If you want to be seen as a transformation agent, act like one.

Mike Barry

Strategic Advisor, speaker, commentator on Sustainable Business

Remember COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021? Less than 3 years ago we saw a flood of companies commit to become Net Zero and set a Science Based Target. Yet, at the start of this year the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTI) had to highlight that 240 companies had failed to see through their commitment.

Why? Wars, cost of living crisis, the backwash from the Pandemic, a shift to the right in politics are of course all factors.

But, I suspect, the true answer is that many companies, their CEOs caught up in the giddy fete of Glasgow, simply underestimated the enormity of what they were signing up for in promising to become Net Zero – a transformative 90% reduction in their total value chain carbon footprint within 15-25 years, often spanning tens of thousands of suppliers, business partners and billions of items or activities. The breezy, dashed-off two page Press Release replaced by a significant degree of ‘buyer’s remorse.’

So, what to do?

Well, if we aren’t going to transform, we better look busy complying. Stop the ‘kids in the sustainability department meddling and get them to fill some forms in.’

‘If we aren’t going to transform, we better look busy complying. Stop the “kids in the sustainability department meddling and get them to fill some forms in”.’

And, that’s what this survey from EdenLab surfaces, a huge degree of frustration amongst dedicated, hard-working sustainability professionals that their long days are being consumed by reporting and not actively transforming their companies in the face of the accelerating climate crisis and the wider degradation of the environment and society.

‘The killer stat in the survey: ‘Is your executive board focusing enough on making your business model more sustainable and regenerative in the long run?’ 61.5% of respondents said No.’

The killer stat in the survey – ‘Is your executive board focusing enough on making your business model more sustainable and regenerative in the long run?’ – 61.5% of respondents said no.

Now, this is not to diss legislation, we need it. We need a clear, consistent minimum underpin for the marketplace so voluntary leaders are not left at a disadvantage and so we scale decarbonization rapidly across the economy, securing early mover advantage in this emerging new economy – something China seems to be winning at currently.

‘Today’s high carbon ‘system’ is perpetuating itself through a veneer of respectable box ticking – ‘look over here folks at my shiny new report, not over there at my business as usual, long-term corporate strategy.’

Rather, it is to highlight the much bigger issue that today’s high carbon ‘system’ is perpetuating itself through a veneer of respectable box ticking – ‘look over here folks at my shiny new report, not over there at my business as usual, long-term corporate strategy.’

Of course, there’s a sweeping generalisation in this diatribe – all companies all leaders are on a spectrum of understanding and commitment. There are a number that are mendacious, a few that are truly committed, but the vast bulk hover somewhere betwixt and between, waiting for a clear signal that now is the time ‘to go for it.’

That signal will come, over the next decade as spiralling extreme weather events will have a shattering impact on lives and livelihoods, on societal and economic stability. But, by then it’s too late, irretrievable damage done.

C-Suites need to ‘look up’ and start to transform. Not quixotically. Not alone. But, with level head certainty, granular planning and mass colleague, supplier and customer engagement. Give your sustainability team permission to be transformation agents, not just compliance officers.

‘A final word for sustainability professionals too: If you want to be seen as a transformation agent, act like one.’

And, a final word for sustainability professionals too: If you want to be seen as a transformation agent, act like one.

We, collectively, sometimes cling to the comfort blanket of the alphabet soup of sustainable business making it too easy for our leaders to dismiss us as commercially irrelevant.

Immerse yourself in every aspect of your value chain, understand why it is like it is, build a value case for sustainable transformation, use data not just to report but to optimise your transformation journey and support your colleagues in delivering it.

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