Employee Engagement Is Key for Creating a Culture of Sustainability

Case Study: Creating a Culture of Sustainability

How can a company successfully implement an ambitious sustainability strategy when the employees are disengaged?

That is the dilemma that our large, multinational client faced when we began working with them a few year ago as they were setting goals for 2025. A company-wide culture assessment revealed that a hefty percentage were unaware of any sustainability-related activity in the company. And many more were downright skeptical of the genuineness of the leaders’ commitments.

This lack of employee enthusiasm presented the leaders with a predicament because they had been very publicly engaging a wide range of stakeholders in their efforts to develop what they referred to as their “aspirational 10-year goals.” They intended to move from what started out as chiefly an environmental, health and safety initiative to the integration of sustainability into the core of their business. And they knew that their success depended on a strong, positive culture of engaged employees. 

The assessment delivered some good news as well. For example, close to half of the employees believed that the company’s ability to attract and retain talent depended on a strong commitment to sustainability. Likewise approximately half said that employees would feel a stronger sense of pride and loyalty towards the company as a result of a visible and authentic commitment to sustainability.

The company viewed these attitudes as opportunities. They could see that many employees would welcome and support aggressive sustainability strategies especially if they had a better understanding of how they might contribute.

Therefore the company put together a roadmap for building a sustainable and engaging culture.

For example, recently they conducted their first ever business workshops within the company to inspire and educate employees to incorporate nature into decision-making. And they have supported employees in undertaking projects that the initiated in the workshops.

Their efforts are paying off as they have attained or exceeded the milestones that they hoped to achieve by now in pursuit of their 2025 targets.