Making Sustainability Stick: The Blueprint for Successful Implementation

2. Defining Sustainability

What do we mean when we say the word “sustainability”? How one person thinks about it might be very different from how another person thinks about it. Therefore, your first step in any sustainability plan is to define sustainability—why your company is doing this, what it means to your company specifically, how it adds business value—and settle on a common definition and language that all employees and stakeholders can both understand and get behind.

Why Are We Doing This?

Too often as I’ve engaged with companies, there has been a wide gap in understanding as to why the company is embarking on sustainability and to what end. And as you can imagine, this leads to a predictable gap in employee enthusiasm and acceptance ...