Sustainability Programs

A Design Guide to Achieving Financial, Social, and Environmental Performance
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-394-30738-8
Verlag: Wiley

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 232 mm, Gewicht: 586 g

Go-to guidance for designing, implementing, and managing effective sustainability programs and their management systems

Moving past vague concepts, buzzword overloads, superficial efforts, and flavor-of-the-month misdirections, Sustainability Programs presents a pragmatic, step-by-step approach to creating and managing adaptable, organization-wide sustainability programs to achieve People, Planet, and Profit (3P) objectives with least cost, effort, and risk. Key steps covered in this book include reaching a programmatic "Go" decision, developing sustainability policies, designing an organizational framework, defining the most pressing sustainability needs, and cascading 3P goals, tactics, targets, and initiatives into business units, functions, and departments to create new capabilities and improve performance.

By following the principles and practices in this book, any organization can better achieve sustainability's full promise of social responsibility, environmental stewardship, and financial performance. Written by authors with a wealth of practitioner experience in the field, Sustainability Programs explores topics including:

- Creating social, environmental, and financial strategies, tactics, targets, and initiatives that create new capabilities and resolve 3P performance issues
- Avoiding ad hoc projects that fail to address critical sustainability issues, wasting valuable resources and squandering competitive advantages
- Overcoming technical professionals' lack of business management experience and helping management professionals understand sustainability's benefits and intricacies
- Understanding sustainability through the management lenses of risk reduction, improved efficiencies through eradication of wastes, increased revenues via innovation, and enhanced competitive advantages fueled by greenwash-free transparency.
- Responding to the demanding data capture, analysis, and reporting challenges of environmental, social, and governance (ESG).

Acknowledging that one size does not fit all, this book delivers individual concepts and methods adaptable across any organization's value chains. It is an essential read for leaders and practitioners working within private and public enterprises of all types and sizes, especially those with 2,000 to 5,000 employees.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Borges, William

Grosskopf, John

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Nachhaltigkeit, Grüne Technologien
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltpolitik, Umweltprotokoll
• Naturwissenschaften Chemie Chemie Allgemein Toxikologie, Gefahrstoffe, Sicherheit in der Chemie
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltmanagement, Umweltökonomie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxi
Acronyms xxiii

1 Introduction 1
1.1 SMS Best Management Concepts 2
1.2 Target Readers 3
1.3 The Book's Objectives 4
1.4 The Need for This Book 4
1.5 How the Book's Approach Differs from Others 8
1.6 When Can Measurable Progress Be Expected? 11
1.7 Notes about Industry Standards and Government Regulations 12
1.8 A Risk to Sustainability Program Success 13
1.9 Consequences of Failing to Act 14
1.10 Advice for Leaders, Small Organizations, and Aspiring Sustainability Practitioners 14
1.11 Chapter Takeaways 17
1.12 Further Reading 21

2 Essential Sustainability Management System Concepts 27
2.1 The Relationships Between Organizational Structure, Performance, and Culture 27
2.2 Key Concepts 29
2.3 Management Perspectives on Building an Effective Sustainability Program 30
2.4 Chapter Takeaways 33
2.5 Further Reading 33

3 The Importance of Change Management 37
3.1 Structure, Behavior, Performance, and Culture 37
3.2 A Change Management Appendix 38
3.3 Chapter Takeaways 39
3.4 Further Reading 40

4 Sustainability Management System Design Considerations 43
4.1 Cautionary Notes Regarding SMS Design Flexibility 44
4.2 A Format for Answering SMS Design Questions 44
4.3 High-level System Plan Phase: SMS Initiation 46
4.4 Operations-level Plan Phase: SMS Administration 47
4.5 Operations-level Do-and-Check Phase: Capability Creation and Performance Improvement 48
4.6 Operations and High-level Act Phase: SMS Enhancement 48
4.7 Some Additional Thoughts on Change Management 49
4.8 Sustainability Software Applications and SMS Documentation Boilerplate 49
4.9 Chapter Takeaways 50
4.10 Further Reading 51

5 The Sustainability Program Go-Decision and Policy Development 55
5.1 The Business Case for Sustainability 55
5.2 Organizational Change Considerations 57
5.3 The Utility of ISO and Other Management System Standards 58
5.4 The "Go-Decision" to Create the Sustainability Program 59
5.5 The Overarching Sustainability Policy 60
5.6 Relationships Between Sustainability Policy and Mission, Vision, and Values Statements 62
5.7 Chapter Takeaways 63
5.8 Further Reading 64

6 A Model Sustainability Management System Organization Structure 67
6.1 The SMS's Organization Structure 67
6.2 Leadership Roles in the SMS 69
6.3 Support Roles for the Sustainability Management System 75
6.4 The Capability Creation and Performance Improvement Roles in the Sms 78
6.5 Chapter Takeaways 82
6.6 Further Reading 83

7 The Sustainability Management System's Initial Needs Assessment 89
7.1 Define the Topical Scope and Organizational Scale of the SMS 89
7.2 The First Step in Defining an SMS's Strategic Goals, Tactical Objectives and Targets, and Initiatives 90
7.3 The Use of Outside Experts to Conduct an SMS Needs Assessment 91
7.4 An Approach to an Initial SWOT Analysis 92
7.5 Who Conducts the SWOT Analysis? 92
7.6 Preparing SSTs for Their SWOT Analyses 97
7.7 The SWOT Analysis Process 97
7.8 Some Sustainability Ideas are Better Than Others: Prioritizing SWOT Findings 98
7.9 Aggregating, Reviewing, and Approving the SWOT Analysis Results 101
7.10 The Next SMS Planning Steps 102
7.11 Chapter Takeaways 103
7.12 Further Reading 103

