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Sustanibility vision – to be an industry leader in implementing sustanible business practice that reduce and adds benefits to the environment .  Commitment and understanding statement – What sustainability is needed in my organization

· Strategies and objectives – plans to do – “We are committed to reducing our energy consumption by 10% by the end of the year 2013”

· Specification of responsibility – list of responsible people to implement it .

1.1. DEFINE SCOPE OF SUSTAINABILITY POLICY

Since my sustanibility plan is to reduce and maximize the benefits to the enviromnt and community at large , I have strongly empased on major issues ..

The development of multiple communication strategies for my sustainability policy can help ensure that the various stakeholders understand the importance of the sustainability policy for the longevity of the business. These strategies communicate the value of the policy for all of the parties involved. They include:

· Promotional activities

· Stakeholder communication

· Soliciting input from employees

· Staff training

  The focus of these communications can relate to any aspect of the sustainable policy. For example, the company can reward carpooling as a promotional activity relating to minimizing resource use. Communications with maintenance (stakeholder) relating to the implementation of green cleaning chemicals can produce a reduction in toxic material or hazardous chemical use. Input from employees can give insight on ways to maximize lifecycle management approaches throughout the company.   Throughout this planning stage, information relating to the parameters of the policy is being gathered and analyzed. A preliminary framework has been developed relating to the scope of the policy. Stakeholders have been consulted for their contributions and concerns have been addressed. Strategies have been implemented in order to solicit as much information as possible from people involved and motivate key players including staff.   Given that policy planning is a course of action, it is essential to work into the policy the overarching changing value of sustainability. By incorporating the commitment to continuation into the policy, the company shows that sustainability is a guiding principle, not a passing phase.  

2.1 – PROMOTE WORKPLACE SUSTAINABILITY POLICY, INCLUDING ITS EXPECTED OUTCOME TO KEY STAKEHOLDERS

Before the implementation of the sustainability policy, it will be necessary to communicate the policy, expected outcomes and expected benefits to all stakeholders, including staff and employees. This process of communicating the policy may take some time, as you in essence modifying the corporate culture to contain some new elements.   In some cases, this modification can be so severe, that retraining of employee and stakeholder thinking may take some time. The severity of the modification would of course depend upon how your corporate culture has acted towards environmental issues in the past. For a company who has essentially ignored environmental issues, the employees may be accustomed to dealing with scrap and other materials in a way that is directly harmful to eh environment. Asking the employees to adopt a new attitude and mode of thinking overnight is asking a lot of them.

Your promotion will actually need to consist of two separate parts:

· Communicating the new policy

· Educating stakeholders in the reasons and advantages of the new policy

  In the process of communicating the new policy, you will probably need to use some motivational methods. Otherwise, the policy is likely to be greeted with skepticism and negativity. Remember, you’re trying to change established attitudes and thought patterns. People naturally resist those sorts of changes.   Educating stakeholders in the reasons and advantages of the new policy is one of the tools you can use to overcome that negativity and skepticism. As people better understand the needs and advantages of your new policy, they are more likely to come on board, becoming part of the team.   Of course, part of communicating benefits of any new action is to also communicate the expected results of not taking any action. Having those negative result not happen is always part of the benefit of any change.   It would be beneficial to you and your company to use a variety of different methodologies to communicate the new policy to internal stakeholders. These could include:

· Posters

· Announcements – whether audio, video or in person

· Meetings

· Discussion sessions where people can raise their concerns and ask questions

  For stakeholders outside of the company, you should utilize all of the methods your company normally uses to communicate with them, including:

· Advertising

· Web site

· Newsletters

· Formal reports (to government stakeholders)

  The implementation of the policy consists of two key elements: the promotion of the policy, and translating the policy into goals that can be defined by outcomes. Promotion of the policy must take place for internal and external contributors. Many of these people and groups were mentioned as stakeholders. In order to implement the policy, cooperation from a variety of directions must occur. For example, as with any change in the environment, a temporary disturbance in productivity may occur. For example, changing vendors of a product part in order to reduce transportation emissions may throw the manufacturing process off. This can create a heightened amount of anxiety and stress while new expectations are being developed and processes are being “debugged.”

