Our thinking

Sustainability Leaders Panel

21 June, 2024

What makes an effective sustainability team? Is bigger better? Where in the organisation should they sit? What issues should they focus on?

In partnership with our friends at Echo Research, we asked these questions of our Sustainability Leaders Panel. The first survey explored how sustainability teams are structured, where they sit within in an organisation, who they report to and what they are responsible for, and how all of this translated into efficacy and transformational change. What’s clear is while there is no one-size-fits-all-approach, there are certain characteristics which help teams be more effective, such as either direct representation on the executive team or a direct report into it. You can explore the findings in more detail here.

At an in-person event this week, we explored some of the themes from the research with members of the panel. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of the discussion focused on the challenges that teams are experiencing in navigating the new reporting and disclosure requirements (which of course, as a panel member observed, are not really reporting and disclosure requirements so much as they are change requirements). 92% of the panel report spending more time on compliance than they did this time last year, but the consensus in the discussion was that while compliance can be managed, the real challenge will come in supporting the business to transform to be part of and help build a more sustainable future. What skills will sustainability professionals need to do this, and are they skills they already have? How do you make sure that you’re persuading the business to embed sustainability into new product development when – as our research shows – there is limited engagement with the people responsible for this compared to other departments?

If you’re working as a sustainability leader within a company, and would be interested to join the panel, let us know. And of course, if you have any questions about these findings or things you’d like us to explore in future research cycles, drop us a line at friday5@good.business.

By Anna Heis