Giving Compass' Take:

• The author offers advice for sustainability managers and how they need to address the challenges in four areas: big data, workforce education, innovation, and collaborative outreach. 

• Which of the four critical areas should sustainability managers prioritize first? Why? 

• Read about how nonprofit sustainability relies on investing in people. 

If you close your eyes, and imagine that a more sustainable world has come true, what do you see? Is it anything like what Andreas Kicherer, director of the sustainability strategy at the chemical company BASF, sees? He recently shared this vision of such a future via the business sustainability platform I manage:

I see a five-year-old boy who cannot yet read but uses a tablet. The boy is wearing sneakers made of ocean plastic. He is behind the wheel of an autonomous electric car...The boy plugs in the car’s two-way charger and the car feeds electricity back into the grid.

The good news is that, in many organizations, there’s already someone poised to lead the charge: sustainability managers. Specifically, it is time for sustainability managers to step up and take on challenges in four critical areas:

1. Ethical issues: from big-data problem to big impact: A recent survey shows that a staggering 71 percent of consumers think companies use their data unethically. So handling big data presents both an opportunity and a huge responsibility.

2. Workforce education: from losing jobs to gaining meaning: Fast-paced technology developments mean that many employees need retrain continuously to stay proficient as their jobs evolve, or to learn new skills.

3. Innovation: from mistakes to “best failures”: It is no longer enough for companies to improve their existing products. The appetite for new, better, more sustainable, and circular solutions is clear.

4. Collaborative outreach: from isolated efforts to a “me-too” effect: Building on the theme of connection, research has shown that collaboration is one of the main ingredients of sustainable innovation.

Sustainability managers are well equipped to lead their organizations on the path toward this goal. If they are willing to take on new responsibilities, they will also advance their cause.

Read the source article about sustainability managers by Joanna Radeke at Stanford Social Innovation Review