Deployment of
strategy
An effective and practical action plan to meet the strategic targets is crucial to walk the talk on sustainability. It must provide a clear and specific roadmap for achieving the goals and objectives set out in the strategy. It outlines the specific actions that need to be taken, an appointed decision-maker, and when they will be completed.
This ensures that your company is taking the necessary actions to implement your sustainability strategy, and that progress is being made toward achieving the desired outcome. The action plan also helps identify potential roadblocks and challenges that may arise and allows your company to take proactive steps to address them.
Often change management is just as important as project management when deploying the strategy across your company. We work with well-proven change management methods such as the ADKAR model that we apply to make sustainability work in your company:
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Awareness: The first step is to raise awareness of the need for action on sustainability within the organization and among employees
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Desire: The second step is to create a desire among employees to support the sustainability initiatives, by communicating the benefits of the initiatives and how it aligns with your company's strategy, values, culture, and goals
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Knowledge: The third step is to provide employees with the knowledge and skills needed to support the sustainability initiative. This may include training on sustainability best practices, tools, and technologies
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Ability: The fourth step is to enable employees to take action by providing the necessary resources, support, and incentives to ensure they can take action on sustainability
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Reinforcement: The final step is to reinforce the sustainability initiative by monitoring and measuring progress, recognizing and rewarding employees for their contributions, and making any necessary adjustments to ensure the initiative's success
This approach helps to effectively implement and manage sustainability initiatives by focusing on creating awareness and desire, providing knowledge and ability, and reinforcing the changes through ongoing support and monitoring.
Creating an action plan based on a sustainability and ESG strategy involves identifying specific, measurable, and achievable goals, identifying initiatives, and assigning responsibilities, establishing timelines, allocating resources, monitoring and evaluating progress, communicating progress, and continuously improving performance.
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Several critical success factors can help ensure an effective and successful action plan for sustainability:
Alignment with company strategy: The action plan should align with your company's overall corporate, sustainability, and ESG strategy, and support the achievement of the company's overall business goals.
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Specific, measurable, and achievable goals: The goals in the action plan should be specific, measurable, and achievable, so that progress can be tracked and success can be evaluated.
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Involvement of key stakeholders: Involvement of key stakeholders, such as employees, customers, and suppliers, in the development of the action plan can help ensure their buy-in and support for the initiative.
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Clear assignment of responsibilities: Responsibilities for implementing the various initiatives in the action plan should be assigned to specific departments and individuals within the company, to ensure accountability.
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Adequate resources: The necessary resources, such as funding, staff, and equipment, should be allocated to ensure the success of the initiatives in the action plan.
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Realistic timelines: The timelines for implementing the initiatives should be realistic and achievable, to ensure progress is made and goals are met.
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Monitoring and evaluation: Regular monitoring and evaluation of progress against the goals in the action plan is necessary to identify any issues or challenges and adjust as necessary.
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Communication and Continuous improvement: Regular communication with internal and external stakeholders about the progress of the initiatives can help to build support and encourage continued engagement. Continuous improvement of the action plan based on new information and insights is important to ensure sustainability performance is always at its best.
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Overall, having a clear, measurable, and realistic action plan that is aligned with company strategy, involving key stakeholders, assigning responsibilities, allocating resources, having realistic timelines, monitoring and evaluating progress, communicating progress, and continuously improving are key factors that can help to ensure that sustainability initiatives are effective and successful.
More often than not new strategies either fail or lose significant momentum when deployed. Months of work and huge investments in securing the future of the business via a new strategy can vanish if proper deployment is not carried out.
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Investing just a little more in a clever roll-out and employee engagement helps to ensure that the sustainability strategy is being effectively executed and that the organization is making meaningful progress toward achieving its goals
