Page 25 – Sustainability Academy

CSE assessment based on research findings helps companies identify whether their sustainability performance boosts their business strategy.

By Nikos Avlonas and Rosalinda Sanquiche

Originally posted to CSRWire May 23, 2018, https://buff.ly/2IJdnQu

You’ve completed your Sustainability Report – good!

You have a vision statement positioning your company as a community steward, protecting human and environmental resources – great!

Can you now sit and wait for the next round of reporting? Is reporting just an exercise to appease a few key stakeholders?

Not even close. If you are not connecting your sustainability strategy and all the work you did on your Sustainability Report to your business outcomes, you are missing an opportunity.

Your Sustainability Strategy must be integrated into your Business Strategy. They complement each other, promoting the health and wealth of the company along with the health and wealth of your community.

Based on our North America research, the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) has identified a set of enablers and tools which indicate how well your organization’s sustainability strategy is integrated within your business strategy. Our research has identified correlations between having a sound sustainability strategy and financial performance.

When sustainability enablers and tools combine with a sound business foundation, expect increased Sustainability Ratings – important to investors. Expect to positively influence stakeholders’ perceptions, instrumental in gaining customers. Reputation and branding are highly sought by companies, whether or not they are pursuing sustainability.

What a bonus that you can have both – a sustainability strategy AND sound business elements.

Knowing if your sustainability strategy is integrated with your business plan can be tricky. You need tangible ways to measure if they are indeed working synergistically with enablers, tools and outcomes.

Key enablers include a culture of transparency, comprehensive strategic goals, and a system to respond to stakeholder expectations. Tools include your Sustainability Report, a Materiality Assessment, and systematic Stakeholder Communications.

I didn’t expect such an effect. I took 15 mg of Cialis in the evening, as recommended at https://nygoodhealth.com/product/cialis/, and was excited throughout the night and until morning, I combined it with alcohol (300gr. red wine). After long sexual intercourse, I had dizzy head and nausea, which quickly passed. In general, this is a great and affordable drug.

Has your company made these important integrations? CSE’s Sustainability and Financial Performance Questionnaire helps identify your company’s stance. A low score – your strategy is unlikely to support your financial goals. A high score – your sustainability performance enhances your business goals.

We should all aspire to being stewards of Earth’s resources and responsible partners within our communities. Such aspirations must go hand-in-hand with financial performance. If not, how can we support the good we do within communities? Use sustainability tools to enable the financial sweet spot within your organization.

Reach us at [email protected] for more info.

There has been an argument within the business circles if the embedding of corporate responsibility and sustainable practices are cost effective and if they indicate a positive financial performance for any organization. According to researches it is highlighted that keeping your business responsible results in higher profits whereas a strongly committed workforce contributes in the overall business performance on a long term. Nevertheless, there is concern over the nature of operations that need to be taken on behalf of the sustainability leaders in order to successfully correlate the human assets’ values and support for sustainability with the business’s ongoing sustainability activities.

There is a critical bottom line that points out that the first step to the engagement of employees with regards to the company’s environmental and social responsibility activities is the realization of the economic case. To that end, the clearer the profitable aspect of sustainability is spelled out to the workforce the more meaningful and supportive will it be towards the sustainability program and strategy that has been implemented.

Once the business case is understood and the company’s long-term purpose is defined and communicated properly there is one essential matter to be acknowledged and resolved and that is the thorough education over sustainability within all business departments. It is commonly agreed that a skilled sustainability director within an organization is a valuable asset; however it is not a one man’s job when sustainable performance is to be evaluated on a longer term. Sustainability directors have to involve all departments and cultivate sustainability language and actions across all levels and geographies of the organization. Engagement and dedication on behalf of employees is a consequence of a shared sustainability culture that is built and supported on a constant pace. More specifically, decision making managers need to invest in the education and training of the personnel through seminars and online trainings to provide them with a holistic sustainability experience. Involving everyone throughout relative learning, company’s sustainability initiatives are supported more effectively while employees are encouraged to step in to embrace and create new sustainability goals in the benefit of the whole organization.

