Before any company can tout sustainability work to its consumers, it must ensure
there’s belief and structure for the ambitions within its own organization.
In June at Sustainable Brands™’ Brand-Led Culture
Change
virtual event, three distinctive leaders discussed how they not only managed
selling sustainability as an integral concept to company leaders, but also how
to build buy-in across employee groups and other leaders outside senior
leadership.
Sustainability means something much different now than it did even just two
years ago; and that requires a new kind of thinking to help companies not only
create specific goals and plans but follow those through to fruition.
The panel, Effecting Change from the Inside Out: Mapping the Sustainability
Journey, was an insightful look into
how three key sustainability champions built new foundations in this new era of
sustainability and transitioned that into meaningful progress within their
organizations.
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At Panera Bread, VP of food
beliefs, sustainability and HR Sara
Burnett manages a
responsibility-focused brand ethos, but within the more traditional structure of
a large quick-service restaurant chain. Fellow panelist Niki
King
— head of sustainability at Unilever North America — faces similar
challenges within Unilever’s food brands, but with the added complexities of
some of the largest household cleaner and supply brands on the planet.
Rounding out the panel, Kevin
Hagen — VP of ESG strategy at Iron
Mountain — shared how sustainability factors
into the modernization of an information management company founded to manage
large quantities of materials, but now figuring out how to do the same with
large quantities of data.
John Hanselman, founder
and chief strategy officer at Vanguard
Renewables, moderated the
panel.
A summary of the panelists’ responses is below.
How have you influenced behavioral change where it counts — at the factory, retail and customer level?
Burnett: One of our most successful programs to influence behavior change is
the use of World Resources Institute’s Cool Food
certification.
By labeling low-carbon ‘Cool Food’ meals and engaging with our guests through
email, social media and the e-commerce experience, we’re able to nudge our
guests toward delicious, climate-friendly choices.
King: Behavioral change is incredibly difficult. Take consumers, for
instance. Consumer behavior change remains key to achieving our sustainability
goals. However, consumers are at different stages of their sustainability
journey.
Today, consumers are vocal; and many make purchasing choices based on
sustainable attributes, or because they believe in the company. However, there
are also many consumers who do not. Therefore, it really has challenged us to
innovate for sustainability because we know that we need to make sustainability
easy for most consumers, removing the “hassle factor” for them. We think the
most effective way of achieving this is not through asking them to change, but
to change the systems around them. So, we have done things such as
reformulating our laundry
detergents
so that they require less water and energy use. We have also launched refillable
products, which are designed to support behavior changes. These are just a
couple of examples of how we are influencing behavior change; but there is so
much more to be done!
What are some examples of 'big & ambitious' sustainability goals you shared publicly, but missed? What was learned from the missed goals?
Burnett: To date, we have not missed any of our ambitious goals.
King: As part of our Unilever Sustainable Living
Plan,
which ran from 2010-2020, we had a goal to source 100 percent of our
agricultural raw materials sustainably. As the plan came to an end, we were at
67 percent. This was partly because of our lack of scale to achieve sufficient
change across all crops that we source. And partly because the length and
complexity of some supply chains make it very difficult to develop a line of
sight on the farmers at the very beginning of that supply chain, and thus to
reassure ourselves that their practices are sustainable. We refocused our
sustainable sourcing efforts on a set of 12 priority crops which are not only
crucial to our brands, but also where we can have the most impact within their
agricultural sectors.
Despite missing our target to source all agricultural raw materials sustainably,
for the 12 priority crops that make up around two-thirds of our total volume of
agricultural raw materials, 92 percent were sustainably sourced in 2020.
What have been the biggest challenges and how did you/your team overcome them?
Burnett: A challenge we have experienced most recently is maintaining supply
of high-quality ingredients that meet our standards. For example, over the past
two years, supply chain volatility has led to limited supply of meat raised
without antibiotics. To overcome this challenge, our team has taken a 360-degree
approach from choosing to market items with more stable supply chains to
bringing on new supply partners. The one constant is staying true to our
commitments and maintaining integrity with our mission and purpose.
