Implement the sustainability strategy

By Ann-Christin Pålsson, Johan Widheden, Sofia Petersson

Once the sustainability strategy has been defined and decided, it needs to be communicated and implemented across the organisation; into the departments where it can be broken down into departmental strategies and goals.

If the strategy have been developed in a cross-functional team, the implementation can be facilitated as the different parts of the company are already aware and have been involved early in the process. See also the task Create strategy at this website.

The implementation in the departments can include:

• Defining the role and responsibility of the department in the company’s sustainability work. A first step can be to identify the most important aspects, based on the sustainability strategy, vision and targets.
• Setting specific targets for the department, based on the overall targets for the company.
• Determining how to measure and control the sustainability aspects, and how to prioritise between activities. Examples of measurements can be carbon footprints, eco footprints, water footprints, resource efficiency measures, etc.
• Adapting current working processes and/or developing new processes to integrate sustainability considerations at different levels of the company. This can also involve establishing cooperation and communication paths with other departments, and assigning new roles and functions when needed.
• Starting programmes or projects for implementation, e.g. to work with targets and improving specific sustainability aspects.

Examples

• AkzoNobel:
  • Implementation
  • A leadership program
  • Eco-efficiency required in larger investments
  • AkzoNobel: Health, Safety and Environment-network in Sweden
• SCA:
  • Overview of SCA´s sustainability activities in the supply chain for the personal care business

See also the other Supply chain activities at this website for further examples of how AkzoNobel and SCA are working with implementation in the different part of the supply chain.