Sustainability Academy by the Center for Sustainability & Excellence offers group online certified courses that are especially designed for companies and organizations that want to educate their staff and other important stakeholders (e.g Clients, Suppliers) on the most important topics of Sustainability and how it can be integrated into corporate strategy.

Browse through our unique options provided in Sustainability Academy and improve corporate sustainability performance.

Time for social media to step up!

By Nikos Avlonas and Rosalinda Sanquiche

Social media is inescapable. There is an expectation that a company will have a Facebook page and regular tweets. Companies use Google Ads and follow each other on LinkedIn. In many ways, this use of social media is our way at the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) of insuring transparency – fundamental to sustainability in business and for which there is a strong ethical argument.

CSE undertook research in Silicon Valley, looking for indications of sustainability leadership in Community, Environment, Employees, Supply Chain, Philanthropy and Ethics. Ethics was practiced, based on self-reporting, by 95% of the companies researched. Admirable, but one wonders as to the companies’ definitions of ethics.

Facebook is mired in scandal where users are questioning how much the company knew of the misuse of user data by Cambridge Analytics. Not to pick solely on Facebook, but one also wonders as to the ethical implications of removing 1.5 billion users out of reach of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). And, CSE recently reported on how companies need to deal with the Directive on Non-financial and Diversity Information mandating transparency of social and environmental information when operating in the EU.

Transparency, protection of private data, using ephemeral national cyber boundaries to navigate from choppy to smooth waters – how will this play in the Sustainability world? Perhaps an easier question is does anyone care? While there certainly was a drop in Facebook value around the scandal (much of it recovered) and a reported 1 out of 10 users in North America deleted their accounts, there has been no appreciable change in monthly active users.

CSE trainings focus heavily on materiality. We address the practical use of resources to report on sustainability issues most relevant to the organization, following criteria established by GRI and assessment based on stakeholder engagement.

That answers the question of what organizations MUST do to effectively pursue sustainability and report their efforts. But, what is it that companies SHOULD do?

At CSE, the E stands for Excellence. For companies to achieve Excellence they must go beyond the expected. They must take a holistic view that brings all the SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals) in house. The ethical ideals of the goals use words such as quality and equality, decent, peace, justice, responsible and partnerships.

We hope that social media, all the many platforms, grow beyond the material and toward the intrinsic ethical considerations which are ever changing. Can we move from a mindset based on Growth to one based on Ethics? Our research shows that a culture of transparency is an important enabler. We hope more organizations embrace it rather than work around it.

Reaching the threshold of 2020, EU leaders are committed to the target of 20% emissions reduction compared to 1990 levels. The particular target consists one of the headlines as part of the Europe 2020 growth strategy that aims to manage a more productive and all-encompassing growth while strengthen a social market economy based on sustainability. In order for the being of low-carbon economies yet highly energy-efficient, governments need to take initiatives and set objectives of reducing GHG emissions collectively and progressively up to 2050.

Despite the Paris Climate Accord goal of keeping global temperature rise below 2°C, according to studies, it seems that most countries are inadequate when it comes to pledges and efforts of cutting carbon emissions. Moving to net-zero emissions over the second half of the century requires an investment on behalf of the governments and their compliance with legislative acts and policies that encourage such initiatives.

Britain is currently one of the key developed economies that are stepping forward to welcome measurable potentials of actual reduction on the carbon emission matter. Private and public sector organizations are motivated to embrace energy efficient technologies so that UK homes are provided with sustainable and greener products that allow individuals to contribute in the carbon footprint reduction and improve the quality of their daily life.

