F R Managing Sustainability IE Ancillary D Materials M A Available First Steps to First Class N John Friedman Managing Sustainability: First Steps to First Class provides a compelling case, real- world examples, and the tools to follow a proven strategy for aligning sustainability efforts with existing organizational priorities. This strategy has taken companies from initial conception to the top of the sustainability rankings. Using examples from leading companies, readers will understand how to build programs that drive results and enhance reputation. Benefits include enabling companies to attract, hire, retain, and fully engage the best talent, seize the innovation high ground with new and premium products and services, provide access to socially responsible investment capital, implement “best practices,” earn license to operate, reduce compliance and regulatory costs, and more. Includes the latest trend to go beyond the organization’s own “footprint” to MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY integrate their values into their supply chains and build employee and customer loyalty by empowering these essential stakeholders to live their shared values. Sustainability professionals or business strategists who are seeking to integrate effective programs that match corporate strategy with the purpose and values- M First Steps to First Class driven initiatives that engage employees, build customer loyalty, and improve A N license to operate will benefit from the author’s more than 30 years’ experience in A G corporate communications, business, and corporate sustainability. I N G JOHN FRIEDMAN John Friedman is a recognized sustainability expert who has S helped leading global companies integrate their aspirations U S into sustainable and responsible business practices. He has T A helped define science-based targets, goals, and managed I N programs relating to environmental stewardship, social progress, A B and sound governance. Friedman is a respected voice for I L sustainability, often presenting at colleges, universities, meetings IT and conferences. He has also authored more than 150 articles that have been published Y by Reuters, Huffington Post Business, Sustainable Brands, Triple Pundit, and others. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfriedman E-mail: [email protected] Foreword by Louise Schiavone Environmental and Social Sustainability for Business Advantage Collection Robert Sroufe, Editor Managing Sustainability Managing Sustainability First Steps to First Class John Friedman Managing Sustainability: First Steps to First Class Copyright © Business Expert Press, LLC, 2020. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means— electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 250 words, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published in 2020 by Business Expert Press, LLC 222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017 www.businessexpertpress.com ISBN-13: 978-1-95152-774-7 (paperback) ISBN-13: 978-1-95152-775-4 (e-book) Business Expert Press Environmental and Social Sustainability for Business Advantage Collection Collection ISSN: 2327-333X (print) Collection ISSN: 2327-3348 (electronic) Cover photo courtesy of Interior Plantscapes, Laurel, MD Cover and interior design by S4Carlisle Publishing Services Private Ltd., Chennai, India First edition: 2020 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. Abstract Sustainability professionals or business strategists who are seeking to in- tegrate effective programs that match corporate strategy with the purpose and values-driven initiatives that engage employees, build customer loy- alty, and improve license to operate will benefit from the author’s more than 30 years’ experience in corporate communications, business, and corporate sustainability. Managing Sustainability: First Steps to First Class provides a compelling case, real-world examples, and the tools to follow a proven strategy for aligning sustainability efforts with existing organizational priorities. This strategy has taken companies from initial conception to the top of the DJSI/RobecoSAM and MSCI sustainability rankings in three very differ- ent business sectors: construction, materials, food services and facilities management, and energy. Using examples from these and other leading companies, readers will understand the importance of creating—and more importantly how to build—programs that drive results and enhance reputation. Benefits include enabling companies to attract, hire, retain, and (most importantly) fully engage the best talent, seize the innovation high ground with new and premium products and services, provide access to an ever-increasing pool of socially responsible investment capital, imple- ment “best practices,” earn social license to operate, reduce compliance and regulatory costs, and more. The methodology described includes the latest trend (and increasing expectation) to go beyond the organization’s own “footprint” to integrate their values into their supply chains and build employee and customer loyalty by empowering these essential stakeholders to live their shared values. Keywords business strategy; strategic alignment; sustainability; corporate respon- sibility; best practices; organizational excellence; results; reputation; leadership; management; employee engagement; environment; social; governance; ESG; sustainable development goals, SDGs Contents Foreword ..............................................................................................ix Chapter 1 Introduction .....................................................................1 Chapter 2 Integrating Sustainability into the Business .......................7 Chapter 3 Five Keys to Integrate Sustainability into the Business .....37 Chapter 4 Creating a Leading Program ............................................59 Chapter 5 How Sustainability Is Changing Traditional Functions of Business ......................................................79 Chapter 6 What’s Next? .................................................................101 Key Resources ......................................................................................115 About the Author ................................................................................119 Index .................................................................................................121 Foreword Our home, planet Earth, is roughly four and a half billion years old. When we, as human beings, think about our lives, our work, our legacy, and those who will come after us, we like to imagine that this world will go on forever. We hope that an infinite number of generations will continue to come along and enjoy the same beauty, the same prosperity, and the same expectations of a better future brimming with wonderful possibilities. That vision is at the heart of sustainability. In this book, Managing Sustainability: First Steps to First Class, author John Friedman examines the role of business in forging such a world. A practitioner of the aspiring art of “corporate social responsibility,” Friedman takes a no-nonsense look at the several meanings of sustain- ability in the commercial sector. After all, making money, growing a cus- tomer base, and, at the heart of it all, staying in business are the very core of sustainability in the business world. However, in a larger sense, people today believe that the vision of a sustainable future includes them. It is an expectation of societies around the world, written into law by governments everywhere. Business is duty bound to be a proper steward of social fairness, equal opportunity, and environmental responsibility. We expect our executives to be examples of moral rectitude. Just ask any (former) higher-up out of work for reasons of personal conduct, especially in the #MeToo era. What the author addresses so articulately in this book is the necessary next step that follows from corporate social responsibility, that is, creating shared value. Those of us who teach business in the 21st century tell our students that—yes—it is your imperative to make money and stay in business. But it is also an imperative to preserve and enhance the world from which you draw your wealth.