When we talk about aligning leadership and hardwiring sustainability into business decision-making, the board is a vital part of the ecosystem. Visible buy-in from the board and C-suite is an essential agent for change; without it, sustainability sits on the sidelines.
When performance is linked to sustainability KPIs, business behaviour follows. If the CFO gets involved, the board sits up and listens.
As responsible leaders, the challenge is to make sustainability part of everything we do; embedded in strategy and a key measure of the health and value of our companies.
So how do we do this in practice?
Firstly, we need to understand the board’s role in driving impact and how to best work with them. With pressure rising from investors, regulators, employees, customers and the public; forward-facing boards have ESG on the agenda. They are rethinking how strategy, purpose and sustainability connect and the metrics they need to measure, monitor and manage.
Governance and reporting are often treated as compliance-based hygiene factors, but they can be powerful tools that drive change internally, and earn trust externally.
Second, sustainability leaders need to educate and empower the board.
We know that many boards feel unprepared to make decisions in response to sustainability challenges. This puts responsibility on those leading change to educate, inform and build confidence. It also means speaking the language of the board and governance so we can seamlessly plug sustainability into decision-making.
And finally, we need a set of far-reaching questions that create a dialogue between the board, the business and investors. Because questions drive innovation and collaboration. They enable people to translate targets into what is meaningful, embed strategy, change culture and drive impact.
Author
Dr Scarlett Brown
Head of Board Intelligence's Think Tank
As responsible leaders, the challenge is to embed sustainability throughout our organizations.