UK Government is additionally attempting to mitigate GHG emissions in the transport sector by reassuring the “green” technology aspect of the vehicles and encourage UK citizens to use more often public transport. More specifically, in order for the environment to accept less damage, Government has endorsed the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation according to which transport suppliers use at least a percentage of fuel coming from renewable sources.

Agriculture industry is also liable in terms of the UK’s overall GHG emissions as there is increased carbon deriving from the burning of fossil fuels that are used in farm machinery, other chemicals produced from transportation of produce and clearing of forests to grow crops. Additionally, the industry presented the GHG Action Plan according to which farmers may individually act in such matter that self-efficiency is increased along with generating renewable energy and carbon storage within soils.

Bottom line implies that not only government on behalf of its politics but also the individuals are willing to work closely with the authorities so that the actions taken are in favor of the environment and reported if any progress is to be assessed.

If you aim to receive relevant, practical knowledge with regards to CSR and Sustainability matters you can visit Sustainability Academy to earn an online certificate by the Center for Sustainability and Excellence and acquire the skills required to apply Carbon Reduction Strategy and Reporting.

The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) marks a decade in providing high caliber certified training in sustainability for C-Suite executives & CSR Managers worldwide. In Europe in these ten years, Executives from leading organizations, including Unilever, Heineken, Toyota, EBRD, Shell, Exxon Mobil, Atos, Ikea, Lidl, Janssen, Pfizer, Word Bank, United Nations and many more were certified as sustainability professionals.

CSE successfully delivered on the 1^st and 2^nd of March in London the Advanced Version 2018 of Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program. This high level professional training was fully booked and once again CSE managed to bring together professionals from different countries and continents (Europe, Asia and Australia), fields and companies who joined this two day workshop, eager in further developing and enhancing their business strategies through CSR frameworks.

CSE is now holding the next Global Advanced Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Program (CMI Approved) in Europe. In Bucharest on the 21^st and 22^nd of June the advanced training will on focus on UN SDG’s, GRI Standards, recent sustainability reporting trends according to CSE research findings, legislation and other key challenges on sustainability.

Additionally, CSE has already announced new dates for the Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program in London and made the promise to be back in the city for another successful event on the 6^th and 7^th of December 2018.

We will continuously strive to offer you more knowledge and expertise, to support and coach you through specialized trainings, modern tools and innovative methods. Together we can increase the momentum for the sustainability movement globally.

Stay tuned for the promising event in Bucharest this June and in London this December!

The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence celebrates 10 years of trust from global FT 500 corporations and executives to provide Sustainability Education in the US and Canada.

Over the past 10 years, more than 6,000 executives from leading organizations including NASA, Coca-Cola, Walmart, Timberland, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Microsoft, L’Oréal, Chevron, Cigna, PWC, T–Mobile, Procter & Gamble, and Macy’s were certified as sustainability professionals.

CSE successfully delivered on the 8^th and 9^th of March in Atlanta and on 26^th and 27^th in Toronto the Advanced Version 2018 of the Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program. These high level professional trainings were fully booked, and once again CSE brought together professionals from different countries, fields and companies who joined this two-day workshop, eager to further develop and enhance their business strategies through CSR frameworks.

“The workshop was delivered by dynamic and knowledgeable instructors. It was a very comprehensive and practical training, attended by participants from all sectors of the economy,” says Prof. Stephan Vachon, who attended the Toronto training. Vachon is chair of the Masters of Environment and Sustainability program at the Ivey Business School, the #1MBA program in Canada, and top-ranked globally. “I recommend it to anyone who wants a thorough and up-to-date overview of sustainability aspects in businesses.”

Additionally, professionals from 3 continents, North America, Europe and the Middle East, are participating in the quickly approaching global event in NYC this June 11-12, in order to become certified and recognized as Sustainability CSR-P Practitioners by CSE and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

CSE is in preparations for this third in a row Global Advanced Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Program (CMI Approved) in North America. For its fourth training in Houston on the 27^th and 28^th of September, the advanced training will focus on the UN SDGs, GRI Standards, sustainability reporting trends according to CSE research, national and international legislation and other key challenges in sustainability. Stay tuned for the promising event in Houston!

