What’s stopping organisations from taking sustainable action? 

Despite sustainability gaining prominence on the corporate priority list, we are globally failing to implement sufficient meaningful change. We are not taking action fast enough to counteract the speed at which global warming is impacting climate change and all that that entails. Why is that? 

According to our research, one barrier that is preventing organisations to implement sustainable measures, is a lack of knowledge or skills. The inherently complicated nature of legislative language and sustainability jargon full of abbreviations only widens this gap. And while it may be true that some of the more intricate details of sustainability strategies, like data collection and analysis, require a specific skill set, there is much more that companies can do themselves than they often think, if only they have access to the right information and tools. Which is where we come in. 

Overcoming hurdles through education 

To encourage their members to incorporate sustainability into their organisations and guide them on this journey, Voka invited us to develop a training trajectory for them.  

Course: introduction to CO₂ analysis 

In line with Europe’s net zero ambitions, the main focus for many organisations lies on reducing their carbon footprint. While a comprehensive sustainability strategy covers much more than environmental impact and carbon emissions alone, this particular aspect proves to be quite challenging for many companies. Especially when conducting a CO2 analysis for the first time, there’s quite a steep learning curve involved, and companies need to allocate a significant amount of time and resources to it. Which is why we often start here.  

To help Voka’s members get started on their carbon reduction strategy, we organised a three-part training series on carbon analysis, zooming in on Scope 1 and 2 emissions. We started with a group session laying out the necessary basic knowledge before splitting up for individual 1-on-1 sessions and reconvening to share experiences and results. All 20 participants had the opportunity to execute a complete carbon analysis during this trajectory.  

The trainees’ average satisfaction score of this training programme was 8.5/10. 

Course: sustainable purchasing and due diligence 

During three sessions, we introduced Voka’s members to the scientific and legal framework behind sustainable purchasing. Through practical exercises, we helped the participants map their value chain and identify sustainability challenges. They learned which metrics to consider and how to engage suppliers for their sustainability journey.  

“We worked with The Ecological Entrepreneur for the ‘Sustainable Procurement & Due Diligence’ training. A very pleasant collaboration where the quality of all sessions was extremely high. Participants were very satisfied and gave an average score of 9/10 for all sessions. Sebastiaan De Block gave the participants the necessary knowledge to further implement sustainability in their business strategy in a manageable way.”  – Sofie Engelen, coordinator international networks at Voka 

Other avenues for spreading awareness 

Thanks to our dedicated team of sustainability consultants, we have a lot of in-house expertise that allows us to guide our clients on a wide variety of sustainability topics. Over the last few years we have worked hard in order to expand our educational services. 

Tailored workshops 

We can build a workshop around your organisation’s specific needs. Whether you’re looking to expand your team’s basic sustainability knowledge or you want to focus on a specific topic within your management team, we can accommodate that.  

In general, the most successful sustainability strategies are supported by all levels of an organisation. The more involved your own employees are, the higher your chances of success. Which is why, at the start of a sustainability trajectory, we offer the opportunity to start with a survey, gauging the present level of awareness and knowledge about sustainability. This allows us to then address the necessary topics during a subsequent workshop, based on this input.  

As mentioned before, there is more to a sustainability strategy than just the environmental aspect. Social sustainability is just as important but can sometimes be regarded as somewhat of an enigma. Our social sustainability workshops provide clear insight into the matter and help you identify concrete actions to take in this area.  

Teaching online 

Following live workshops is not always a viable option for everyone. Staying true to our commitment to accessible sustainability knowledge, we launched our own online learning platform: the Sustainability Academy.  

We host courses on an array of topics, from sustainability fundamentals to the legal framework, calculating carbon emissions and preventing greenwashing. Our digestible, video-format courses can be followed in your own time, at your own convenience.  

We also established collaborations with sector associations who wanted to help their members face sustainability challenges, resulting in a course tailored to the moving industry as well as a course geared at the communications industry. 

Sustainability is not a stagnant topic, and the knowledge is continuously evolving. We make it a point to stay on top of the latest developments and keep sharing knowledge whichever way we can. Another online avenue we often leverage for sharing sustainability updates is that of webinars. 

Sharing content 

Our most low-threshold way of sharing information is through distributing freely available content. There’s a number of channels we use for that: 

• Our social media channels: We regularly share updates and insights we deem relevant and useful to our clients. We always aim at delivering high-value content that’s easy to read yet offers practical information for large as well as small-to-medium sized organisations. You can follow us on LinkedIn or Instagram to stay tuned.

• Our website: Our Sustainability Academy aside, we have an array of free online resources available to everyone: from an introductory guide into circular entrepreneurship to blog articles, client cases and our yearly research reports. 

By offering access to valuable content, we hope to encourage as many organisations as possible to take action. Gatekeeping knowledge is not going to further our cause of making sustainability self-evident. On the contrary, we believe that democratising sustainability, breaking it down into actionable pieces of information, and working together with others, is the way forward. 

About Voka 

Voka represents the interests of Flemish companies up to the highest level. In doing so, they represent more than 18,000 companies in Flanders and Brussels. They share our commitment to sharing knowledge and offer a large number of training programmes to their members, while also advocating for sustainable entrepreneurship and helping their members face the challenges that come with this transition.