Set targets & action plan
Why is this area important to embedding sustainability in my organisation?
The production of quantified and time bound sustainability objectives is important to demonstrate organisational commitments and focus. An organisation should devise an effective action plan and set specific targets to work towards the sustainable development objectives set out in its strategy.
In the public sector - all parts of government, central, regional and local government, and the wider public sector - are responsible for delivering the UK sustainable development strategy. Sustainable development action plans, are used by central government departments and their agencies to raise the profile of sustainable development in the organisation and to establish targets against which they can be measured.
Central Government also has a framework for sustainable development on its own estate. In June 2006, the Prime Minister launched new targets for sustainable operations on the Government estate.
In the private sector target setting is equally vital to the successful embedding of sustainability. Setting targets helps to ensure that the good intentions passed down from the highest level are followed through by enabling sustainability progress to be measured and by sharpening employee commitment. Key Performance Indicators allow progress and compliance to be monitored which is vital to prevent business issues ‘getting in the way’ of sustainability targets. Furthermore, having an absolute and public commitment to sustainability provides direction and focuses the mind, ensuring all efforts are directed towards compliance.
But targets have to be about outcomes, not just outputs – that means they need to be about the change that an action should bring about.
What does target setting and action planning involve?
Moving towards embedding sustainability in an organisation requires the high level vision and strategy to be developed into a concrete set of actions and procedures with a clear set of indicators for measuring progress. To create an effective action plan to embed sustainable development any organisation will need to undertake the following activities.
- Develop a performance measurement framework
- Ensure strategic sustainability objectives are reflected in business plans
- Translate priorities in to policies and procedures
- Engage staff and stakeholders in the production of plans and targets
- Provide appropriate training and guidance to employees.
The SDC’s guidance on sustainable development action plans was developed with government departments and executive agencies specifically in mind but it provides much guidance which is more widely relevant. The SDC guidance suggests that action plans cover the following core elements listed below.
- Vision for sustainable development in the organisation
- The business case/benefits
- Commitments - covering policies, operations and people
- Monitoring, evaluation and accountability.
The Welsh Assembly Government has developed a sophisticated approach to establishing sustainable development targets following the commitment in the Sustainable Development Scheme of the National Assembly for Wales, ‘Starting to Live Differently’:
use a full indicator set, reflecting cultural, social, economic and environmental issues, to gauge progress towards sustainable development, and as part of its performance management framework; use the indicators to inform the development of its sustainability appraisal tools; keep this set under review.
Further information is available via the Welsh Assembly Government website.
CIPFA - 'Sustainability: A reporting framework for the public services' - includes detailed advice on development of KPIs and gives examples of these. A further resource for target setting is the Global Reporting Initiative - which includes extensive guidance on performance indicators including a set for the public sector in its Sector Supplement for Public Agencies.