New Free Toolkit! 3D Sustainability in Business Framework Starter Kit

Exciting news: we have an amazing new FREE, action-oriented toolkit to share with you to help any organization transform their business practices to be more sustainable and circular.

As part of our Sustainability in Business course series, this new 50-page Starter Kit includes an overview of our 3D framework for assessing, actioning and transforming the operational, product and experiential impacts of any business. Filled with useful content, clear graphics, and several sample worksheets, you can learn the framework and get started on your sustainability journey right away!

The 18 impact arenas explored in the 3D framework for business sustainability

Businesses need to recognize that they play a critical role in the global transformation toward a more sustainable future. The way that they operate the products that they produce and the experiences that they create for their workers and customers all interact with the natural world through supply chains and design choices. Our framework helps dissect these to understand impact areas and then provides the steps for taking action. 

In the context of business, sustainability is about ensuring that workplaces, products, business structures and customer experiences are ethical, equitable and economically viable.  However, we understand that sustainability is complex and often misunderstood, and it can feel like an overwhelming pursuit for business managers. So, in alignment with our equity mission to continuously release at least 20% of our content and knowledge for free, we are very excited to share our new toolkit that offers up a simple framework for assessment to action.

Download the 3D Sustainability in Business Framework Free Starter Kit

Behind this toolkit are thousands of hours of workshops, trainings, projects and professional expertise focused on the key impact areas of sustainability in business. You can expect to discover how to understand impacts, assess impacts, and take action right away after utilizing the framework within the starter kit. Then, you can dive deeper if you want by taking our 4-Week Training Sprint that provides more extensive details, actions and activities to advance your knowledge and capacity for activating sustainability in business. 

The framework was developed by Dr. Leyla Acaroglu and draws on her years of experience in conducting environmental impact assessments and supporting businesses through their sustainability journey. The framework has three main components, providing a more holistic perspective of where impacts occur and how they can be addressed —  all assembled into an easy-to-follow, 3-step framework. 

STEP 1: UNDERSTAND IMPACTS 

This section of the toolkit provides an overview of the impact areas; operations, products and experiences. There are 18 common domains for consideration from energy, waste and water to direction and engagement of your customers. At each of these business areas there are impacts occurring and opportunities to design more sustainability outcomes. Assessing them illuminates these impact areas and gives you a starting point for recognizing the opportunities you have to make change.

STEP 2: ASSESS IMPACTS

After you've started to understand and identify the impacts your organization has, you can move to a more detailed assessment phase in order to develop your first set of benchmarks to understand current impacts and have a baseline to measure future progress against. There are many ways of assessing impacts in detail, but our 3D framework offers three main tools for assessment: sustainable supply chains, environmental auditing and sustainable design strategies. The starter kit provides you with simple worksheets to get you started. Our online learning system also offers a more advanced toolkit included in the 4-week sprint. 

STEP 3: TAKE ACTION

Post-assessment, the final section of the toolkit helps you set goals and clear pathways for change, as well as develop policies and create action plans that activate your reporting and promote continual improvement on your sustainability journey.

Remember, sustainability is a process of transformation, with many untapped opportunities just waiting for you to uncover them. In the final section of the toolkit, we offer up our self-assessment tool that provides you with a place to continually check your progress and encourage you toward your sustainability goals. 

Whatever you are at now, just starting out or leading the way, your current position should not be the end of your actions — it’s the beginning. The journey to a better future is always ongoing.

Free E-book: Six Steps to Activating Sustainability in Business

To celebrate the launch of our new Sustainability in Business online learning series, we have created a free E-Book that offers six clear steps to activating sustainability in your business.

Designed to offer an engaging, inspiring and motivating snapshot of why and how to get started with Sustainability in Business, it covers how workplaces can adapt to climate change, transform toward the circular economy, and begin to invest in ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) as core motivators for starting this journey.

Once you have explored the drivers for making change, you will find three areas you can take action in:

OPERATIONS
This includes the energy, water, waste and procurement that the company consumes and produces in order to do business.

