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A presentation by Joss Tantram of Terrafiniti to the SSA/SEED Policy Forum at Baden Powell House, London on 26th April 2012.
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Making business sense of sustainability
“Building Business Capacity in Sustainability”
Joss TantramPartner, Terrafiniti LLP
“ESD in the UK and its role in Sustainable Living” SSA/SEED Policy Forum. Baden Powell House, 26th April 2012
Making business sense of sustainability
Discussion overview
• Sustainability and the skills agenda• Strategic sustainability - a skills gap?• Tools• Taking a strategic approach
Making business sense of sustainability
“Humans were being overwhelmed by their sophisticated machinery, because the intelligence required to build a certain level of technology was less than needed to survive it.”
Stephen Baxter
Making business sense of sustainability
Sustainability and the skills agenda
• Does sustainability need special skills?
• Sustainability deals in interaction and interdependencies, probability and implications.
• Sustainability deals in detail but also the big picture – these require differing approaches.
• Sustainability requires comfort with uncertainty and the application of precautionary approaches.
Making business sense of sustainability
Strategic sustainability - a skills gap?
• Leading companies are starting to identify long term sustainability ambitions:
• Unilever – Sustainable Living plans to halve the environmental footprint of products and manufacture by 2020.
• Elopak – Futureproof 2020 to have 100%: carbon neutral, renewable, recycled products by 2020.
• Puma – in 2011 produced first ever corporate Environmental Profits and Loss accounts.
Making business sense of sustainability
Strategic sustainability - a skills gap?
• Companies with sustainability ambitions have sustainability skills needs:
• The HR function – the natural home for identifying and filling skills gaps and competencies requirements.
• However, sustainability is a strategic priority - in many companies HR is not a strategic function – it is too often sidelined, as is sustainability.
• Organisations struggle with different futures and therefore struggle to envisage the future skills they will require.
Making business sense of sustainability
Tools
• There are a number of approaches towards identifying and closing the skills gap:
• Skills maps: IEMA www.iema.net/skills
• Sectoral approaches: www.homebuildingskills.com
• CSR for HR – gathering momentum www.csrfrohr.com
Making business sense of sustainability
• There are a number of approaches towards identifying and closing the skills gap:
• Skills maps: IEMA www.iema.net/skills
• Sectoral approaches: www.homebuildingskills.com
• CSR for HR – gathering momentum www.csrfrohr.com
Making business sense of sustainability
Taking a strategic approach
• Companies taking a meaningful approach treat sustainability like any other issue which has strategic implications for the company. This would involve:
• Identifying staff requiring in-depth competency development and staff requiring awareness/ orientation training;
• Identifying existing internal expertise;
• Identifying external sources of training and support;
• Link sustainability performance and financial performance;
• Include sustainability in personal development plans.
Making business sense of sustainability
Email: [email protected]
Towards 9 Billion Blog: www.terrafiniti.com/blog
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