From strategy design and implementation to accountability, discover the 6 steps (and a bonus) to develop a comprehensive sustainability plan in your organization.
You are about to start your vacation. If you choose to go to the destination of your dreams, what is the first thing you do? See how to get there. You evaluate the financial impact of the trip: which means of transportation is more expensive or accessible. Also its risks and opportunities. Going by train, instead of by plane, will allow you to appreciate the landscape along the way. But you risk losing an entire day of touring the final destination.
When you have everything planned, you move on to management. You get the ticket and start the adventure. You measure how much money you spend each day to see if you meet your daily budget goal. Ah! Tell your friends how you’re doing with a photo dump on Instagram.
The journey to planning sustainability is (more or less) the same. Evaluating impacts and risks, designing a strategy, managing, measuring, and reporting are part of planning to reach an ideal destination: driving positive impact. In done! We created the roadmap to make that journey easier. With you: our sustainability roadmap. Six key steps to developing a successful sustainability plan for your organization.
0. Leadership Awareness
To design an effective plan, we need to commit to the organization’s top management. If it is onboard, conversations, decisions, and budgets are facilitated. That is why we propose it as a zero point, before starting the tour.
1. Materiality analysis
It is the process through which the main impacts, risks, and opportunities for business sustainability are identified and evaluated, on which we must design management strategies.
2. Sustainability strategy design
Once the material issues have been identified, we design a strategy to mitigate or reduce the negative impacts and enhance the positive ones. We think about lines of action and initiatives; objectives (KPIs) or ambitions; an implementation plan and a dashboard to track.
3. Management of initiatives
Hands-on action! This step of the roadmap is about thinking, designing, and executing plans and programs that allow you to achieve your objectives. The key is to ally with expert organizations or organizations on the ground to enhance the impact.
4. Impact measurement
Don’t forget to measure the results. Having this information allows you to monitor the programs against the objective, detect opportunities for improvement to evaluate the initiatives, and report the impact to interest groups.
5. Sustainability report
Accountability for the management and results of a company’s impacts, risks, and opportunities to stakeholders. They are carried out according to international standards and it is voluntary…. In most countries. In some regions such as Europe, or even Chile in Latin America, it is a mandatory practice regulated by law.
6. Iteration
Iterating is testing, learning, adjusting, and testing again. Because this path is not definitive. It must be fed back all the time and adjusted to the context: from an unexpected health crisis to new regulations or the launch of a new product or service. Being attentive to the events that occur around you is the attitude towards this path. Flexible in the process, but always firm with the objective.
Max Bensimon
About done!
done! is a strategic sustainability agency with the mission of using creativity to enhance the positive impact of business on the environment and people. Among its services, it offers sustainable brand strategy, double materiality analysis and ESG Reports.
about Max Bensimon
Specialist in reporting, strategy, and creativity oriented to sustainability.
Done Strategy Director with more than 10 years of experience in preparing sustainability reports under international standards such as GRI, SASB, and local regulations.
Graduate in Social Communication from the University of Buenos Aires.
