How to Navigate 6 Common Barriers to Embedding Sustainability.
By Tensie Whelan and Chisara Ehiemere
Even with a clear roadmap, implementing sustainability into core business strategies can have its challenges. After all, your company may have been running successfully for decades, and change can be difficult. With that in mind, we put together a list of common barriers that can arise, along with suggestions on how to keep moving forward.
Start by identifying the knowledge gaps across the organization and determine the appropriate education or training that’s needed. This can range from general knowledge of sustainability trends in the industry to more technical training for designing and implementing sustainable products and production. For technical issues, you may need to bring in consultants, academics or other practitioners. If there are budget constraints, you may be able to share the educational cost across departments or include it in the budget for the following year.
We often hear that sustainability may be absent from KPIs outside of the sustainability function, or may even conflict with them, such as when there’s a strict cost reduction target in procurement. In a survey with 1,056 employee respondents conducted by The Center for Sustainable Business at the University of Pittsburgh and The Harris Poll, 45 percent of respondents identified the belief among employees that “sustainability is someone else’s responsibility” as a challenge. You can work with departments and the broader sustainability committee to identify where these conflicts or gaps may exist to better align individual KPIs with the company’s broader sustainability goals.
Read the full Trellis article.
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Tensie Whelan is a Clinical Professor of Business and Society and Director of the Center for Sustainable Business.