Keeping staff and stakeholders informed of the purpose of changes being made can offset the dissatisfaction with temporary disturbances on the job. Training may need to be incorporated to ensure that staff and stakeholders are confident in their ability to keep up with technical and industry specific guidelines and information relating to the policy.  

2.2 – INFORM THOSE INVOLVED IN IMPLEMENTING THE POLICY AS TO OUTCOMES EXPECTED, ACTIVITIES TO BE UNDERTAKEN AND RESPONSIBILITIES ASSIGNED

Your responsibility for the company’s sustainability policy probably won’t end with the creation and approval of the policy. Most likely, you will also have the responsibility to implement that policy. If you think about it, that’s a sensible decision, as you are the person within the company who is most familiar with the policy, what steps need to be taken and even the budgetary aspects of implementing the policy. Were this task to be turned over to another person, they would probably be contacting you constantly with questions.   As your sustainability policy is going to require some changes in your company’s operations, you will probably need the assistance of a number of departments in implementing it. Even though those departments don’t actually report to you, you will become the main person coordinating their efforts.   In order to further the implementation process, translating the policy into goals defined by outcomes can help solidify the policy in the minds of staff members. Insisting that staff develop a mindset that forces a sustainable value would be immoral and discriminatory. Training and communication can help to explain the basis of sustainability policy in the hopes that the value may be adopted by some of the staff. For others, however, sustainability as a value may never be internalized. It is important to allow these types of stakeholders to implement the policy based on expected outcomes, rather than on value guided performance. Outcomes are concrete. They are behavior driven. They do not rely on a philosophy, moral judgment, or belief.   For example, an office administrator has just been told he must implement a green office sustainability policy with product life cycle parameters. One aspect of the green office sustainability policy is a reduction of resource consumption including trees, water and energy. To the office administrator, the value of reducing resource consumption may not hold a candle to the inconveniences that it will cost. The processes that the administrator has grown to manage comfortably may all need to be changed due to the policy. Rather than expecting the administrator to change his or her belief system relating to the functioning of the office, setting a goal defined by outcomes allows them to contribute without committing a value change. An outcome of a 33% reduction in paper consumption by the end of the quarter gives the administrator a goal without forcing an acceptance of a “sustainability value.”   You will need to meet with each of these departments’ managers, and possibly the actual people doing the work, to educate and inform them of the changes to be made, why those changes need to be made and the benefits of making those changes. People tend to work better when they understand the reason for what they are doing, so be sure to share that part with them.

 Every task that is part of implementing your sustainability policy needs to be assigned to a specific person, who is responsible to complete and report on the status of that item. In the case of a departmental task, that would be the department manager or supervisor. Since he is your main point of contact with that department, he is best able to keep you informed of the status.

Be sure to include not only the activity to be undertaken, but the expected outcome of that action.

As part of informing the various departments about the changes necessary to implement the sustainability policy, be sure to include not only the activity to be undertaken, but the expected outcome of that action. The more that people understand about what they are doing, the more likely they are to be able to do it right. In addition, many will have ideas about the best way to implement something, as they are working on it. You want that input, because it is their opinion about areas which they have a greater understanding.   Outcomes should always be specific. Vague statements of expected outcome will result in vague results; possibly not the results you need. If there is a minimum acceptable level that you need, be sure to state it in measurable terms, so that there is no confusion.   Depending upon the number of actual changes your policy requires, just tracking and coordinating them may become a monumental task. You should probably create some sort of tracking system, such as a spreadsheet, with all the key stages and milestones in each project. As they are completed you can check them off your master sheet, giving you an “at a glance” document that will tell you the status of everything.

