Creating a simple sustainability vision statement to drive a goal oriented strategy

August 30th, 2011 | kletain

Organizations looking to embed sustainability across the organization need to bring about behavior change in order to obtain their goals. Effective resource management through positive behavior change will bring about reduced utility and resources costs resulting in financial savings.

Communicating sustainability effectively will also help to achieve sustainability goals, whether it is a carbon reduction target or simply a way to demonstrate the organization’s commitment to its social responsibilities.

The first step in implementing an awareness strategy is to create a vision statement that embodies what the organization is aiming to achieve, followed by the specific goals by which the organization will be measured in order to achieve its vision.

A sample vision could be as simple as:

The vision of ABC Company is to play a significant role in combating climate change in our community by empowering our employees to embed sustainability practices throughout all daily corporate activities.

You need to be sure you can measure the success of your vision statement and should clearly articulate to the organization using simple and clear high level goals. For example:

1. Establish a low carbon culture among the organization

2. Increase general sustainability knowledge throughout the organization

3. Embed sustainability practices throughout the organization

These high level goals will then require a subset of tasks that can be easily executed and measured. It is important to articulate the vision and its goals in a repeatable and engaging manner in order to increase momentum and buy-in across the organization.  We will explore further different methodologies and tactics on how to engage employees in your awareness program in our continued blogs on this area. Stay tuned!