PRODUCTS
Whatever is produced by the company as part of their offering into the economy has significant supply chain and natural resource impacts that should be considered in relation to full life product stewardship. 

EXPERIENCES / SERVICES
This entails the culture and services that the organization creates and fosters both with customers and with employees.

Download the free E-book today to find out more and get started on your Sustainability in Business transformation!

The Diagnostic Toolkit: Part 3 of Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change

When it comes to sustainable transformation, building knowledge is not enough. You need easy-to-use, impact-driven tools that can help you generate tangible outcomes within your organization.

If you’ve been following along with our journal in the past few weeks, you’ll already know about the trends and forces influencing the transition towards sustainability in the workplace, as well as the many micro transformative forces shaping the way business operate and workplaces evolve.

If you’re new here, you may want to start by downloading the full FREE report, Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change,  from which all of these insights have emerged.

So, now that you have wrapped your head around the drivers for change in this decade of disruption, you can use this Diagnostic Toolkit in Part 3 of the report to assess your current sustainability and climate-positive journey.

Once you’ve established your baseline, you can then use this simple tool to help frame the strategy you can employ to embark on or enhance your sustainability journey. 

HERE’S HOW THE TOOLKIT WORKS

1. Respond to 10 quick questions and calculate your score 

2. Use your score to diagnose where you are at currently on your journey 

3. Review your customized action pathway that walks you through what steps to take to generate real sustainable solutions in your workplace

NEXT STEPS

Congratulations! You’re on your way to forging workplace transformation that mitigates the risks of disruptors like Covid-19 and climate change and creates more equitable systems for the triple bottom line of people, profits, and planet. 

So, what’s next for you and your organization? If you’re taking some time to digest all of this and want to network with other like-minded professionals — join us in doing so on LinkedIn >

TAKE A COURSE

Maybe you’re ready to take the next step and fully immerse your business in a sustainable transformation? Sign up for a course in our brand new Sustainability in Business series >

GET THE FREE EBOOK

If you’re somewhere in between and want more information, download our new FREE e-book, Six Steps to Activating Sustainability in Business >

The Drivers of Change: Part 2 of Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change

What exactly makes 2020-2030 “the decade of disruption”? How are climate change and Covid-19 impacting workplace transformation and forcing adaptability to a sustainable future? What do businesses need to do in order to stay ahead of the curve and mitigate risk among this time of great and immediate change? 

These are some of the questions we set out to answer in our groundbreaking report, Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change, written by Leyla Acaroglu and commissioned by Unily, which you can download in full here — it’s totally free! 

Trends are driven by forces for change.  While Part 1 of the report explored the megatrends and the disruptive shifts that will define this decade, there are many micro transformative forces shaping the way businesses operate and workplaces evolve.

Here in Part 2, we show the 12 Drivers of Change identified across three categories: Climate Change and Business Strategy; Workplace Culture and Attitudes; and Technology and Infrastructure.

Based on our trend analysis, we explore how they emerged and what some pioneering organizations are already doing to adapt to these influential forces,  showing how sustainability, climate change, and the circular economy are affecting the workforce in multi-pronged ways.

If you want to join the ranks of these pioneering organizations and start your workplace sustainability journey, then take one of our Sustainability in Business Programs or week-long intensive happening in December. 

Climate Change and Business Strategy

The need to create goods and services that are designed to have a positive effect on the environment, redesign business models that promote sustainability, and set new standards for business operations is critical to the success of organizations in this decade. 

All levels of society are now demanding that companies take care of their impacts in some way. These demands are coming from workers, customers and governments. Every industry is being called to act in different ways, but overwhelming businesses need to, and in many cases already are acting on their social and environmental obligations. 

“At its essence, sustainability means ensuring prosperity and environmental protection without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. A sustainable world is one where people can escape poverty and enjoy decent work without harming the earth’s essential ecosystems and resources; where people can stay healthy and get the food and water they need; where everyone can access clean energy that doesn’t contribute to climate change” - Former UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon

All aspects of business activities draw on many complex systems that, in turn, result in multi-level pollution back into the atmosphere and environment. From production and transport emissions in producing goods and delivering them to market, to the daily waste generated in office buildings, these are all contributing factors when we look at “doing work” and the effects this has on the climate crises. 