Each sustainability goal will require changes to the existing way your company does business. To try and say that sustainability is just an attitude is incorrect. With only an attitude, your company will see no recognizable or measurable change in sustainability.   Transmitting the desires of the board, as expressed through policy, into actual business practices is challenging. It requires analyzing the existing way of doing business, what the desired result is, and determining the least disruptive way to get from one to the other.   You must understand that the implementation of your company’s sustainability policy is going to be disruptive to your company. The key is to make that disruption as inconsequential as possible. There are a number of ways you can do this, but mostly it requires careful planning and timing, to insure that everything is in place for a change, before “throwing the switch.”  

3.1 – DEVELOP AND COMMUNICATE PROCEDURES TO HELP IMPLEMENT WORKPLACE SUSTAINABILITY POLICY

Although you now have a sustainability policy, that doesn’t mean that you have created the procedures necessary to implement that policy. In some companies, policies and procedures are combined into one. However, they are better conveyed, if they are separate sets of documents.

· Policies are created by the board, and determine the direction of the company

· Procedures are created by workers, and demonstrate how specific tasks that are necessary for that direction will be accomplished

  To actually implement your policy, a number of new procedures will have to be created and a larger number of existing procedures will need to be modified. Take the earlier example of the office manager who is expected to reduce paper consumption by 30% by the end of the next quarter. To accomplish this goal, some new procedures will need to be developed, perhaps allowing certain documents to be transmitted electronically, instead of in printed form.   As part of your procedures to implement the sustainability policy, it is important to include the determination of baseline data. Without knowing the status of your company, in terms of sustainability, before implementing your company’s sustainability policy, you have no way of knowing whether your changes have had any impact or not.

Planning Procedures: Defining assessment boundaries Assembling data Establishing baselines Comparison analysis to establish benchmarks Identifying improvement options

The assessment boundaries may be confined to a specific department, product, or industry. Defining the boundaries will help keep the process manageable. For example, a policy that is derived from a Product Stewardship or life cycle management scope can have very specific or very broad applications. Product lifecycle stages are material extraction, manufacture, packaging, distribution, use, and end of life handling. Specific applications could be as simple as developing a process to ensure that printer ink cartridges in the office are bought locally, used effectively, and disposed of appropriately. On the other hand, general applications could institute changes relating to

· The evaluation of sustainable resource extraction companies

· International factory standards for product manufacture focusing on ethical work place practices

· Evaluation of packaging based on the lifecycles of all independent packaging materials

· Emissions data from all avenues of distribution

· Changing product design to incorporate stringent use parameters to maximize efficiency

· Expansive return programs to ensure recycling and proper end of life disposal.

  Clearly, defining the assessment boundaries is an important first step during the planning process. Determining the boundaries of the project based on data examining largest impact, highest priority, or economic considerations narrows procedure focus in order to meet policy goals.   Data assembly occurs continuously throughout the entire process of both policy and procedure development. Data must be well organized in order to increase the effectiveness of the information available. Several different types of data will be used in order to:

· Assess functioning/baseline

· Evaluate options

· Solicit feedback

  In order to assess functioning and develop a baseline, a variety of strategies for assembling data can be used. Audits can occur in order to solicit data and report findings related to resource and energy consumption by the company. Resources for calculating carbon footprinting or ecological footprinting can be used to assemble data related to consumption levels. Templates and software programs have been specifically developed in order to help assess and track the necessary information relating to emissions and impacts on the environment. Diligence, cooperation, and accuracy are necessary to create a usable compilation of data relating to baseline performance.   In addition to developing the baseline, data must be gathered relating to options. Evaluating options relating to the policy development and procedure development can occur based on:

· Company’s ability to control effectiveness

· Timeframes related to goal attainment

· Cost options

Data can be used to evaluate the effectiveness that other companies have had using particular sustainability strategies. Theory and practice often do not coincide so what may seem like a fantastic idea for improvement may have been tried by other corporations and proven ineffective. Benchmarks, or points of reference, can be developed with this data that can help guide policy and procedure development. Additionally, timeframes may put constraints on project issues particularly when regulatory agencies define deadlines for ecological improvements. Naturally, cost and budget are a key component in developing any strategy for ecological improvement. Financial performance may quickly be evaluated based on:

· Simple payback measures examining the effective cost ÷ (resource savings × resource price)

