Coro Strandberg
President
Strandberg Consulting
Future Shock: Is Higher Education Ready for the Impact?
Organizational Change / Industries, companies and governments are retooling for the future, driven by the sustainability imperatives of climate change; resource, food and water scarcity; social polarization and rising income inequality. Universities and colleges are no exception. The future will be won by organizations that were proactive, not those that defended the status quo. As with other industries, the post-secondary sector is undergoing a transition as it explores its reason for existence. Does it equip students and professionals for future roles? Yes. Does it also equip its administrators to contribute their expertise, resources, assets and investments to contribute to societal outcomes? Slowly, but surely. - 3 years ago
Partnering for Good: Impacts from a Transformational 10-Year Partnership
Collaboration / “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” ~ Henry Ford Environmental and social issues are increasingly affecting the viability of business — and the communities and environments in which they operate. A proven way to address these issues is through partnerships in which businesses and non-profits collaborate for mutual benefit and create solutions to societal challenges. Faced with these sizable issues, it can be hard to know where to start — and to determine where the greatest value lies. Taking a page from lean innovation, start with a pilot project, to test and scale what works. - 4 years ago
About the Clout: Pro-Sustainability Businesses Lobby For Greater Good
Walking the Talk / Increasingly, businesses are using their clout to influence governments to advance a fair, inclusive and sustainable society and position their business for success. They recognize that government leadership is essential to develop progressive economic, social and environmental public policy to realize a future in which business and society can prosper. - 4 years ago
Corporate Sustainability Practitioners: Roles Have Changed — Has Your Job Description?
Leadership / “If life were easy, it wouldn’t be difficult.” — Kermit the Frog As a sustainability professional, I am drawn to this Muppet wisdom. Over the many years I’ve worked in the field as an advisor and strategist, I’ve witnessed a slow but steady awakening on the part of organizations to the real challenges of long-term sustainability. It takes intention, commitment – and pivots. - 4 years ago
Going Beyond Less Bad: Redefining Products, Brands for Positive Impact
Organizational Change / “We want all of our three billion products we sell every year to be well on the path to being truly sustainable by 2025.” - 4 years ago
Climate Change and the Third Way: Adapt, Mitigate or Transform?
Business Case / Grim climate change reality: The seas are rising. Terrifying hurricanes regularly raze vast, inhabited areas. - 4 years ago
It’s All About the Chain, Gang: Procurement the Link to Sustainable Supply Chains
Supply Chain / We are transitioning to a low-carbon, circular and inclusive economy. The latest arrival to the party is the procurement department — and none too soon, given the mammoth challenge ahead to make global supply chains sustainable and ethical. If you’re looking to fill your procurement cart with insights on tackling the challenges, read on for information about two tools and a city with a supply chain vision. - 4 years ago
Institutions of Even Higher Learning: Universities Planting Seeds for Social Innovation
Organizational Change / We live in a volatile, uncertain and complex world. With threats of climate change, rising income inequality, social unrest, resource scarcity and ecological degradation predicted to affect society’s progress, leaders and the institutions they run must play new roles to realize a sustainable future. Breakthrough innovation is essential, requiring paradigm shifts and pivots in how we operate and function as a society. - 4 years ago
Still Talking About CSR? How to Accelerate Your Sustainability Visions for the Future
Organizational Change / If you haven’t updated your sustainability or corporate social responsibility approach in the last few years, you are putting your company at risk. - 4 years ago
From Commitment to Action: Progressing Past the CSR Plateau
Walking the Talk / Corporate social responsibility is stuck. When it emerged on the scene 20 years ago, businesses and other stakeholders had high expectations for what a focus on CSR could deliver. But the reality is that neither business nor society are on track to enable nine billion people to live well within the boundaries of the planet by 2050 - let alone 2030. There’s a lot at stake: Unless business collectively steps up to contribute substantively to embracing and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, many business models will be at risk. - 5 years ago
The Right Way – and Wrong Way – to Embrace Purpose as the New Way to Do Business
Organizational Change / Today’s employees want more from their employer than a paycheque. They crave a sense of pride and fulfillment and want to work for a company whose values match their own. A recent UK report found that companies with a social mission have a significant competitive advantage when attracting and retaining employees. - 5 years ago
