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Cheat Sheet–Executive Sustainability Playbook at a Glance

Another resource I’ve found interesting, insightful, and helpful for learning how to think about sustainability is the “Sustainability.  Good for Business. Executive Playbook”.  The “Sustainability. Good for Business. Executive playbook” is a blueprint for how business leaders can approach sustainable transformation to create long-term value for their organizations, providing:

  1. Guides for six positions across C-suite looking at sustainability priorities, best practices, latest insights and actionable guides for roles in strategy, finance, commercial, operations, HR and technology.
  2. Most significant sustainability topics and key carbon emission contributing activities per industry – Manufacturing, Financial, Retail, Energy, and Public.
  3. Inspiring case studies that showcase how businesses across a range of industries are using technology to introduce more sustainable ways of working.

You can grab the Microsoft Executive Playbook for Sustainability for free by signing up at:

http://aka.ms/weSustainableTransformation 

Exec Sustainability Playbook Table of Contents as a Glance

Here is a snapshot of the table of contents at a glance:

image_thumb3_thumb

 

Strategic Sustainability Priorities

One of the sections I found most helpful in the Sustainability Executive Playbook is the Strategic Sustainability Priorities section:

  1. Making Sustainability Transformational – Articulating a shared net zero vision that follows a science-based approach and anchors how sustainability is good for business- and vice versa – and how this materializes into a true corporate transformation with sustainability as a core business value and standing agenda item at executive level.
    1. Positive Contribution Vision
    2. Executive Sustainability Mandate
    3. Core Governance
  2. Identifying New Areas of Value Creation – Determining future sources of growth arising from long-horizon sustainability trends by fostering selective internal disruption and making strategic capital prioritizations.
    1. Sustainability Trend Radar
    2. Future Market Definition
    3. Strategic Resource Allocation
  3. Manage Stakeholders Holistically – Transparently engaging the stakeholder ecosystem of investors, customers, employees, and the broader public around sustainability goals.  Building an external stakeholder network where relevant.
    1. Sustainability Growth-Mindset
    2. Ecosystem Engagement
    3. Transparent Communication

 

Key Sustainability Priorities for the C-Suite

Another section I found very useful in the Sustainability Executive Playbook is the Key CxO Sustainability Priorities section.

Here is a snapshot of priorities by CxO/function:

 

  Agenda Priorities
CEO | Strategic Evaluates strategic threats and opportunities arising from sustainability trends and defines future visions, gols and positioning of the company.
  1. Make Sustainability Transformational
  2. Identify New Areas of Value Creation
  3. Manage Stakeholders Holistically
CFO | Financial Understands how sustainability topics impact financial planning and reporting, as well as compliance and capital allocation decisions.
  1. Sustainability Reporting and Materiality Assessment
  2. Manage Sustainability Risk
  3. Green Finance and Investing
CHRO | People Bakes sustainability preferences into company culture, training and talent interactions to create engagement.
  1. Sustainability-Enable Capabilities
  2. Green Organizational Blueprint
  3. Foster a Purpose-Driven Culture
COO | Operations Prepares for impact of sustainability trends on sourcing requirements and demands to reduce carbon emissions and costs simultaneously.
  1. Optimize Resource Use in Production
  2. Embrace Circularity in Sourcing
  3. Increase Supply Chain Transparency
CTO | Tech Looks at how sustainability trends can be baked into processes related to data and hardware and drive innovative products or services.
  1. Co-Create New Tech Solutions
  2. Minimize Tech Ops Emissions
  3. Manage Data Intelligently
CCO | Commercial Recognizes how sustainability trends affect customer behavior and re-thinks sales processes, branding, marketing, and public relations accordingly.
  1. Convert Sustainability to Customer Value
  2. Decarbonize the Customer Journey
  3. Build a Contributor DNA

 

How CEOs Can Drive Sustainability

 

Initiatives Steps
Make Sustainability Transformational Basic Steps

  1. Connect sustainability & business
  2. Introduce a CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer) & KPIs
  3. Define structures and authorities

Advanced Practice

  1. Sustainability led transformation
  2. Integrate sustainability in daily operations
  3. Establish specialist committees

Emerging Solutions

  1. Sustainability as start of all
  2. Lead the global agenda
  3. Extensive live-governance in IT
Identify New Areas of Value Creation Basic Steps

  1. Market scan framework
  2. Map opportunity space
  3. Budgeting framework

Advanced Practice

  1. Automated trend detection
  2. Data-driven relation assessment
  3. Agile resource prioritization

Emerging Solutions

  1. Predictive decision-support
  2. Real-time market selection
  3. Automatic allocation
Manage Stakeholders Holistically Basic Steps

  1. Understand opportunity space
  2. Mobilize stakeholders
  3. Articulate ambitions and targets

Advanced Practice

  1. Create deliberate disruption
  2. Create sustainability coalitions
  3. Quantify progress and impact

Emerging Solutions

  1. Develop knowledge platforms
  2. Tech-enable ecosystem growth
  3. Real-time sustainability dashboard

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