Climate Positive Change

Driven by the global societal need to decarbonize the economy, organizations will adopt a diverse array of daily practices through to entire business operational transformation to move from carbon negative to carbon positive companies.  

Proactive Leadership

The leaders of the past might have been ok with avoiding or even denying that action on environmental and social issues are important, but the leaders of the present and future are pioneering change within their organizations and reaping the benefits of this action. 

Circular Transformations

Business models go from linear to circular by design. The current linear model of ‘take, make and waste’ is transformed into closed-loop circular product service delivery models that design out waste and design closed-loop material flows. 

Business Model Redesign

Pivots toward mitigating costs due to changing structural, financial and environmental impacts, combined with maximizing new revenue streams and reduced employee and infrastructure costs offer more adaptive, flexible ways of conducting business in the face of change. 

Workplace Culture and Attitudes

Work is a crucial part of our personal and cultural identity, purpose and wellbeing. It is also the lubrication of the economy, but with 77% of greenhouse gas emissions being directly attributed to industrial activities, electricity and transportation in the US, the impact of work on the climate and the wider natural systems we all need to survive is significant and workers are realizing this which in turn is affecting the culture within organizations. 

Office buildings globally alone account for 28% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions from all the heating and cooling, ventilation, lights and equipment needed to go about business and accommodate working humans.  So the places and ways we engage in work are shifting to respond to driving forces around physical infrastructure, modes of getting to work, health and safety concerns along with lifestyle desires of the younger workforce. 

We are seeing challenges to the old hierarchical models where younger workers are demanding ethical frameworks and holding their own employers accountable for their actions. All of these forces are altering the culture within organizations. Workers look for companies that have purpose and that value their employees; similarly, customers seek out companies that are aligned with their values and see workers being treated correctly. Unless organizations are willing to respond to this shift and embrace sustainability in all its forms as a core part of their operational DNA, then they will lose quality staff and suffer customer cynicism. 

Value Aligned

Workers and customers are shifting their values and seeking out organizations that are value-aligned and meet their purpose-filled expectations, greater work-life balance when choosing a job and likeliness to work for a company with a strong sense of purpose and mission. 

Worker Activism

There are increased demands from within the workforce for organisations to be relevant, ethical and aligned with the real-world changes that are occurring, be it responding to Covid-19, social equity or climate change. Employees are setting the agenda rather than the organization, as culture is shifting toward values and ethics being an equal player in profit and innovation. 

Flexible Worklife

The demand for more work-life balance and the coinciding rise of telecommunication technologies with Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to diverse work-life scenarios customized to meet the employees’ and employers’ needs. 

Green Jobs

As the economy changes, so will the types of jobs offered and skills needed by organizations to be competitive. Roles that encompass the skills, knowledge and capabilities to develop and advance a sustainable and resource-efficient world are on the rise, with demand increasing as changes to the workplace and business operations unfold. 

Technology and Infrastructure

There is no doubt that technology is impacting all aspects of society in rapid ways, but the workplace is one area where tech-enabled change is being accelerated. Many executives are planning on redesigning their organizations to make them fit and ready for tomorrow, with many anticipating that technological transformation will continue to be a primary business disruptor (Global Trends 2020) . 

Whilst tech is enabling rapid feedback of data to facilitate real-time changes, such as reduced energy use and behavioral changes, there are still many gaps to fill and questions to be answered from the impacts of AI and the benefits or losses associated with automation. One thing is for sure though: technology is a great enabler of sustainability. The more integrated we make the systems, the more effective organizations can be at adopting the business and cultural changes needed to embrace sustainability. 

Technology is also enabling organizations to literally reconfigure the way they work, being location independent, which in turn, is affecting the size and form of the physical environments that companies design and maintain for their workforce. 

Digital Transformation

The workforce is becoming more mobile. Digital technology and innovation - the internet of things, automation, AI - all have the potential to radically increase efficiency and enable new business models across all sectors. 

