Mastering Sustainability: Where to Begin and How to Succeed

In today’s corporate world, sustainability is everywhere. In recent years, we’ve seen a disconcerting surge in climate change-related events: from floods to droughts, forest fires and a global decline in biodiversity. A rise in awareness, an increased demand for sustainable solutions and an influx of new sustainability legislation compels organisations to act. But where to start?

Getting everyone on board

For your sustainability strategy to succeed, support and active engagement within your organisation are crucial. This is why, when you enlist our services for a sustainability trajectory, we often start with an internal survey and engagement workshop.

The goal of this survey is to assess your employees’ willingness to contribute to your organisation’s sustainable transition. This is also the perfect occasion to evaluate their existing background knowledge on sustainability, to better prepare for the next step: a sustainability workshop.

During the workshop, we educate your team on the ecological, social and governance aspects of sustainability. The aim is to provide a comprehensive insight into the topic and to inspire to act.

Analysing your current environmental impact

Before we can determine the right course of action, we first need to establish a baseline and assess your organisation’s current impact. Depending on which is most appropriate for your organisation, we often choose, or combine, one of two approaches:

• A science-based carbon analysis
• A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)

After measuring your impact, we proceed to interpreting the results of our analysis in relation to your company’s different departments and activities. This allows us to create a tailor-made action plan later on.

Calculating your Green House Gas emissions

When we execute a carbon analysis, we calculate your organisation’s carbon emissions following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, an internationally recognised and widely adopted standard. In doing so, we examine your entire value chain, calculating scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

So, what does it look like, mapping out the emissions of the entire value chain? Let’s start by diving into the differences between scope 1, 2 and 3:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions from company-owned or controlled sources (like company vehicles or boilers).
• Scope 2: Indirect emissions from the energy the company buys (such as electricity or heat).
• Scope 3: Indirect emissions from other activities not owned or controlled by the company (like employee travel or waste disposal).

Conducting a Life Cycle Analysis

A lifecycle analysis is a detailed study that examines your product’s environmental impact through all phases of its lifecycle, from cradle to grave:

• Raw material extraction
• Manufacturing
• Distribution and transportation
• Use phase
• End-of-Life (disposal / recycling)

By quantifying resource use, emissions, and waste generated at each phase, an LCA provides a comprehensive picture of your product’s overall environmental footprint. This allows you to make well-informed decisions on which parts of your supply chain need sustainable action.

Looking beyond environmental impact

Both a carbon analysis and a lifecycle analysis only look at the environmental impact of your products or services. While they provide a very solid base for the environmental pillar of your sustainability strategy, it’s important to keep in mind the social and governance aspects of sustainability as well.

The reason we start with these environmental impact analyses, is twofold. On the one hand, the EU Green Deal, and subsequent regulations, focus strongly on carbon emission reduction, with the goal of reaching net zero by 2050. In order to comply, you first need insights into your emissions. Therefore, an impact analysis becomes indispensable. It also provides you with the necessary data you need to adhere to reporting regulations like the CSRD, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

On the other hand, these analyses are difficult for companies to conduct on their own. They are complicated, technical and time-consuming processes, that require highly specialised knowledge. Our team of Sustainability Consultants has a lot of experience with this and is well-equipped to take this out of your hands.

Especially the first time, gathering all the necessary data can be challenging. Plus, in order to track progress, the process needs to be repeated. Yearly, in the case of a CO₂ analysis. Because the initial learning curve is quite steep, using this as a starting point allows you to tackle this hurdle early in in your sustainability journey, easing the way for next steps.

Understanding and navigating the legal framework

Sustainability continues to gain prominence on the political agenda. Europe is steadfastly introducing legislations and guidelines to support the European Green Deal’s ambition for climate neutrality by 2050. Navigating this maze of regulations, understanding which ones apply to your organisation, and how exactly this impacts you, is something that many companies have trouble figuring out.

We have plenty of in-house knowledge on this topic, so at the start of your sustainability journey, we will provide you with an overview of which regulations apply to you specifically, so you are well-prepared to align your sustainability ambitions with legal obligations.

Mapping out a future-proof strategy

From the conclusions of the carbon analysis and/or LCA, combined with the insights into sustainability legislation, we help you discern areas of potential improvement, and define specific sustainability targets. This results in a report outlining the framework for your sustainability strategy, which will serve as the foundation for your sustainable transition.

Putting words into action, and action into words

Communication is an essential part of a solid sustainability strategy. This is why our advice often also contains a proposal for a communication strategy. Not only would it be a shame to let your sustainability efforts go unnoticed, but the success of your strategy depends on it.

Communication should be directed internally, to employees and business partners, as well as externally, to shareholders and stakeholders. For instance, clear internal communication ensures employees are on board, which, as we established before, is crucial to successful sustainability endeavours. Also, providing suppliers with clear guidelines to follow further supports your sustainability ambitions.

Moreover, sustainability reporting legislation compels companies to report on their sustainability efforts in accordance with the ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards). The best way to ensure compliance, is to adopt a proactive approach, and develop a habit of regular and transparent communication. The sooner you start, the sooner you can learn and improve where necessary.

Ready for your sustainability journey?

Do you need help conducting your organisation’s impact analysis, navigating sustainability legislation, mapping out a sustainability strategy, or all of the above? Reach out to us!