Reassess the Effectiveness of Your Business Sustainability Plan

In one of our very early posts, Defining Where You Are on the Sustainability Continuum, our sustainability consulting introduced the concept of business sustainability maturity as a differentiator for assessment and development. The thought process behind this concept was that not all organizations are on the same initial path or at the same level of initial sustainability understanding. However as a company moves up the knowledge scale, having already defined where they are and their vision, a new level of awareness emerges: How effective is our current plan?

The Siemens / CT Technologies white paper and best guide, Accelerating the Sustainability Journey, expands on the concept of business sustainability progress assessment. The guidance introduces a five step process to “clarify your present position and plan your future progress”.

• Does our business have clear business and compliance objectives, and do they reinforce each other?

• How efficient and accurate is our data collection, process management and automation?

• How effective is our reporting? For example, do we have clear metrics and targets against which the reports can be assessed? Are they tracked and communicated across the business so that we can identify performance outliers?

• What action do we then need to undertake? How do we ensure that we maximize the returns from any investments that are required?

• What structures and processes are in place to provide governance of risk and opportunity?

The traditional view of business sustainability has been that companies must be firmly committed, heavily engaged, and fully mature to reap the benefits of applied business sustainability concepts. The truth is that sustainability is a never ending journey of incremental progress. By assessing and reassessing your companies current state and the goals of your business sustainability plan, your organization can set itself up for definable success.