Putting it into Practice

There are a wealth of tools and guidance that you can use to help kick start the process of leading and managing on sustainable development within your organisation. There are a number of voluntary standards that you can subscribe to demonstrate effective vision, leadership and management towards one or all dimensions of sustainable development for example:

• The Investors in People standard demonstrates an organisation’s investment and management of staff development and welfare
• More comprehensive management systems such as Corporate and Social Responsibility reporting will contribute to sustainable development in its broadest sense

Some of the more comprehensive models and tools for implementing a whole organisational approach towards sustainable development are outlined below.

Environmental Management Systems

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a framework that assists an organisation to manage its environmental impacts using a whole organisational approach (with knock on social and economic benefits), both in terms of reducing and ameliorating significant negative impacts and improving positive impacts. It often has positive implications for improving an organisation’s image as well as their bottom line.

An EMS is a voluntary undertaking that can be both informal and formal. The formal route involves external verification and accreditation of an organisation’s system. In the UK, BS EN ISO 14001 is the most widely used standard and the most popular within the UK, followed by the Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) as well as BS8555 (Guide to the phased implementation of an environmental management system including the use of environmental performance evaluation).

All of the EMS standards are based upon continuous improvement and follow the Denning Cycle of: plan what you’re going to do, do what you planned to do, check to ensure that you did what you planned to do, and act to make improvements. At the heart of their success is senior level commitment, leadership and effective management.

For further information on implementing EMS look at Guide Yourself Through Buildings and Estates. You will also find this EAUC Paper on the take up of EMS useful.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Corporate Responsibility (CR) is also increasingly being demanded from large public sector organisations. There is no universally accepted definition of CSR, but organisations as diverse as the UN, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and Business in the Community are broadly in agreement relating to CSR’s role in improving the positive impact of responsible businesses and good citizenship.

CSR is a commitment by organisations, including businesses and the public sector, to respect human rights and to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life for its workforce, their families and the wider local community and society. This responsibility considers each organisation’s role in relation to community, environment and the workplace. Whilst there are no FE system examples, there are others on the Business in the Community website showing how businesses have demonstrated good citizenship and CSR. These can be applied in a variety of other settings and give you some ideas.

The EAUC and BITC ran a pilot project in Universities. The report from this project may be useful.

The Five Capitals

The five capitals framework, advocated within the LSC Strategy for Sustainable Development, provides a method of analysing the links between all dimensions of sustainable development (environment, economic and social) and allows you to put the key priorities into a strategy and action plan.

The framework considers the resources available for human progress in five different sorts of capital:

• Natural
• Human
• Social
• Manufactured
• Financial

These five capitals are a sound representation of all of the resources available to a society and help to shift the focus away from just financial resources. It also helps to put the social dimension of sustainability on an equal footing with the economy and environment: something which is often lacking in sustainable development activities.

Forum for the Future have more information on this model.

The recent CEL report (Appendix 2: Models of sustainable development) provides some excellent guidance and a practical example of how you can use this within your organisation.

SIGMA

In the context of sustainable development a simple model for this leadership and management process is set out in the table below . The phases contained within the model are not set out in any priority for action, but do closely align with the Denning plan the do, check, act cycle mentioned previously when looking at EMS.

This table is derived from The SIGMA Project (Sustainability – Integrated Guidelines for Management) (go to their website). This was launched in 1999 by the British Standards Organisation, Forum for the Future and AccountAbility, with support from Department of Trade and Industry

The SIGMA project has developed guidelines which help organisations to:

• Effectively meet challenges posed by social, environmental and economic dilemmas, threats and opportunities
• Become architects of a sustainable future