· Cash flow analysis

· Internal rate of return

· Net present value

  Once data has been collected, options must be generated and narrowed that address areas of improvement based on the sustainability policy. Effective communication between policy developers, stakeholders, and procedure developers must contribute in order to maximize the utility of the data gathered.   The last category of data is that of feedback data. This data is collected during the final process of monitoring and revising in order to track whether the policy and procedures are fulfilling their goals. The feedback data is compared to the baseline data in order to track progress.   Once your procedures are established, they must be conveyed to the appropriate personnel who will be implementing those procedures. Some training may be required, to insure that they understand the new procedures and when to utilize them.  

3.2 – IMPLEMENT STRATEGIES FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN RESOURCE EFFICIENCY

Successful implementation of procedures relies on cooperation from staff and stakeholders. High levels of communication throughout any change process is important in order to address challenges and facilitate outcome success. Implementation stages include:

· Defining roles

· Establishing timelines

· Training

· Maintaining communication

Employee roles may change or staff may be added in order to address the procedures instituted. It is important that employees understand the outcomes that are expected, the activities they must undertake, and the responsibilities that are assigned. For example, if resource reduction is a defined policy goal as measured by a paper minimization outcome, staff must cooperate in an effort to incorporate the policy change into their daily work practices. The procedure implementation may include:

· Increasing internal IT communication strategies such as email and text messaging

· Decreasing hardcopy reporting and presentation in exchange for virtual modes

· Increasing recycling of paper

  Staff members in each department may be assigned the role of promoting changes, gathering preliminary and ongoing data, and facilitating compliance for the project. A project manager may be chosen to compile departmental data and develop strategies for improvements. Role changes may be met with enthusiasm or with hesitation so communication throughout the process is critical.   Timelines must be established in order to keep the policy considerations from being put on a back burner. Regulatory agencies often have established deadlines for reporting; it is critical that the implementation team and stakeholders work together to keep timelines intact throughout the implementation process. Timeline development is also important in order to evaluate progress in relation to expected outcomes. Too often, operational issues crop up that drop the priority of the sustainability program. Meetings are postponed, and the importance of “efficient production” does not compare to the importance of “production.” However, with the continual attention to the sustainability policy and procedures, “efficient production” becomes second nature and policy goals and outcomes will become standard procedure.   Training is an important aspect of procedural implementation. Staff training serves multiple functions. Development of skill is paramount to the functioning of the sustainability program. Auditing and reporting procedures are a necessary component of any sustainability procedure and training on appropriate processes must occur. In addition, training allows the staff (and other stakeholders) to voice concerns, offer suggestions, and generate enthusiasm for the program based on the explanation of rationales.  

3.3 – ESTABLISH AND ASSIGN RESPONSIBILITY TO USE RECORDING SYSTEMS FOR TRACKING CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSTAINABILITY APPROACHES

You will not know the results of your sustainability policy and procedures without being able to track the actual results of those changes. You’ve already established a baseline for how your effective your company’s sustainability was before implementation of sustainability policies and procedures. Now you want to know the results of those policies and procedures. That can only be accomplished by comparing your ongoing activities with the baseline.   It is critically important that your methods of recording are accurate and consistent. A change of personnel recording the data can throw off your results, as people don’t all record things in the same way or to the same level of accuracy. Therefore, it is important that specific personnel be assigned the task of recording sustainability data for their departments.

 If possible, arrange for the data on your measurements to be computerized. This can either be computerized in the method of gathering or in the method of reporting. Some things, like the amount of money your company pays for copier paper or electricity bills, are best accomplished by checking the results of accounting’s records. Others, like the amount of recyclables collected in the lunch room, will have to be manually recorded. Even so, by having that data online, you simplify the process of getting that data from the person who gathers it to your desktop.   What you are looking for in this data is continuous improvement, not a quick jump in statistics. That quick jump would probably indicate an error, more than an improvement. On the other hand, a steady continuous improvement would indicate that company personnel are accepting and implementing the sustainability policy and procedures.   Be open to the idea of changing your procedures mid-stream. While having a plan is important and it is also important to follow that plan; it is also important to be able to recognize when it is time to leave that plan behind and go on to better things.   It is quite possible that through the course of implementing your sustainability plan and procedures that you will encounter ways that you can improve on the plan. Don’t be surprised by this, and certainly don’t dismiss those ideas out of hand. The trick is more in determining when would be the appropriate time to implement those additional changes. Some can be implemented immediately, especially simple changes. Others will require testing and preparation before making another change.

