Design Session

Problem Statement:
How can we get shared accountability for sustainability across silos?

The Solution:

Top-level business goals should include sustainability goals, tying compensation and incentives at every level to sustainability (cascading down to all employees, executives, business units, etc.)


Resources:
Ceres Report ("Expectations for Companies 2020")
The business unit leadership (who are fielding questions directly from big customers)

Barriers:
* Board/CEO lack of understanding of what sustainability is. (Often is a generational problem.)
* Lack of integration to board's charter.
* The state of the economy and the current health of the business
* Employee buy-in across a large organization
* Existing processes (i.e. "business as usual")

Process:
Agreed to timeline for this work
Build a team, with the right people and right organizational support (support from passionate, influential internal people who will prevent this from initiative from dying).
Benchmarking with other large companies
Gap analysis
Promote shared learning through the process
Consultation with business units, leadership, etc. and build buy-in
Engaging HR
Educate the board

Next Steps:
Continuous measurement
Succession planning
Ongoing board/senior executive education




Other notes:
* For the sample Safety and diversity already have these senior level goals in place.