in a business-oriented manner. If that had happened back then, if the officers had broadened their perspective and also considered the value chain and expanded the pure environmental protection idea to include social aspects, then we would have already developed in the direction of complete sustainability management. But that was only very rarely the case.
The next step was marked by the development of comprehensive, communicative reporting, for example according to GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), in the 2000s. This is where marketing and communication first came onto the scene. And in my opinion, this is also the deeper reason for laws that aim to regulate transparency, because it was then that narratives such as the unspeakable "sustainability is part of our DNA" emerged. Many companies were unable to find their way back from these narratives, which simply did not correspond to the truth. During this period at the beginning of the millennium, there was a communications twist, also evident in the term "CSR", which organizations often chose at the time for their sustainability efforts. During this time, we are witnessing a detachment from site-specific, engineering-driven environmental protection. In the process, communication developed further and further away from practical necessities.
In summary, this means that before the 1990s there was almost exclusively compliance, in the 1990s management systems emerged and in the early 2000s broad, communicative reporting. Where are we today?
These topics are now becoming more and more strategic due to the visible and tangible influences of non-sustainability – just look at the corporate strategies of industries such as energy or automobiles. One of the key questions will be whether sustainability officers will break out of their previous mindset and take the difficult path of helping to change the core business. If they do, they must learn to speak the language of management and deal with the dilemmas of new business models.
So completely new skills are needed here?
The existing sustainability managers either must develop further or new people must take over. In keeping with the spirit of the times, management has docked sustainability to the top of the company and often filled it with lateral entrants and newcomers, but often forgets to link it with existing environmental, compliance and management approaches. But only when this is the case do we see well-structured and successful sustainability initiatives.
“What would happen if our main competitor turned this unsustainability into an opportunity?”
I consider this connection to be a first success factor. A second success factor, given all the social issues that have become increasingly important, is the fact that HR sees sustainability as an opportunity for further development. We are observing a shift from a threat- to an opportunity-oriented mindset: We can develop as a company, develop our culture, we can grow in line with customer requirements and, above all, we can use unsustainability to derive opportunities and risks for our business models. When customers find it difficult to imagine how business models could change or where they could develop, I always suggest that they ask themselves the following question: What would happen if our main competitor turned this unsustainability into an opportunity?
What do you think is the biggest mistake when dealing with sustainability?
A big mistake – which often stems from an engineering-oriented attitude – is to think of sustainability as a short-term issue that is black and white. Because the opposite is the case. Especially when it comes to changing business models, it is a gradual process. The financial viability of new business models changes gradually and step by step. Either you adapt existing business models slowly, also depending on the social, political or funding framework conditions. Or you set up alternative business models that do not generate large returns today, but will be profitable in the future and at some point even have no alternative. One example of this is Rügenwalder Mühle GmbH, which launched meat-free products for the first time in 2014 and now generates more sales with vegetarian and vegan meat substitutes than with products that contain meat
“If the obvious weaknesses in the core business are not addressed,
even a PV system on the roof and a company bike won’t help.”
Successful sustainability as a question of mindset?
People in organizations must question their mental models and the way in which they want to position their topic. Negative levers such as threatening to break the law are no longer appropriate these days. Internal credibility is also becoming more important, after all, more and more employees are aware of man-made climate change and its consequences. If a company tries to play sustainability with non-essential topics from the past, then employees will notice very clearly that this is not sustainable. If the obvious weaknesses in the core business are not addressed, a PV system on the roof and a company bike will not help.
Is that also an explanation for why so many sustainability managers have quit in recent months?
An unreliable approach to sustainability can be a factor, but in general we have noticed that the workload of sustainability managers in companies has increased noticeably. On the one hand, this is due to a sharp increase in the number of legal requirements and compliance and regulatory documents, which are not always well done due to the urgency. It takes courage to deal with it pragmatically. If you lack this courage and allow yourself to be persuaded that it is all incredibly complicated, burnout is inevitable.
“The economy has brought this on itself,
because in many places the issues were downplayed
and there was not enough provision for young talent.”
On the other hand, responsibility is growing. Sustainability officers are afraid of greenwashing. However, this greater responsibility does not come with an increase in resources, be it personnel or control over the organization. We must also not forget that there are not yet enough people on the market who have the appropriate standing, experience and skills to meet the growing demands. The economy has brought this on itself because in many places the topics have been kept small and not enough young talent has been provided. Unfortunately, many companies are not even able to correctly assess the skills set required by sustainability managers and the wrong people are hired. Frustration and despair are inevitable because there is a lack of relevant experience on both sides. And finally, it is of course frustrating for committed people who want to make an impact above all else if sustainability is not sufficiently linked to the core business in their company.
Source: SustyPeople
There are now many sustainability courses and therefore many recent graduates, what advice do you have for them?
Humility! For me, sustainability is a craft that needs to be learned from scratch. Add a few more years of apprenticeship in a production company to understand what actually happens there! Newcomers to the profession must first develop a realistic picture of how broad, deep and dynamic this field is and what can actually be covered.
In part 2 of our conversation, Frank addresses the new challenges that employees in sustainability consulting also have to face, names some characteristics that they should bring with them and explains which skills help him most in his daily work. Click here for part 2.