Work Less But Better

As technology and science advances, we rapidly uncover new ways of working that provide more productivity through efficiency, which in turn can empower a more effective work-life balance. By working better, but less, we can reduce the impact of many aspects of workplace activities, from the size of offices to worker transport and energy use. 

Living Buildings

Office spaces are adapting in their design, size and infrastructure to incorporate nature and living elements so that work environments are cleaner, more effective and desirable for workers.

Changes to the office environments are being brought about by different forces, from the desire for more work-life balance through to talent retention, but one significant design trend is the health and well-being of the workers inside.

Bringing living things into our built world enables more human-centric spaces that save energy, respect materials and create better working environments that prioritize people and create multifunctional spaces appropriate for multiple uses, such as adapting to social distancing. 

Post Disposable

Adopting circular design strategies and ensuring that the full life of products are created to be sustainable, climate positive and socially beneficial can be achieved through the aspiration of being post disposable. To do so, businesses must ensure that, in all aspects of business, materials are valued and systems are designed to capture and reuse the materials that can’t be maintained.  Check out our free post-disposable activation toolkit.

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While this journal offers a quick summary, the full report goes into way more detail about each of these microforces, as well as offers case studies that show how pioneering organizations are adapting to these drivers of change. 

The Sustainability Status: Part 1 of Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change

Last week, we shared the exciting launch of our groundbreaking report, Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change, written by Leyla Acaroglu and commissioned by Unily.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing highlights from each of the three parts of the report, starting with Part 1, The Sustainability Status. If you’re keen to dive into the full report right now, go ahead and download it in full here — it’s totally free! And, if you are ignited to start your workplace sustainability journey, then take one of our Sustainability in Business Programs or week-long intensive. 

This opening section of the report gives you a 360 degree perspective of the trends and forces influencing the transition towards sustainability in the workplace by exploring the opportunities and actions that are currently emerging as the defining forces shaping the transition to carbon positive and sustainable workplaces.

THE DECADE OF DISRUPTION: 2020-2030

 The last two decades have seen a rise in “green” office strategies that range from assessing the energy, waste and water consumption through to sustainable procurement and behavioral change initiatives, but now we are seeing the elevation of change towards business model transformation for the circular economy. 

This decade was already set up to be one of great change even before the crises of early 2020.  Transformation of both the entire economy and social practices was accelerated by the global pandemic that swept around the world, wreaking havoc on markets, changing business operations, altering people's lives and challenging healthcare systems. The Covid-19 crisis is emerging  entirely new ways of working, living and doing business. But even before this, the foundations for massive change were already being laid out for businesses. Here we explore some of the great disruptions unfolding this decade.

INDUSTRY 4.0 

We are in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 is fueled by digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence, robotics and networked communication systems.  Exponential changes in technological development alters the way we manufacture, produce and consume goods and operate within the economy. The interconnection of devices and services so that technology communicates to enable the more efficient and seamless creation of goods, along with the rapid growth in connectivity, is creating entirely new ways of doing things. Offices, factories, cities and homes are getting ‘smarter,’ which when designed well, can lead to significant efficiency and productivity gains.  

“This manufacturing revolution will increase productivity, shift economics, foster industrial growth, and modify the profile of the workforce”.  - Industry 4.0, BCG

The Circular Economy 

In response to the waste and pollution crisis, the Circular Economy calls for a total reconstruction in the way we design, deliver and engage with the goods and services that make up the economy. This involves moving from a linear production process - whereby waste and pollution are built into production systems - to a circular one that allows for new business models, design processes and supply chains that cycles resources through a well-designed closed loop system. Products become services and entire value-chains are redesigned and managed to eliminate losses and increase the value of materials extracted from nature. 