King: Truly embedding sustainability is the biggest challenge that I have
witnessed. ‘Truly embedded’ means that everyone at the company understands their
part when it comes to achieving the company’s sustainability goals. This means
there is a sustainability culture in place. Overcoming it is not easy, but it
can be done by:
-
Ensuring accountability — one of the best ways to do this is through a
governance structure. Some organizations also choose to make it part of
annual objectives or OKRs.
-
Educating employees — do they understand what you are trying to do and why?
One of the things that I try to do now is to bring my key internal
stakeholders to sustainability conferences to broaden their thinking.
-
Creating a culture where employees are not scared to take risks or innovate
when it comes to sustainability
How has the pandemic impacted this journey?
Burnett: While the food industry faced big challenges such as associate
safety and supply chain disruption over the past 2+ years, it also was a time
where consumer sentiment shifted in a way that supports a more sustainable
business model. During this time, we saw a rise in understanding and recognition
of the impact that we personally and our organizations have on our teams, our
neighbors and our planet. Out of crisis comes change and I believe we can use
these challenges and changes in consumer behavior to make real progress across
the industry.
Hagen: For many companies, has accelerated pressures on recruiting and
retaining great people. That has influenced how we hire and manage
talent
— especially when it comes to sustainability. Sustainability really feels like a
disruptive technology. It’s changing jobs everywhere; and there are new skills
and competencies required across all functions. For example, if you want to be
in procurement, you really need to know what a life cycle assessment is, and
what supply chain resilience looks like and why that’s important. Facilities and
operations people need to know about BREEAM, LEED and other green
building specs and so much more. If you’re in marketing, you better understand
greenwashing and how to avoid
it.
The challenge is that even seasoned professionals need to upskill to stay
relevant. The great news is that people across the organization are finding
opportunities to use their day job to make a huge difference for their company,
for the environment and society and for themselves.
King: Honestly, the most unexpected thing for me is that sustainability did
not take a back seat during the pandemic. I really thought that this would be
one of the things that may slow down as the pandemic continued. It has been the
opposite: Companies are putting more efforts and resources behind it than ever
before.
Additionally, what is so great is that as companies are rethinking their
workplaces, culture really comes into play. With many employees shifting to
remote and hybrid
working,
companies had to find new ways to protect and support them. It really led to
profound changes to the operating models, with remote working and flexible
structures becoming more prevalent. The pandemic really has shown us that we
often can’t tackle a big issue alone and that we must collaborate. We saw that
governments and companies can respond quickly to a crisis, and that industry
collaboration is possible. So, it has taught us that when it comes to the big
issues within sustainability, we can tackle those too if we come together and
collaborate.
It highlighted the importance of health, safety and wellbeing, which have all
become central to the resiliency and sustainability discussion in a way that it
has never occurred before. Companies that integrated sustainability and
transparency strategically into their business operations prior to the pandemic
didn’t change course. More importantly, they were much more agile in responding
to unexpected events.
What, if anything, would you have done differently?
King: I would have leaned into my HR partners more. They can help create
that necessary culture.
At the start of the journey, how did you determine which one of the 4 Ps (People, Planet, Prosperity, Plastics) as the best place to start — and how did you determine this?
Burnett: I believe that the best place to start a sustainability journey is
with your organization's mission and purpose, combined with your brand’s points
of distinction and differentiation. The most successful programs are linked
tightly to your core beliefs and how you serve your customers. If you do so,
commitments and related actions will become a natural extension of how you do
business, instead of added complexity.
Final thoughts
Every industry is unique, and all companies are at different stages on their
sustainability journey.
“Niki, Sara and Kevin provided us with great ideas and touchpoints to guide us
on our own sustainability journeys,” Hanselman shared. “I look forward to what
they continue to do in their organizations and know that their stories have
inspired others in the sustainability field to keep on fighting the good fight.
It’s never easy to make systemic changes in any industry; but hopefully, taking
what we learned from these three distinct leaders back to our own organizations
will help make that change a little bit easier.”
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Geoff is a freelance journalist and copywriter focused on making the world a better place through compelling copy. He covers everything from apparel to travel while helping brands worldwide craft their messaging. In addition to Sustainable Brands, he's currently a contributor at Penta, AskMen.com, Field Mag and many others. You can check out more of his work at geoffnudelman.com.
Published Aug 10, 2022 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST