With the focus of the world on Glasgow for the Cop26 climate summit, the corporate world has been falling over itself to express its green credentials.  For instance, in his 2021 “Dear CEO” letter, Blackrock chief Larry Fink wrote that no issue is more important than climate change.

While research from the University of Georgia suggests these letters are actually quite useful in driving meaningful change across industry, this has been evident, with the likes of Microsoft and GSK complaining about the poor way the summit has been run.

The need for change

While in the past, accusations of greenwashing among firms had some merit, surely given such public hand-wringing things are different now?  The outlook appears decidedly mixed.  For instance, while 96% of large firms report on their sustainability efforts, the Harvard Business Review reports that these efforts are often more hot air than substance.

In a world gripped by the “Great Resignation”, this gap clearly matters.  Indeed, Deloitte highlights the huge importance young people are currently placing on climate change.  This was reinforced by a survey from Cardiff University, which revealed that around a quarter of respondents thought that climate change was the biggest issue facing Britain in the next 20 years, with only Brexit reported as a more pressing concern.  This is a radical leap from 2016, when the same survey placed climate change in a lowly 13th spot, with just 2% of respondents believing it to be crucial.

The survey highlights the clear shift among a public that is increasingly demanding actions to tackle climate change, and this is certainly the case from our employers.  As research from the Washington University in St. Louis highlights, the Covid pandemic has coincided with a marked surge in our desire to see values alignment between our employer and ourselves.

“I was most surprised by the fact that when companies have written statements of higher purpose,” the researcher says, “not only do the employees trust its leaders to make socially responsible decisions, but also better business decisions.”

Cleaner air

The climate summit in Glasgow has invigorated change within employees around the world.  For instance, healthcare workers from a number of London hospitals have embarked on a challenge to cycle from London to Glasgow to illustrate the health impact of air pollution on the lives of children.

“Earlier this year the coroner ruled for the first time that air pollution was the cause of the death of a child, and we’ve been monitoring air pollution levels at GOSH for a while now and nearly every day we’re over the recommended levels, so it seems immoral to ask children to walk to the hospital through an environment that’s bad for their health,” Matt Shaw, Chief Executive Officer at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and participant in the Ride For Their Lives told me.

The health impact of climate change was reinforced by a recent report from the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society, which urges those attending Cop26 to put the health benefits of climate action at the heart of their agenda, not least due to the 30,000 premature deaths the authors argue are caused by air pollution each year in the UK.

The cyclists are accompanied on their journey by artist Michael Pinsky’s award-winning Pollution Pods, which are designed to replicate the air conditions in various cities around the world in a bid to raise awareness of the visceral unpleasantness of living in a polluted environment.

The benefits of going green

Transport is currently responsible for around 27% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the healthcare workers are hoping to encourage their employer to adopt more cycling-friendly policies among various other sustainability initiatives.

“The National Health Service produces around 4-5% of the CO2 in the UK so is a major contributor to climate change,” Shaw continues. “Our employees really want us to be doing things that are helping society and there’s a direct link between air pollution and children’s mortality.  Our employees really want to make a difference in the wider world and be part of something that is making such a difference.”

A recent report from intranet company Unily revealed that 83% of workers thought their employer was not doing enough to be more sustainable and tackle climate change. What’s more, 65% said they would be more likely to work for a company with robust environmental policies.

The reasons for this include the belief that a more sustainable employer is more likely to care for them, a desire for more meaningful work, and a realization that such work will make them more satisfied and engaged. It’s no wonder that young people today are actively choosing to work for employers with sustainability at the forefront of how they operate, with many even willing to take a pay cut to do so.

Making the change

In his recent book, Rethinking Corporate Sustainability in the Era of Climate Crisis, Raz Godelnik argues that the lackluster performance by businesses thus far has largely been driven by their apparent desire to carry on as usual as much as possible. This often results in minimal changes being implemented, with what change that does occur not really impacting the core operations of the business. As we might expect, it’s not an approach that is moving the needle a great deal.

Lessons in how we might change that could come from Sweden. The country has obtained all manner of laurels in recent years, including 1st place in the Green Economy Coalition launched at the World Economic Forum in 2020; 1st place in the Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index (for the 4th successive year); the Most Reputable Country in the world in 2018; 1st among OECD countries in the 2019 Sustainable Development Index in terms of its success in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; and also top of the tree in RobeccoSAM’s Country Sustainability Rankings in both 2018 and 2019.

Given this impressive honor roll, it’s perhaps no surprise that the country also comes very high in the Good Country Index, the Rule of Law Index, and the Human Development Index, all of which feature sustainability metrics in their calculations.  It also suggests there is much to be learned from the Swedish approach to sustainability.

That’s certainly the hope of Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Scania, and Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, long-term sustainability veteran and founder of the AI Sustainability Center, who explain the Swedish approach to sustainability leadership in their recent book Sustainability Leadership: A Swedish Approach to Transforming your Company, your Industry and the World.

Sustainability leadership

The book highlights how Swedish organizations have come to lead the way in terms of corporate sustainability, and includes findings and analysis from dozens of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and policymakers.  Their sustainability leadership model consists of three core elements:

• The foundation – where your purpose is discovered, your footprint understood, and trust built throughout the organization.

• The core – where sustainability is embedded into the core of your organization and then made real by linking it to sales and customer value creation.
• The leap – where a societal and planetary lens is adopted to take things to another level via unconventional partnerships that amplify your efforts.

“The entire model is a journey towards sustainable exponential impact, which is the destination,” the authors explain.  “Your ambition as a leader will be fundamental to guide the necessary actions to steer your company to sustainability leadership and market success.”

It’s increasingly clear that being sustainable is something that is demanded by your workforce, by your suppliers, and by your customers.  As the importance of sustainability grows, so too do the number of strategies and frameworks for actually achieving it.  Hopefully, these will help organizations deliver the kind of changes we all so dearly want to see.