CSE training in New York City builds on Earth Day lessons and NYC’s sustainability issues as an international hub.

Chicago, date ~ With Earth Day in mind, CSE is preparing for the New York City Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program (2018 Advanced Edition), June 11-12, 2018.

Earth Day – April 21 – in NYC will include the usual festivals, park hikes, and fundraisers. Many will focus on plastics – the UN theme for the day. For a port city, plastics in the water is an important issue. This year’s focus will include upcycle demonstrations – integral to supply chains.

Also key to urban centers – transportation. From 9:00 am to 3:00 pm on Earth Day, Broadway between 26th and 47th Street will be car-free. At least one Broadway theater is going green.

Every kind of business imaginable will be participating, assessing their own impact. Do you know how to assess yours?

In Atlanta, CSE focused on Supply Chain. Atlanta is a hub to many local and global companies. The Atlanta international airport is the busiest in the world. EarthShare of GA, whose Earth Day festivities are region wide, joined participants from Macy’s, PWC and even the Latino network Univision in CSE’s training.

Tailoring the training to highlight Supply Chain issues made sense. A company’s supply chain makes a significant impact and yet can be its biggest challenge in promoting human rights, fair labor practices, environmental progress and anti-corruption policies.

Earth Day is about more than the ground we stand on – it’s about the people who eat Mother Earth’s food, drink her waters and care for each other. CSE designed our Toronto training to highlight SROI – Social Return on Investment. SROI measures Earth Day values beyond financial statements. It is the next evolution in sustainability accounting.

Both Supply Chain management and SROI are important tools in the CSE Certified Sustainability Practitioner training which will be presented in NYC in June. We will also be in Houston, Sept.27, and by popular demand, back to Toronto, Oct. 25, 2018.

Led by award-winning CSE founder, Nikos Avlonas, CSE’s trainings provide the foundation trusted by Fortune Global 500 executives and needed to help corporations make every day an Earth Day. What tools do you need? Register now and let us know.

Social entrepreneurship is considered to be “the use of startup companies and other entrepreneurs to develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues.”

Social entrepreneurs bring innovation and deliver change in various areas, such as the environment and society. They go beyond the traditional routes and they do that through an invention or a different application or approach of an existing technology or practice. Their priority is to create social value above all, the financial value comes second. Ultimately, entrepreneurs innovate by finding a new service, product or new approach as a solution to a social problem.

Social entrepreneurship is used as a term both as for non-profit organizations and organizations which blend for-profit goals with generating a positive “return to society”

Perhaps the most well known example of social entrepreneurship is the one of Tom’s shoes: the innovative use of the “ One for One” business model, in which for each purchase of a pair of shoes by a consumer, a gift of a free pair of shoes is given to a poor child in a developing country.

A social entrepreneur believes that everyone potentially can contribute to a social cause meaningfully and bring change to the world. He takes risks, he is persistent, optimistic, innovative and with high standards.

In order to become a social entrepreneur it is of great importance to take certain steps:

Find your purpose, your goal, and the change you want to bring to this world and determine how.

Create a unique, different offering which does not exist already. It is important for your offering to be something new.

Search for people and try to get support from them, who will understand your purpose, share their ideas with you and possibly give you relevant advice.

Develop your business model and search for initial funding sources, a loan or angel investors.

Sustainability Academy’s Online Diploma on Social Entrepreneurship will provide you with a step-by-step introduction to Social Entrepreneurship and Benefit Corporations as well as offer you unique knowledge in a simple and practical way. Let the change begin!

Social return on investment (SROI) represents a set of principles used to measure extra-financial value (environmental/social value) in relation to the resources invested. The goal is for this framework to help you manage, plan and make decisions to increase the value created for your stakeholders by your activities.

