Why integrating sustainability is everybody’s business
Feb 10, 2025
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Join Pia Heidenmark Cook, former Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA and sustainability advisor, along with Lisen Wiren, Programme Manager at IKEA Social Entrepreneurship. They discuss how every professional, regardless of role, can contribute to sustainable practices in their organizations. Their new book, co-authored together, emphasizes collective responsibility in business sustainability and highlights the evolution of corporate environments toward this goal. They share personal journeys, the importance of collaboration, and practical strategies for embedding sustainability at all levels.
Integrating sustainability into everyday business practices enables every employee to take ownership, fostering a collective responsibility for sustainable initiatives.
The evolving role of Chief Sustainability Officers highlights the need for collaboration across departments to unify sustainability efforts within organizations.
Deep dives
The Importance of Integration in Sustainability
Successful change management in sustainability involves integrating sustainability goals into everyday business practices instead of treating them as separate initiatives. Engaging employees at all levels is essential, as demonstrated by the transformation of a 5,000-member organization where employees took ownership of sustainability from their respective roles. Rather than working overtime on projects alone, dedicating significant time to integration helped cultivate a collective responsibility for sustainability. This shift illustrates that every employee can actively participate in driving sustainability initiatives within their current functions.
Understanding the Evolving Role of Professionals
Sustainability is increasingly recognized as a shared responsibility across all professional roles, transcending traditional boundaries. Professionals from various fields—such as finance, marketing, and product design—have vital contributions to make towards sustainability, illustrating that it is not a token initiative but a collective endeavor. Insights from practitioners show that individuals often have unique perspectives that can shape effective sustainability strategies, demonstrating the need for collaboration across departments. As professionals evolve in their understanding of their impact, integrating sustainability into their roles becomes more natural and necessary.
Barriers and Enablers of Sustainable Transformation
Organizations often face challenges when it comes to changing established practices and fostering a culture of sustainability. Key barriers can include lack of awareness, conflicting priorities, and insufficient support structures within the company. Conversely, engaging employees and empowering them through education and strategic clarity can serve as significant enablers of sustainable transformation. By creating frameworks that facilitate dialogue and establish incentive structures, organizations can encourage individual contributions while aligning them with overarching sustainability goals.
The Future of Sustainability Leadership
The role of Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) is transforming as businesses embrace a more integrated approach to sustainability. Future CSOs will function less as experts and more as facilitators who unify efforts across various organizational functions, ensuring collective action towards sustainability objectives. They are essential in cultivating a culture of sustainability, influencing both structural and soft elements within organizations to sustain efforts over time. As sustainability evolves, the expectation for leadership is to maintain momentum and adapt strategies to navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by an ever-changing landscape.
The relationship between business and sustainability is evolving. As awareness of its importance – and value – grows, so does the recognition that responsibility for addressing the subject is not confined to specific sustainability roles. Indeed, growing opinion is that every job within an organization can and should be considered a sustainability job.
In this episode, EY Americas Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader Bruno Sarda sits down with Pia Heidenmark Cook, a former Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA and now senior board member, speaker and sustainability advisor, and Lisen Wiren, Programme Manager at IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, to discuss the very idea that every professional within any business can make an impact.
Pia and Lisen have just published a book “Embedding Sustainability - How to Drive Organizational Transformation,” based on decades of their experience. Listen to this insightful conversation where two seasoned sustainability professionals talk about the importance of threading sustainability into the basis of every organization, as well as on how typically small corporate sustainability departments can make a big difference.