Since the announcement of Net Zero, companies have progressively built out sustainability teams to help them progress towards their own goals and objectives.
Whilst on the face of it this sounds positive, there is a common theme running across most corporates in the way they have built out these teams - and that is the type of resources they have selected to fill the roles.
Corporate sustainability teams have attracted academics and people passionate about the environment which is great but they have found themselves operating in a silo, which over time other business departments have started to ignore.
Since the middle of 2024, many companies have scaled back on these efforts as the anticipated returns simply haven’t been there to justify the cost.
For those companies that are still operating this type of model it’s time to stop and think about how to get back on track.
The core reason these siloed teams have failed to deliver is twofold. Firstly, they have been ignored by the business because they don’t see them as relevant, and secondly, they don’t understand the business so they cannot make decisions that help to engage other business departments.
The fix for this is quite simple. Identify a senior member of the business that intimately understands how the it works today and how the leadership wishes the business to work in the future and give them the objective to deliver on the company’s Net Zero goals. They need to report directly into the CFO and build out a team that can identify the areas to analyse, gather the data, come up with improvement options and then implement the chosen path. It doesn’t need to be a big team.
We also don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water. This team needs the advice of the academics who understand the complexities of environmental impact, but it only needs to be one headcount in most cases. For the other members of the existing team, it’s time to find another role.
We have found that teams operating the legacy model are not open to new ideas on how to implement improvements as they see it as a lot of work. These legacy teams have become a place to hide for many and it’s easy to resist new ideas to keep your to do list nice and light.
On the flip side, those companies that have empowered business leaders in this role are making progress and decisions are being made quickly and regularly. With the right tools, like Zero Pro, this can be even further enhanced.
Net Zero is no longer a theoretical objective that involves attending conferences. It is now a case of identifying the areas of your company’s supply chain that are pollutive and finding ways to optimize them.