Strategy, Goal Setting and Roadmaps

What

Unlike planning to execute a capital project, the process of developing a sustainability program does not actually begin with developing a strategy. Instead, there is a foundation of knowledge that must be built first for the strategy to be fit for purpose.

A materiality assessment can be used to develop several essential elements of this foundation including:

• A benchmark of competitor and other best practices, and

• A prioritization of stakeholder values and preferences

Once these elements have been developed, an effective strategy can be constructed. It will seek to put a governance structure in place (e.g., roles and role clarity), establish goals, and support those with an executable set of policies and procedures.

Often the strategy is formalized in a Company Sustainability Plan. Stakeholders will place more value on the effectiveness of the Sustainability Plan if evidence of its success are part of how it is executed (e.g., measurements, metrics, and success stories).

Why

As stakeholders review almost any company public disclosure related to sustainability, there is usually an expectation that it is supported by the presence of a functioning sustainability plan that guides the process of expected to lead to the organization’s achievement of its environmental targets.

Without a well-articulated plan, the stakeholder is left to wonder whether there is a pathway to achieve the goals that have been established; even if the goals are achievable within the timeframe suggested.

How

To be most effective, the development of a sustainability strategy should be developed through collaboration among internal stakeholders so that they will "own" the process and take responsibility for the outcome.

The strategy will establish a governance process and those with key assignments will need to lead the collaboration process, perhaps along with training and facilitation by outside experts who have seen the process unfold within other companies.

If the materiality analysis does not specifically include a sustainability practices inventory, this is a very helpful element to add to this process. It seeks to identify what sustainability activities are already in place and how well they are working, as well as to capture stakeholder ideas as to how to move forward and improve things. This is typically done via an interview process based on a set of interview questions designed to help the participants identify activities they may not have realized had sustainability implications.

Once stakeholder input has been combined with the inventory, the core sustainability team can develop a draft plan that the broader management team can review, enhance, and finally adopt.