While sustainability is something on the majority of organization’s agendas, it is equally undoubtedly something that is hard to truly achieve.  While stereotypes may give private sector firms a degree of leeway due to the Friedman-like focus on the bottom line, public bodies have fewer excuses, yet research from Concordia highlights how difficult many public bodies find it to integrate sustainability into standard operations.

The study focuses on the province of Quebec, which has enshrined sustainable development into law via the Sustainable Development Act. The act provides a framework for the public bodies in the province to follow, with sustainability plans, clear targets, and annual management reports required.

A mixed response

The study shows that while some public bodies are able to enthusiastically embrace any innovations from their workforce, others do much worse and discourage or pay lip service to them.  The findings emerged from interviews with 33 sustainability officers from 25 government bodies who collectively employ 60% of government workers in the province.

“Because of the law’s requirements, we found that some of the larger organizations had dedicated sustainability officers, while the smaller ones did not because they lacked resources,” the researchers say.  “In some cases, they just had someone who was responsible for filling out forms and producing reports. They were meeting criteria on paper, but without substantially integrating anything new.”

The interviews revealed that the success of sustainability projects often depends on pulling in ideas from employees themselves. Not only does this produce a diversity of ideas, but also allows each organization to take an individual approach to sustainability.

Employee involvement

Three factors appear to influence how involved employees get in the sustainability of their organization, and they revolve around the individual themselves, their organization, and the public sector itself.  The authors believe these factors explain why just six of the 25 bodies had implemented initiatives in line with the Act.

This is seldom for a lack of trying on the part of employees, but things conspire to make their efforts futile, whether that’s the political agendas present in their organization, the internal culture, or a lack of resources.

“Most interviewed sustainability officers had good intentions and knew what they were doing,” the researchers say. “But they found they could not push their ideas through. They would frequently be stopped at some level toward upper management.”

What’s more, the law itself doesn’t help, as it can encourage excessive bureaucracy and a huge amount of form filling.  Even the criteria bodies are judged against can be vague and uncertain.  This can allow bodies to claim that they’re complying even as they only enact superficial measures.

“Having an internal culture that looks favorably on sustainable innovation is crucial,” the researchers conclude. “However, it is difficult to install that kind of culture. A continuity of concrete objectives, in which one is met and then a new more challenging one is implemented, would help ensure a sense of authenticity and commitment to sustainability among employees.”