The last stage in policy development is to monitor both results and influences, and revise accordingly. The last decade has brought significant changes in policy development at levels of government and environmental agency influences. It is critical that a company monitors the changing developments that occur relating to their industry and the regulations. For example, it is of course better to know in advance that smokestack emissions reductions are required, then to find out by facing a significant fine. Keeping up to date on issues is essential to maintaining a usable policy.   We have touched on the importance of the interaction between policy and procedures. Feedback from procedures facilitates the policy developers in maintaining realistic expectations for sustainability within the company. If changes are made within the company, industry, or environment, that inhibit the implementation of the policy, revisions may need to occur in order to keep expectations realistic. When revisions occur, it is important to communicate effectively with stakeholders and staff regarding rationales and outcome expectations. For each revision it is important to consider the continued appropriateness of the scope and readdress the stages of policy development.  

4.1 – DOCUMENT OUTCOMES AND PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO KEY PERSONNEL AND STAKEHOLDERS

As with anything new that your company is undertaking, there is always a risk involved. Since sustainability policy is such a new area for companies to be focusing on, there may not be much data available for you to use in determining what results your sustainability policy should provide. Nevertheless, you still have your own data from your own company’s experience.   As I mentioned before, you are looking for gradual, continual improvement, not a sudden jump. Those sorts of results are best viewed when presented visually, in graph form. Just providing a chart of data to your stakeholders may not mean much, especially if they can’t easily discern from the chart how much actual improvement there has been.   In the process of graphing your data, there are two important points which must be shown, in addition to the data showing your improvement. The first of these is the benchmark, so that everyone can see how far you have come from the start. The second of these is the goal, so that they can see how much farther you have to go. Knowing how far you’ve come will motivate people to keep trying. The goal will give them a challenge to try and meet.   You want to be sure to make your documents and reports as positive as possible, especially since this is a new area to your company. Applaud every success that your company or some part of your company has. That will also help motivate people. If all you do is to talk about how much farther you have to go, without ever mentioning the victories that you’ve had, you won’t motivate them, you’ll surgically remove any motivation they have within them.

Be sure that your reports of results get back to all your stakeholders. They’re the ones who need this information. If all it does is sit in your computer, it isn’t motivating anybody.  

4.2 – INVESTIGATE SUCCESSES OR OTHERWISE OF POLICY

Once you’ve documented your progress, it’s time to start analyzing that progress. Have your sustainability efforts been successful to date? Are there areas where the company or some department within the company has outdone your expectations? Are there areas where your expectations haven’t been met? What’s going on?   Every success and failure needs to be investigated and analyzed to determine why it was or wasn’t a success. There has to be at least one reason, if not several, in each and every case. Look for the following:

· A particular person who has been the impetus behind the success

· People who are ignoring the new policies and procedures

· Equipment that is part of new processes, which either doesn’t work properly or is broken

· Systems that are not running smoothly

· Systems and procedures that are creating extra work for people

· Changes in personnel, placing people in key positions who are not trained on your sustainability procedures

· Problems with vendors

· Outstanding vendors who have helped create a success

  Don’t just accept what people say about these things, look for yourself. Often, the answer you receive from someone reflects their ideas, plans and desires, more than reflecting the true information that you need. Be your own person and seek your own answers to those questions.   Your goal is to see what lessons you can learn from what has happened so far, in order to seek out ways that you can apply those lessons to other parts of your company. If you have a success, and you can find a way to copy whatever has created that success, you may turn another area, which hasn’t been doing all that good, into a success. At the same time, looking for what has prevented something from succeeding is the first step in being able to correct the problem and turn a failure into a success.   Never be closed minded to what works. Many people are so wedded to their own ideas or ideology, that they are unable to accept something that is outside of those limits. You need to be focused on what works, not what you think will work. Results are the only measurement that matters.   As I mentioned earlier, there are times when the best thing to do is change plans. You may have had a great plan, but if it isn’t working, it’s time to look for another answer. Likewise, when something you didn’t expect would work, works, you need to be quick to embrace that thing, even if it goes against your ideas.

