SB'14 San Diego Jeff Mendelsohn, Founder & Chair, New Leaf Paper Andy Savitz, Author, Talent, Transformation, and the Triple Bottom Line Esther Speck, Sustainability Strategist, Speck Consulting and Former VP Sustainability, Mountain Equipment Coop Stephanie Bertels, Director of the Embedding Sustainability Working Group, Network for Business Sustainability This session takes on a high-level conversation about principles for building organizational structures and values such that sustainable practices become norms, rather than isolated one-off initiatives. With decades of combined experience in tackling the topic at hand, this panel embarks on an ambitious yet rewarding quest. Join them if you are the kind of manager who wants to lead an end-to-end organizational transformation for sustainability.

3. EMBEDDING IN CULTURE:
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
esther@estherspeck.com

5. ASSUME
• Clarity on strategic goals
• Engage for impact
• Embed to outlast ourselves

6. SOME STORIES
1. Performance goals signal permission
and expectation
2. Embrace the business narrative
3. Integration means empowered
ownership
4. Powerful stories come from tough
moments

7. How do you embed sustainability
into an organization’s culture?

8. nbs.net/knowledge/culture
Systematic Reviews = Best Available Knowledge

9. A portfolio approach to sustainability

10. mapping a maturity model
sustainability
time

11. • 9 firms / 3 year study
• Understand the journey
• Understand the impact on
culture/climate
• Develop practical tools
nbs.net/community/embedding-sustainability-working-group
Embedding Sustainability Working Group

12. A web-based assessment tool

13. INTEGRATE INTO RISK: incorporate sustainability considerations into the organization’s risk process
To what extent do you integrate sustainability into your risk assessment process? Select the most applicable option:
0: We do not yet integrate sustainability into our risk assessment process and/or our organization does not have a risk
assessment process.
1: We know sustainability should be considered as part of our risk assessment process and are considering how we might
integrate it into our risk assessment process.
2: We have started to assess sustainability related risks as part our risk assessment process, but they are largely limited to
compliance based risks and generally only activated retroactively in the case of compliance failures. This work is mainly
undertaken by a few key people in the organization.
3: We are beginning to integrate sustainability into our core risk assessment process. We’re rolling this out to the business
units and some have developed an appreciation for the need to proactively factor sustainability into their internal risk
assessment processes.
4: We have a well-developed system for integrating sustainability into our risk assessment process. We have sustainability
expertise within our risk management group and we have an expanded risk matrix that factors in potential future risks due to
changing societal expectations or shifting natural capital stocks. We take a long-term view in assessing sustainability risk.
The business units have an appreciation for the need to proactively factor sustainability into their internal risk assessment
processes and see the value in doing so.
Questionnaire with 62 questions
Develop scales to compare performance

14. Understand the sequencing of the practices

16. Engage in systematic efforts to assess the efficacy of
particular practices.
… this requires pre and post measures
Current work:

17. Gaps point to next steps

18. nbs.net/community/
embedding-sustainability-working-group