• Knowledge-management & training
•Communications and Stakeholder engagement
• Specialist function to coach, encourage business and challenge
Core Vision
Strategic
Operational
• Making most of networks
Developed from David Ferguson
© Doughty Centre 2009
At the heart – the bulls-eye – is the integration of CS&R within the core vision and purpose of the business. Sustainability and responsibility needs to be built into purpose, values and strategy.
Top leadership has to believe in and walk the talk on corporate sustainability and responsibility. Staff and other stakeholders need to hear their leaders explain regularly what Responsibility and Sustainability means for the business, why it is important and how it is integrated within their division and business function: what some call “tone from the top.”
Embedding CS&R requires effective board oversight – the “governance of responsibility.” Some companies have a Board committee for CS&R. Some have a lead non-executive director in charge. Some have a mixed committee of executives and nonexecutives. Whatever the precise structure, it is important that the company regularly addresses what the most significant responsibility and sustainability issues are for it – and discusses these at the most senior levels.
It is also important that the approach to corporate sustainability matches the organisation‟s strategic approach to doing business – to be real and relevant sustainability should mirror the culture of the organisation as the strategy defines it in its objectives, approach, targets and measurements. Typically, companies have some overarching, public sustainability commitment: such as Zero waste to landfill; or carbon / water neutrality.
Companies need a process for getting each part of the business, each business function strategic business unit, to understand their significant environmental and social

impacts, and to embed sustainability within their strategies and operating plans. The commitment to operate responsibly and sustainably is not, therefore, some extra commitment but is fundamental to how a business functions. It has to become “the way we are - how we do business consistent with the values of the organisation.”
Sustainability and responsibility have to be embedded through the value-chain.
Sustainability is an integral part of how an organisation does business, and therefore is an integral part of every employee‟s job – „everybody‟s business‟. This needs to be clear and relevant to employees - existing and new staff - for example using values as criteria in the recruitment of staff, incorporating values into induction and ongoing staff training, in appraisals, and for determining compensation and promotions. The values are the criteria against which the business takes tough decisions.
Managers need to be sensitised to, and have good antennae for, risks and opportunities associated with sustainability and business impacts on society. They need to have a good future-scanning capacity. They also need to understand how to instigate formal systems for undertaking „social due diligence‟ to complement normal financial due diligence, actively exploring social issues and actors linked to overall business strategy and significant business decisions and investments. A specialist corporate sustainability function will support the implementation and communication of the sustainability strategy. In line with the argument that sustainability needs to be embedded into the organisation, having a specialist function is not to take on the duties of being sustainable and responsible, rather to coach, encourage and challenge. This approach supports an in-depth integrated approach as it aims to change behaviours and implement actions from all employees, not just from one team of people.
A sound knowledge management system that captures, assesses and shares intelligence will aid the role of the sustainability function as well as help communicate and share examples of “how we do business” and double-loop learning. Engaging with
CS&R networks can provide valuable insight into what the market is expecting and doing, give timely sense-checks for organisations, and engage staff in innovation and develop their ability to identify risks and opportunities.
Likewise, engaging with and communicating to stakeholders (including internal and external reporting and via indices submissions) can provide this, as well as empowering an organisation with the confidence that they are relevant to their stakeholders and that their „license to operate‟ is strong. In this context external sustainability reporting functions some of this purpose as a communication channel and as a formal report on material issues and future intentions for stakeholders. Companies can use reporting to stimulate continuous improvement and innovation – and use the process of data-collection for dialogue between line-managers and the CS&R function about what the business is doing / how and why – and what data is required for.