Kuhn Associates Sustainability Advisors LLC
Sustainable Business News 
 
Volume 2014, Number 3                                                                                         March 2014  
In This Issue
Featured Article
Ideas You Can Use NOW
Calendar of Events
About Us
We help companies throughout the product supply chain create sustainable businesses.

Our consulting services include creating enterprise-level sustainability visions, goals and strategies; re-engineering internal processes to reflect sustainable best practices; maximizing the sustainability of today's complex supply chains and assisting with communicating sustainability information in writing and in media.

Our training services include webinars and in-person seminars for large to small groups on topics ranging from GHG accounting to Mastering Supply Chain Sustainability and Social Responsibility. We can custom design training to suit your needs.

 

We work in a variety of industries. We are extremely sensitive to clients' budgets and their capacity for change.
 
Whether it's an environmental or social responsibility issue, our team of professionals is ready to help your business. Please contact us to learn how we can help you.
 
Call 212-343-1006 today.


In this third newsletter edition of 2014, we complete our three-part series on Engaging Stakeholders In Sustainability Initiatives. This month, our Feature Article discusses working with a diverse group of external stakeholders ... some of whom are not the "usual suspects."

In our Ideas You Can Use Now section, we provide some specific tips about how to engage these external stakeholders in sustainability, in ways that are appropriate and meaningful for everyone involved.

   

Finally, in the Calendar section, we suggest some sustainability-related events in the coming few months that you might want to investigate.

   

Happy reading!    

 

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Feature Article: Engaging Diverse Stakeholders in Sustainability 
 

Why Engage

Today, a diverse group of external stakeholders want to and/or should weigh in on corporate sustainability goals, strategies and progress. From experience with other initiatives, we know that inclusion usually facilitates buy-in. Projects can have a more cohesive feel with fewer silos if engagement starts at the beginning. Appropriate engagement can mitigate risk by providing an opportunity to defuse criticism, tease out opponents/detractors and make beneficial adjustments to your sustainability work. These and other benefits usually outweigh the burdens and costs associated with widening your sustainability-focused engagement net.

Who to Engage

We've seen benefits correlate with external stakeholder engagement in many ways. For example, 
  • engage with customers and investors to gain insight into market trends and the competitive landscape
  • engage with labor groups and unions to get a "reality check" as to what can be accomplished in operations 
  • engage with media and NGOs to obtain a unique perspective based on broad experience.

The external stakeholder universe is large and often unwieldy -  constituencies like customers, investors, lenders, insurers, associations, NGOs, mainstream media and industry specialists all might rightfully "deserve" a seat at the sustainability table. So, who should be involved to minimize risk and maximize ROI associated with engagement?

 

We'd first divide the external stakeholder universe into two: those who demand to participate (regardless of whether they "should") and those who should participate (and might not know it). We do this in order to tailor the engagement strategy to a level that's best suited for the stakeholder and respectful of company resources. 

 

In the "we demand" category, it's important to engage only with those who add real value or whose exclusion might hurt. These folks might be engaged in low-cost methods such as social media management, for example. Needless to say, one needs to consider confidentiality issues with this group.

 

On the other hand, some of the following definitely should be involved in some meaningful way in many sustainability initiatives:
  • customers, who can be tasked with providing feedback about product and service attributes 
  • NGOs and other subject experts who can bring necessary expertise and guidance (e.g., Walmart's partnership with EDF)
  • industry coalitions that may have experience, standards or other resources (e.g., the Sustainable Apparel Coalition)
  • regulators or government agencies that might have programs that address your specific issue (e.g., the U.S. EPA's SmartWay transportation/logistics program).

Representatives from these stakeholders should have "meaningful" engagement in your sustainability work - for some, perhaps, beginning in the goal-setting stage all the way through the reporting stage.

 

Below, in the Ideas You Can Use Now! section, we'll explore some ways to create appropriate and meaningful engagement for members of the diverse external stakeholder universe. 


>> Get in touch if you'd like more details; I would be happy to share more insights. Call me at 212-343-1006 or email me at [email protected]

 

Hydropower
Ideas You Can Use Now!
 
