Identify key issues & drivers
Why is identifying key issues and drivers important to embedding sustainability in my organisation?
It is important to be clear about how sustainable development fits in with your organisation's core business, activities and objectives. Doing this will help you to understand several key things.
- Why you should adopt a more proactive approach to integrating sustainability with your core business?
- The corresponding risks of not doing so
- It will give you to better understanding of the benefits you might achieve.
This process will need to consider the implications for both operations and core activities, whether that is providing products and services or setting public policy.
How can an organsation identify the key issues and drivers for embedding sustainability?
This diagram should support you in identifying the drivers for embedding sustainability allowing you to build the business case for your organisation, as well as highlighting your relevant and material sustainability issues which should form the focus of your sustainability agenda.
The issues and drivers for embedding sustainabiltiy will vary according to the context in which a particular organisation operates. But they are likely to follow a consistent set of themes, which may initially be explored using a simple analysis, for example by using a method like PESTEL:
- Political - e.g. what are the political expectations on the organisation to embrace sustainability?
- Economic - e.g. what are the economic drivers for sustainability for example in reducing resource costs?
- Social - e.g. what is the social context in which the organisation operates?
- Technological - e.g. are there technological changes that embedding sustainability might help the organisation to adapt to?
- Environmental - e.g. how might environmental changes affect the organisation in the future, or the environmental impacts the organisation has?
- Legislative - what are the regulatory drivers affecting the organisation's performance e.g. the Welsh Assembly Government has a binding legal duty to pursue sustainable development in all it does. This is built into its consititution through Section 79 of the Government of Wales Act 2006. Similarily, under the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 the Regional Development Agencies have a statutory purpose to contribute to sustainable development. Other sources such as NetRegs provide free guidance on the regulatory requirements for small business in the UK.
Although not specifically set up for sustainability strategy, a useful resource in considering strategy development is the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit Strategy Survival Guide. This contains in it specific guidance The Future and How To Think About It for considering issues and drivers using a 'PESTEL style' method.