The starting point for this calculation is for everyone involved to ask himself “how much difference are we making?” and “how much value are we destroying?”

The value of the outcomes is the one experienced by our stakeholders that result from our activities – the significant ones.

The necessary steps to determine this value is to find out:

Which are your stakeholders?

What are their outcomes?

Which ones are material?

To what extent they result from our activities and what is their value?

A general formula used to calculate SROI is as follows:

SROI = (social impact value – initial investment amount) / initial investment amount *100%

There are four main elements of great importance in order for you to measure SROI:

Inputs – the resources invested in your activity (for example the cost of a program for the care of elderly people)
Outputs – the concrete products from the activity (such as the number of elderly people taken care of)
Outcomes – the changes people experienced due to the activity (for example better health, improved psychological state and quality of life)
Impact – the outcome minus an estimate of what would have happened if the activity did not take place (for example, if 40 people had improved health but 10 people would experience this improvement anyway, the impact is based on the 30 people who had improved health due to the program)

Certain general rules to be followed according to this framework are:

Involve your stakeholders when planning your activities
Be precise and careful when estimating the outcomes of your activities
Value should be accredited to the things that matter
Be objective and transparent
Carry out a proper materiality assessment

If you would like to acquire all the necessary tools and knowledge to calculate the social impact of your organization’s activities, the Introduction to Social Impact Assessment and SROI is the course for you. It will guide you through identifying the inputs, outputs and outcomes of your Sustainability activities and it will help you understand Social Return on Investment.

You have always wanted to “make a difference”. You dream about helping the environment and have a positive social impact on society. So, you decided to pursue a career in Sustainability. But do you think you have what it takes? Below you can find some useful advice on the pursuit of your job in Sustainability.

Do your Research

You have to do your research on Sustainability and what it means, the job description. Sustainability is not philanthropy: you have to really get an in-depth knowledge of the field and understand that it requires communication among departments, it involves various tools and resources and it includes many roles within a Sustainability department. If you want to gain more advanced knowledge in the field, visit Sustainability Academy’s online courses.

Try New Things

It would also be excellent to have experience on another department. Someone who has championed at a Sales or Finance department for example is considered to have a more holistic view of the organization when entering a Sustainability department. Such a professional is considered to have gotten his “hands dirty” as opposed to someone who has only known a supposedly sterile environment.

Get Out of the House a Little

It is of great importance for a Sustainability professional to be involved in “extracurricular” activities related to Sustainability. This means you can be part of a CSR organization, or to be into volunteerism, or to have done pro bono work at a benefit corporation. All these things count as proof you are indeed passionate about making an impact and Sustainability is not just a job for you. Get more information about things you can do here.

Speak Green

You have to be communicative. If everything goes well and you become a Sustainability professional you will be invited to achieve cross-department communication. You will have to be able to articulate your ideas, since Sustainability is a very specific and a very broad field at the same time. You should be able to be precise and comprehensive. It would also really be helpful if you learned to “speak green”. Getting in touch with the industry’s jargon would definitely assist you in entering and being absorbed in a Sustainability department.

Be a Leader at what you do

Leadership is also a skill you will have to cultivate. There are very few positions and large Sustainability departments for you to choose from. So, it is inevitable that only the best will be hired. This means people who have the ability to persuade others, influence them and make them behave the way you and your department aim to. You will have to make people from different philosophies and departments, such as marketing, finance, legal, to be on your side. Not to forget the significance of networking. You should build your network as effectively as possible in order to maximize your opportunities and impact.

Build your Green Brand

You can also build your green brand. It would be helpful to sell yourself, to have an online presence across social media, online groups, and blogs, anything that will make you kind of famous as a Sustainability professional.

Good Luck

All the best from Sustainability Academy in your endeavors. If you indeed want to equip yourself with the latest skills, tools and resources on the field of Sustainability in the most flexible yet effective way, take a look at the Sustainability Academy’s online courses.