“Adopting circular-economy principles could not only benefit Europe environmentally and socially but could also generate a net economic benefit of €1.8 trillion by 2030”. - EU Circular Economy Action Plan, Mckinsey and Company 

Climate Change

Humans have long had an obsession with tracking the weather. For much of our history, the ability to predict the weather has helped us build, feed and navigate societal development. The current and predicted changes that will occur this decade if we do not curb global greenhouse gas emissions will make reading the weather have an entirely new meaning as we see more freak weather events, longer, hotter summers, increased frequency of catastrophes and rising sea levels impact coastal regions. The degree of impact will depend on the actions taken now, and with nearly all countries in the world ratifying the 2016 Paris Agreement, there is hope that the worst will be avoided and the best brought out in our global community. 

“Ambitious climate action could generate US$26 trillion in economic benefits between now and 2030 and create 65 million jobs by 2030, while avoiding 700,000 premature deaths from air pollution” - New Climate Economy: Commission on the Economy and Climate 

2030 Global Goals

The United Nations has marked the end of this decade as the goalpost year for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a set of 17 global goals that, if achieved, will bring about a sustainable and equitable economy. Many companies are adopting the SDGs as operating guidelines for corporate activity, Despite there still being disconnects between rhetoric and action, there is a strong drive for this decade to be one where global action on sustainable development is made and successes achieved.

“Our analysis shows 72% of companies mentioned the SDGs in their reporting, but only 25% include them in their published business strategy. Furthermore, just 14% include specific SDG targets”. - Welcome to the 2020s: The 'make or break' era of sustainable development, PwC

Global Health Crises

The World Health Organization has long been calling for concern over the threat of  global health pandemics, and the Covid-19 crisis has certainly changed the way we live and work. The long term impacts are unknown, as is the potential for an increase in pandemics in the future. The crisis has drawn many parallels to the needed action in combating climate change, as the response to the Covid-19 reminded many that action to abate the negative impacts of climate change also requires collective action. The connection between the destruction of nature and the increased risk of pandemics has been raised by leading biodiversity experts. There’s a likelihood that the coronavirus pandemic will be followed by even more destructive disease outbreaks if the cause behind the continuous destruction of natural capital does not come to a halt. 

“Many of the root causes of climate change also increase the risk of pandemics. Deforestation, which occurs mostly for agricultural purposes, is the largest cause of habitat loss worldwide. Loss of habitat forces animals to migrate and potentially contact other animals or people and share germs” -Coronavirus and Climate Change, Harvard Medical School

The Green Recovery 

The Covid19 fueled economic crises will be built on a green recovery plan, especially in Europe where the European Union is driving the campaign to build back better. The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, proposed six climate-related actions to shape the recovery post Covid-19 in a call to action for governments to build more resilient, sustainable and inclusive societies. Aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 and the protection of biodiversity, the green recovery plan outlines: 

1. Monetary recovery packages that deliver new jobs and businesses through a clean and green transition.

2. When taxpayers’ money is being used to rescue businesses, it should be tied to achieving green jobs and sustainable growth.

3. The use of fiscal firepower to drive a shift from the current grey to a green economy, empowering societies and people to be more resilient.

4. Public funds should be used to invest in the future and flow to sustainable sectors and projects that help the environment and the climate by ending fossil fuel subsidies and encouraging polluters to pay for the impacts that they create. 

5. Climate risks and opportunities are to be incorporated into the financial system at large, as well as all aspects of public policy making and infrastructure.

What else is in Part 1?

The rest of Part 1 dives into the megatrends impacting this decade of disruption. Megatrends are massive cultural shifts that unfold in real time, creating identifiable patterns that can be observed and interacted with as they emerge and evolve to affect society at large. 

We identified 8 societal level megatrends that are affecting the ways we work and the types of business models that will be successful in the future, all of which are covered in detail in the full report. The future is changed by our actions today, so these trends are a manifestation of the behaviors, desires, aspirations and actions of those operating in the workforce and business world right now. 

We also share the results of a survey of 2000 UK-based office workers, from graduate entry level jobs through to Senior Manager level, who were surveyed by Censuswide in August 2020. A range of questions relating to the impact of Covid, their perceptions of sustainability and work life changes were presented, and Part 1 captures fascinating insights from select data responses.