Governance and Sustainability: The New Normal
Organizational Change / Wild fires, flooding, distracted driving and emotional wellness concerns cost Canadians billions of dollars in 2016. - 5 years ago
The Circular Economy in Action: HP Leading the Way
Product, Service & Design Innovation / More than two million people in six countries subscribe to HP’s “Instant Ink.” When a customer is running low on ink, an Internet-connected printer notifies HP and a replacement cartridge is automatically delivered, with a return envelope for the used cartridges, which HP recycles. Compared with conventional business models, printers using this service generate up to 67 percent less materials consumption per printed page. - 5 years ago
When the Board Is on Board: Steering the Organization Towards Sustainability Leadership
Leadership / Boards are the last great sustainability frontier. They set the sustainability tone at the top, which then cascades throughout the company. It is essential for boards of directors to be engaged in the sustainability agenda. They define the long-term view, anticipating and addressing risks from social and environmental impacts. Progressive boards recruit and incentivize leaders to build sustainability into the company’s business model and value chains. And now that the sustainability ROI has been proven, sustainability has become part of the board’s fiduciary responsibility. - 5 years ago
Languish Anguish: Why Good Sustainability Strategies Stall
Organizational Change / “Our organization is totally supportive of sustainability as long as nothing else comes up or it doesn’t interfere with something the Executive wants to do!” Hands up if you have heard this before. Many organizations find that after the long process of building and adopting a sustainability policy or strategy, they stall. Sure, implementing and embedding sustainability into the business and day-to-day operational decisions is hard work, but that’s not the only thing holding up changes. Often, the environmental management or sustainability plan becomes siloed within the organization, resulting in delays and disorganization. As well, functional leaders don’t always understand the plan’s relevance to their area. - 5 years ago
Want to Attract Star Employees? The Role of the HR Leader as the Driver of Company Value
Organizational Change / Your company’s sustainability commitments help attract the best and the brightest, reduce turnover and enhance productivity. That’s the substance of consistent and compelling research that shows the power of embedding sustainability into corporate culture and its relationship to the bottom line. HR leaders can use this knowledge to create powerful recruitment, engagement and retention strategies. - 5 years ago
The Virtuous Circle Business Model: Social Purpose at the Core of Business Success
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Mention the term “corporate social responsibility” and you might hear something like: “It’s dead.” “CSR has stalled.” “CSR has not fulfilled its potential. It has failed us.” Why? Because even at its best, CSR is only a partial solution with incremental changes that are not putting society and business on a strong footing to enable nine billion people to live well on the planet by 2050. Despite the efforts of the past two decades, CSR is still marginal to corporate strategy — siloed and largely irrelevant to a company and its workforce. - 5 years ago
Gatekeepers to Gateways: Trade Associations Key to Gaining Ground in Industry Sustainability
Organizational Change / The recent launch of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the commitment last month of over 170 countries to the Paris climate agreement illustrate global consensus regarding the sustainability issues we need to tackle to put society and the planet on a secure path. - 6 years ago
Is Your Board Competent and Proactive on Sustainability? It Should Be
Organizational Change / It was the mid-‘90s. The Board of Directors at Vancity – a large regional financial institution based in Vancouver, Canada – was struggling to get management’s attention on its social purpose agenda. I and the other directors believed that marrying social goals with the company’s business could create a powerful vehicle for regional prosperity: attract customers, become a force for social progress and build business. The impasse continued until our Board identified a key leverage point: incorporating our social business objectives into the CEO’s incentive pay. That turned out to be the difference-maker. - 6 years ago
Why Sustainability Should Be Embedded in HR
Organizational Change / There’s an urgent challenge for human resources leaders: Ensuring their organizations anticipate and prepare for the inevitable effects of sustainability mega-forces. As globalization, shifting demographics and competition for the world’s depleting resources compel transformational change, companies will need enlightened and sustainability-savvy leadership to thrive in this brave new world. HR has a significant role to play to align talent with these emerging realities. - 6 years ago