 MONITOR RECORDS TO IDENTIFY TRENDS THAT MAY REQUIRE REMEDIAL ACTION AND USE TO PROMOTE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF PERFORMANCE

It is critical to continually monitor and revise the processes involved and compare results to expected outcomes. Reporting based on data collected should adhere to the construct of TRACE reporting.

TRACE reporting incorporates the principles of:

· Transparency: organized documentation that facilitates interpretation of data

· Relevance: reporting serves the needs of the organisation and aids decision making

· Accuracy

· Consistency: consistent measures and procedures must be implemented in order to make comparisons over time

· Entirety: boundaries must be clearly defined and all relevant sources must be included.

Monitoring and revising the procedures in relation to outcome expectations can keep the sustainability policy focused and directed. If a program is not meeting the goals, it can be changed in order to address the voids. Evaluating whether a procedure is serving the needs of the company will help further new initiatives, keep communications high, and motivate staff towards continued excellence in sustainability commitment.   Regardless of what procedures you have put in place or how well they work, there is always room for improvement. Your goal is to have the best possible sustainability policies and procedures in place. That will probably require several iterations of changes in your procedures, seeking out “bugs” in your systems and developing cures for them.   Ideally, you’ll be able to spot these areas that are in need of improvement, by looking at trends, instead of waiting until they fail. Perhaps you might notice that a sustainability procedure initially provided great results, but then the improvement slowed down as time went on. Upon investigation, you encounter that the initial improvement was due to the efforts of one individual, who is highly concerned with sustainability, but the rest of the department hasn’t bought into the sustainability procedure, because it makes their jobs harder to accomplish.   In this sort of case, you definitely need to revise the sustainability procedure you have put into place. Any procedure that sacrifices worker efficiency, in order to gain some other desired result is likely to fail. Most workers aren’t willing to put in the extra work necessary to make a more difficult procedure function well, especially when they know an easier way to get the job done.

Demanding that workers abide by the new policy in cases like this is no guarantee that they will obey the new policy. People can be very inventive, when seeking ways to get around a policy they don’t like. Instead, what you would need to do in a case like this is to find a way of making your sustainability procedure at least as easy as the other one, if not easier.  

4.4 – MODIFY POLICY AND OR PROCEDURES AS REQUIRED TO ENSURE IMPROVEMENTS ARE MADE

Remember, early on in this course I mentioned that your sustainability policies and procedures aren’t carved in stone, but rather a living document. There is nothing wrong with creating a change, when a change is needed. Constant improvement means constant change. Changes to policies, changes to procedures, and hopefully changes to results.   Because sustainability is such a new area, new techniques, technologies and theories are constantly being presented. As you watch these new ideas in the marketplace, they should trigger ideas of ways to improve your company’s sustainability policy and procedures. While not all of these techniques and technologies will be applicable to your company, at least some will.   Additionally, governmental regulations are constantly changing, becoming more stringent and requiring a constant reevaluation of the way that we are doing things. What is considered acceptable levels of emissions today may be considered criminal tomorrow.   As you implement new techniques and technologies, be sure to change your policies and procedures as needed, so that your documentation matches what you are actually doing. Many people in many companies forget this step, leaving the documentation as it was at the original release, while making changes to improve processes and procedures.   The authority to ensure that the change is implemented is the policy and procedures. While you may be able to talk somebody into implementing a change, without the documentation being complete, both you and they are wrong. Should something go wrong with the new procedure, there will be no defined way for things to be handled. However, if you change the procedures to match the actual change, the people doing the work will have something to fall back upon.