Championing sustainability – without big ideas, money or executive support

At companies such as Ben & Jerry’s, Unilever, and Patagonia, top executives have fully committed to managing their companies’ environmental impacts and regenerating degraded natural ecosystems.

Meanwhile, your company might be only minimally engaged on sustainability issues (if at all), and executives might not view sustainability as a value-add essential to achieving business goals or mitigating operational risks. 

At your company, no one is tasked with focusing on sustainability issues, and your job description and department budget do not cover environmental management. You want to make a difference but assume that you cannot get anything done.

You are wrong. You do not need big ideas, money or executive support to be a successful change agent. Let’s address each supposed limitation, one by one:

1. Big ideas

First things first: there is no requirement for you or your company to “change the world.”

Despite the urgency of environmental protection and restoration, and despite the achievements of leading companies that are actively reducing emissions, water use, waste, etc., small-scale initiatives can be very worthwhile.

To get started, assess all of the various functional areas of your company (at a high level) and research best practices to create a list of possible opportunities for sustainability improvements. Do not spend too much time on this list; it is only a starting point.

Next, start talking with people at the company about environmental stewardship and your list of sustainability initiatives. It’s critical to listen to their ideas, because this is where the magic happens.

When I served on the Environmental Commission of Highland Park, Illinois, I lobbied at a grassroots level for individual school green teams, which would work to green schools through recycling programs and other initiatives. I never could have imagined that one school, Highland Park High School, would have created a butterfly sanctuary or a biodiesel lab. These ideas, and the successes, belonged 100 percent to the students and faculty on the new school green team.

2. Big money

You also don’t need a big budget, or any budget, to start a company dialogue and action on the importance of environmental stewardship. Of course, many initiatives require capital, but others do not.

When I worked as vice president and associate general counsel of Williams-Sonoma, I did not have any budget for sustainability work. Nevertheless, under the banner of “helping our business by helping the environment,” I convened employees across the company take “small green steps” to “green our home.”

The small steps were noticeable and meaningful on many levels. For example, I helped launch a composting program for the corporate cafeteria, which resulted in a net savings on waste disposal fees. I also convinced the store operations team to green the specifications for retail store builds; worked with other retailers and transport companies to reduce environmental impacts of freight transport; and facilitated packaging reductions on catalog orders.

Keep in mind that all of these successes were achieved without expensive carbon footprints, data collection software, or headcount.

3. Big executive support

Having executive support is very helpful — but not essential — to your work as a change agent.

Look for people who share your passion for environmental stewardship. Having champions in the business units is key. They are the ones who get things done, and they become the ambassadors for inspiring and recruiting more champions and for publicizing successes.

Although any individual success might be small, it becomes a story that is sharable and a source of employee pride, especially when coupled with other successes. Together, these successes contribute to building a company sustainability culture.

The grassroots work also becomes the basis for sustainability conversations with company executives. You can use the successes to help prove the business case for a company-wide commitment to environmental stewardship.

Begin your journey towards environmental stewardship today. Start small, engage your colleagues, and celebrate every success, no matter how small it seems. Your actions can inspire others and create ripple effects in company culture, leading to future sustainability efforts and progress.

Updated and adapted from an article previously written by Nancy Himmelfarb and published by GreenBiz (now Trellis).