n this episode, Sarah Humphrys speaks with Josh Brown, Senior Manager at Deloitte’s Sustainability and Climate team, about overcoming challenges in engaging leadership on sustainability. They discuss how businesses can integrate sustainability into decision-making, with a particular focus on internal carbon pricing and budgeting to drive decarbonisation initiatives.


Discussing:

• The challenge of getting C-suite or executive teams on board with sustainability strategies

• The communication challenge of sustainable transformation

• How to translate sustainability topics into a language that resonates with leadership teams

• The importance of aligning sustainability mission with business goals

• The role of measurable KPIs and remuneration in giving sustainability some 'teeth' in decision-making

• Carbon budgeting to change perceptions across teams or departments

• Internal carbon pricing to bring the cost of emissions into the forefront of decision-making

• Overcoming internal stakeholder resistance and achieving buy-in

• Advice for sustainability professionals on resilience and persistence
  
  

Resources Mentioned:

• Goal 13 Impact Platform

• David Attenborough's 'Communications Challenge' post on Instagram

• Deloitte Business Chemistry Framework

• Balanced Scorecard Framework

• 'Zero in on... Internal carbon pricing' - article by Deloitte

• AimHi Earth

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Sarah Humphrys speaks to Andy Brown about instilling nature as a stakeholder within businesses and about emotional resilience and mental wellbeing in the sustainability sector.

Discussing:

• The real impacts of climate change that are occurring today

• Reconnecting people to the water cycle and water ecosystems

• The link between the long-term viability of a business, and the long-term wellbeing of the natural environment and local communities

• What does it mean to be a purpose-led business?

• How to make decisions based on a broader range of value than just efficiency & cost

• The spectrum of Mental health and wellbeing in the workplace

• How no work on sustainability is ever wasted!
  
  

Resources Mentioned:
Anglian Water Group
UK facing food shortages and price rises after extreme weather
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD)
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
Biodiversity Net Gain
Anglian Water 6 Capitals Framework
Anglian Water Biodiversity Strategy
Rutland Water Nature Reserve
Stanground Newt Ponds
Mind's resources on mental health in the workplace
Mental Health UK: "What is 'climate anxiety', and what can you do about it?"

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Sarah Humphrys speaks to Courtney Holm about shifting mindsets and rethinking our role as sustainability professionals as negotiators, influencers and sales people for a sustainable future.

Discussing:

• How to support companies to move beyond reporting towards actually implementing impactful change

• The need for practitioners to change the way that they engage with their leadership across the organisation to enable them to be more impactful

• Short termism - and the need for 20 - 30 year planning as investors, businesses and communities

• Leadership legacy - Emotive and creative approaches to challenging conversations with executive leadership teams

• How to support others to be futuristic and embrace uncertainty by backing up the business case for systemic change

• The critical importance of negotiation skills for any sustainability professional's influencing toolkit - and how to develop these

• Commercialising the Science and building trust via authenticity, consistency, flexibility

• Good questions to have in a sustainability professional's toolkit - "why?" and "what if?"

Resources Mentioned:
The Holm Edit
Case study on Patagonia, 'Patagonia shows how turning a profit doesn't have to cost the Earth' -
Al Gore: An Inconvenient Truth
The Great Schlep
Coursera e-learning on Negotiation Skills
Harvard Business Review online course, 'Negotiation Mastery'
Franklin Styers Nursery (now Terrain at Styers)
2degrees Business Services case study with Tesco
Rob Hopkins: From What Is to What If (book)
Rob Hopkins: From What If to What Next (podcast)
AimHi Earth

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Sarah Humphrys speaks to Neil Pearson about integrating sustainability and ESG into decision-making process internally.

Discussing:

• the challenge of how to ensure sustainability becomes a fundamental consideration for all departments across the firm

• specific examples of decisions where sustainability can and should be an influencing factor

• what sort of questions should be asked when making spending decisions in a corporate setting

• the organisational challenge of working out where sustainability fits within a wider business structure

• advice for sustainability professionals on demonstrating ROI of ESG initiatives

• the assumption that sustainability and ESG initiatives will always cost more than the alternative
  

Resources Mentioned:
Mills & Reeve LLP
Living Wage Foundation
Social Investment Tax Relief (no longer available)
Worthstone
UN Global Compact report 'Who Cares Wins' (when the term ESG was coined)
Atomic Habits - James Clear
Greener Litigation Pledge
Doom and gloom doesn't work! 'Addressing Climate Change with Behavioural Science: A Global Intervention Tournament in 63 Countries'
Deloitte study- 'How can the enterprise earn investor trust through sustainability disclosures?':
AimHi Earth - Live and Online Sustainability Training for companies

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Discussing:

• The journey to achieving B-Corp certification for a group of businesses - and the benefits of joining the B-Corp community

• The pressures of being in a sustainability team of one while hoping to use your organisation to be a force for good

• Tactics to gain perspectives from as many other departments as possible

• The surprising outcomes of tapping into employees' inner eco-warriors in a voluntary sustainability champions network

• About the importance of keeping it simple and making it as efficient as possible

Resources Mentioned:
Bamford Collection
Daylesford Organic
B-Labs - B-Corp Assessment Tool
B Local Oxfordshire (and others)
AimHi Earth

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Sarah Humphrys speaks to Louise Burn and Daisy Thompson to learn about Nestle's employee-led grassroots initiative, 'One World'.

Focusing on this grass roots movement, they cover how colleagues can create opportunities to educate, inspire and empower each other while exploring:

• What can passionate individuals from outside of a sustainability department do, if they want to get involved with combatting the climate and nature crisis in their day job?
  

• How can employees from within an organisation act as critical friends to the company, posing friendly and constructive challenges to promote progress?
  

• How can sustainability professionals start a grassroots engagement initiative like this and how can you measure positive impact?
  

• What on earth is a reverse mentoring scheme? How does it work?
  

• How can sustainability and ESG be formalised as part of everyone's job across functions?
  

• How to take a 'first pancake' approach at work, at home, when it comes to taking action?
  
  

Resources Mentioned:
Carl Pratt - Future Planet Network
BBC - Save Our Wild Isles
Clover Hogan - Force of Nature
Kite Insights - Every Job is a climate job:
AimHi Earth - Live and Online Sustainability Training for companies

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