In today’s business landscape, sustainability is front and centre, it’s a business imperative. Companies are racing to set ambitious targets, publish climate commitments, and demonstrate responsibility to investors, regulators, and customers alike. But while many organisations have strong sustainability strategies on paper, far fewer manage to bring those strategies to life in practice.
What separates companies that succeed from those that fall short comes down to one key factor: corporate culture. Your culture – the shared values, beliefs, and behaviours within your company – will ultimately determine whether your sustainability efforts thrive or fail.
Too often, sustainability strategies are treated like compliance documents – thorough on paper but disconnected from people’s day-to-day decisions. You can have the best-intentioned targets in the world, but if employees don’t feel part of them, they’ll never truly take hold.
Strategy will set the direction, but it is company culture that will drive action.
You have a well-crafted sustainability strategy, complete with key performance indicators and reporting structures, you have included everything you understand is needed for success. But strategies are only as effective as the people who carry them out. And we all know that with sustainability it requires collaboration across all departments.
If your employees don’t buy into the “why” behind sustainability, or don’t see how it connects to their work, even the best strategy will limp along. On the other hand, when sustainability comes directly from the very essence of your company culture, people at every level act with purpose and sustainability becomes a living part of how the business operates.
How to align sustainability with culture.
Whilst many try to embed sustainability into culture, aligning sustainability with existing culture is going to prove to be far more successful. If you want your sustainability efforts to succeed, you must ensure your culture not only supports them but drives them. Here is what I have learnt:
Talk about sustainability topics constantly – consistent, visible communication makes a lasting impression. Share stories of what clients and suppliers are doing in sustainability. Use storytelling and interactive methods to get people involved and use language that everyone can understand.
Make sustainability personal – find that connection between what is important to employees, either in a work or personal sense and build on it. What matters to them should matter to your business. Sustainability should support and grow existing positive action.
Don’t silo responsibility into one team – There will be employees that care more than others, get them involved. Take for example the collection of data for carbon footprint reporting, the person responsible for each office does not have to sit within the same department. Having someone who understands the importance is going to be more efficient at providing what you need. This could mean having the responsibility sit across finance, HR or admin in different offices and that is a good thing. Don’t select a department, select the people.
Listen and evolve – Culture is not static and neither is sustainability. Keep engaging with everyone, gathering feedback, and adapting your approach to ensure sustainability remains relevant and real.
Culture is what happens when no one is watching. It determines whether a procurement team chooses the sustainable supplier, whether a manager supports low-carbon travel options, or whether an employee speaks up about an unsustainable practice. And this is what will ultimately drive sustainability strategies forward.
Without cultural commitment, sustainability remains fragile and superficial.
A strong sustainability culture doesn’t mean that everyone is a sustainability expert. But it does mean that employees see sustainability as part of the company’s core values and not an external obligation. They understand how sustainability connects to their roles and they feel empowered and equipped to make decisions that align with overall sustainability goals. This is where the magic starts to happen organically.
At the end of the day, your company’s sustainability performance will not be driven by policy documents or mandatory requirements, it will be driven by your people. If your corporate culture embraces sustainability as a shared value, your efforts will gain traction, deliver impact, and stand the test of time.
Sustainability isn’t just something your company does. It’s something your company is. And culture will always be the difference-maker.
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