How to Engage

So how does one go about creating and implementing appropriate engagement strategies for such a diverse group of sustainability-focused stakeholders? We hinted in the Feature Article that you should try to steer these folks down one of two paths: low-involvement and high-involvement, depending on the engagement-related risks, rewards and costs (because it's so situation-dependent, we can't say here who goes into which group).  Those that are information-seekers get a low-engagement strategy most of the time. Those that are influencers get a high-engagement strategy most of the time. Here's a summary of what those two modalities look like:

 

 

Modality

Examples

Characteristics

Pros

Cons

Low-Engagement

Conferences; webinars; FAQs; annual touch points; surveys; social media 

Disseminate information only; have little influence on project; one-way/single mode relationship

Low cost; few implementation hurdles; often can be handled through existing communications function

Might exclude or restrict 
valuable input; can create negative perceptions; might have to be addressed more completely later

 

High-Engagement

Standing and ad hoc committees; focus groups; coalitions; partnerships

Collaborative approach; can have influence on strategy, goals and even tactics; usually two-way/multi-modal relationship

Studies show this format reaps most benefits in sustainability; collaboration yields other benefits

Resource intensive; can be unwieldy; might not be able to reach consensus on issues

 

The goal of this two-pronged approach is to right-size your engagement program, consistent with company resources and stakeholder characteristics. Remember, however, that sustainability is a shifting landscape; today's sustainability "observer" might soon become an "influencer."

 

Simultaneously to designing your external stakeholder engagement program, you should develop metrics to track your engagement efforts and impacts. You'll need a set of metrics focused on your efforts/inputs (e.g., resource/spend allocation to engagement; # of team members/FTEs involved in engagement) and another set of metrics focused on your impacts (e.g., # of stakeholders in low-engagement modes; average length of time of engagement for stakeholders on committees). This will help give insight into how well the "how" part of your sustainability-focused engagement strategy is working over time and whether your engagement strategy is "sustainable.

   

>>If you have questions or comments on these or other "best practices" in supplier engagement, please contact us. We have the ability to craft solutions for you. Contact us now by calling 212-343-1006 or emailing us at [email protected].
Calendar of Events
 
Here are a few of the many interesting sustainability events happening in the coming months that we think are worthy of your attention.

 

March 25 - 27, Seattle, WA - Sustainable Packaging Coalition Spring Conference 2014 will deliver sustainability-centered dialogue, focusing on real-world leadership examples that have resulted in breakthrough sustainability success. Joel Makower, Chairman and Executive Editor of GreenBiz Group, Inc. will keynote the event. Visit http://conference.sustainablepackaging.org/ for more information.

 

April 9 - 10, Novi, MI  - AIAG Corporate Responsibility Summit will convene Industry experts to share the latest research, information and best practices on topics including:

* Conflict minerals
* Environmental regulations
* GRI Reporting
* Globally Harmonized System
* Supplier self-assessment

Visit http://goo.gl/HNJBqZ for more information.

 

April 16 - 18, Miami, FL - Sustainatopia's Sustainable Strategies Conference will bring together subject matter experts to discuss topics such as sustainable purchasing and supply chain management, strategic brand marketing and behavioral change, employee engagement and organizational change, and much more. To find out more and to register, go to http://www.sustainatopia.com/sstconference.

  

April 24 - 25, Rio de Janeiro - Sustainable Brands Rio, allows professionals from different perspectives and disciplines to connect in an optimistic, collaborative environment and create a shared vision of what is possible. Visit http://goo.gl/6hjoXh for further details.

 

April 30, Stanford, CA - Stanford Responsible Supply Chains Conference: Designing Supply Chains For Positive Impact brings together corporate executives, nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and academics to discuss proactive approaches to promoting social progress, environmental sustainability and ethical integrity. Register at https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/scforum/ser/conference.

  

June 11 - 12, New York, NY - AGRION Disrupt 100+ will assemble 100+ leading innovators and 600 managers of large companies to discuss sustainability, renewable energy production and storage, smart cities, resilience, and more. Visit http://www.agrion.org/new-york2014/for details. 

Thanks for reading! Please contact us today to discuss anything you've read here, suggest a topic for a future Newsletter edition or learn how we can help you build a more sustainable business.

Call 212-343-1006 or email us at
[email protected] for more information.

Sincerely, 

Robert W. Kuhn, President and Senior Advisor
Kuhn Associates Sustainability Advisors LLC
www.kuhnassociatesllc.com
Copyright 2014  Kuhn Associates Sustainability Advisors LLC
Reproduction without prior permission prohibited.