8 Define the Sustainability Management System's Strategic Goals 107
8.1 Essential Concepts in the Cascading Process 109
8.2 Converting Prioritized OFIs into Strategic Sustainability Goals 112
8.3 Performance Breakthrough Goals 114
8.4 Frequency of Defining and Updating Strategic Goals 115
8.5 Future Needs Assessments and Strategy Development 115
8.6 Chapter Takeaways 116
8.7 Further Reading 116

9 Define the Sustainability Management System's Tactical Objectives and Targets 119
9.1 A Deeper Dive into the Linkage Concept 119
9.2 A Process for Converting Strategic Goals into Tactical Objectives and Targets 121
9.3 SMS Oversight Group, Sustainability Specialty Teams, and Other Personnel Roles 123
9.4 Examples of Tactics 124
9.5 Refining the List of Tactical Objectives and Targets 125
9.6 Chapter Takeaways 127
9.7 Further Reading 128

10 Capability Creation and Performance Improvement Initiatives 131
10.1 Accountability Assignments 134
10.2 Project Design 137
10.3 Requests for Additional Project Resources 138
10.4 Milestone Progress Reports 139
10.5 Assistance in Defining Root Causes and Corrective Actions 140
10.6 End-of-Project and Multi-Quarter-Project Assessments 141
10.7 Restart the Quarterly SMS Improvement Cycle 144
10.8 Chapter Takeaways 145
10.9 Further Reading 146

11 Annual Administrative Assessment and Improvement of the Sms 149
11.1 The Annual SMS Administrative Assessment 150
11.2 Internal and External Assessments, Inspections, Audits, and Surveys 152
11.3 The Critical Importance of the SMS Check Function in Supply Chain Management 154
11.4 Chapter Takeaways 154
11.5 Further Reading 155

Appendix A Origins and Evolution of the SMS Model 161
A.1 Introduction: Where We Have Been and Where We Are 161
A.2 In the Beginning: The 1960s and 1970s 162
A.3 Quality Assurance Morphs into CI Organizational Management Systems – The 1980s 162
A.4 CI Management Systems Become Green: The 1990s 163
A.5 Time Out for Reflection in the 1990s 164
A.6 The 21st Century Part 1: CI Management Concepts Applied in a Tough Environment 165
A.7 The 21st Century Part 2: Getting Greener 166
A.8 The 21st Century Part 3: Those Who Can Also Teach 166
A.9 The Evolved Sustainability Management System Model 167

Appendix B Essential Change Management Concepts 169
B. 1 Overview of Change Management 169
B. 2 Change Management Success and Failure Factors 170
B. 3 Schools of Thought within Change Management 171
B. 4 Essential Change Management Concepts 172
B. 5 The Role of a Change Agent 173
B. 6 Change Agent Dos and Don'ts 174
B. 7 Preparations for Change 176
B. 8 Anticipating and Managing Obstructions 180
B. 9 Institutionalizing Change 185
B. 10 Closing Thoughts on Change Management 186

Appendix C Sustainability Learning and Information Resources 189
C. 1 The Need for Sustainability Education, Instruction, and Training 190
C. 2 Types of Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Offerings 192
C. 3 Sustainability-themed Master of Business Administration Degree Programs 193
C. 4 Sustainability-themed Professional Certificate and Accreditation Programs 195
C. 5 Sustainability-themed Short Courses and Other Resources 198
C. 6 Management-themed Learning Resources 200
C. 7 Online Sustainability Libraries and Other Information Resources 201

Appendix D Special Considerations Regarding ISO Management System Standards 205

Appendix E Examples of Project Planning Worksheets 207
E.1 Project Summary Worksheet 208
E. 2 Task Description Worksheet 208
E. 3 Project Schedule Worksheet 212
E. 4 Project Budget Worksheet 212

Appendix F An Advanced Needs Assessment Method: Life Cycle Assessment 217
F. 1 Introduction 217
F. 2 What is a Life Cycle Assessment? 218
F. 3 The Life Cycle Perspective 219
F. 4 Key Environmental Assessment and Industrial Engineering Ideas in Lca 220
F. 5 Simplicity is a Virtue with LCA 222
F. 6 Scoping a Life Cycle Assessment 222
F. 7 Impact Assessment 224
F. 8 Inclusion of LCA Findings and Recommendations in an SMS 228

Glossary 229
Biographies 241
References 245
Index 251

Über Autor(innen)

William Borges has directed and participated in 100+ sustainability and environmental management projects. His work includes restructuring departments during the financial turnaround of an eventual Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winner in Silicon Valley, designing and introducing one of the first environmental management systems (EMS) at a United States military base, and initiating an EMS consulting practice at a major research institute. He has also designed and taught professional development and university-level sustainability courses.

John Grosskopf has helped hundreds of public and private organizations worldwide dramatically improve their environmental, health, and safety (EHS), security, and sustainability performance while simultaneously reducing their costs, risks, and impacts. He was a principal architect of General Dynamics’ pioneering EMS and its Zero-Discharge program. He is a management systems innovator that has advanced systematic and systemic EHS and sustainability management practices to help organizations better address climate change threats, ESG practices, and marketplace competitiveness.