Get started on implementing relevant social sustainability initiatives

Social Sustainability 

Lately, I visited a company that is well known for their sustainability efforts. In the beginning of their presentation they parted their sustainability effort in three; a financial, an environmental and a social part. It was great! They did a lot of interesting things in the environmental area, e.g. collecting and sorting a considerable amount of waste that both staff and customers left at their premises. No doubt they were doing a great job and were passionate about it. At the end of the presentation they hadn’t touched on the financial and social part, so I asked them about it. The answer was: We don’t know.

Recently, I participated in a gap-analysis for another company. This company also wanted to focus on sustainability and parted it in three areas, the environmental, the social and the governmental. When looking into it, it was obvious they had great ideas regarding environmental sustainability, while social and governmental sustainability wasn’t implemented and not related to any company activities at all. If I had asked them about it, they would probably also have said: We don’t know.

So what is it about social sustainability that makes it difficult? 

One of the challenges could be to find a definition that works, and there can be different opinions about what it could include. If you search the Internet you could get this IA generated definition stating that social sustainability is:

• The well-being of people and communities, encompassing aspects like social equity, access to resources, and community engagement. Examples include promoting gender equality, ensuring access to education and healthcare, fostering community engagement, and supporting vulnerable populations. 

Looking at this, and most places in New Zealand, Australia and Europa, we pride ourselves as having a community, where these ‘things’ are taken care of, and therefore difficult to work with. If we, for example, say we want to work on equity or gender equality, we could argue that it isn’t relevant or it could be too sensitive to discuss. 

Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t. And if it is relevant, what does it mean to us? What can we do? How can we change it?

So, maybe we should start somewhere else to get the discussion going and be able to implement social sustainability initiatives that can make a difference. And maybe, eventually, we will be able to include elements of social sustainability that can be difficult to talk about and difficult to do something about.

We could, for example, start talking with staff about what matters to them. It could lead to possibilities we have not been thinking about, reveal needs that we haven’t had ourselves, and good ideas to how we can do something about it. Communication with staff, and other stakeholders is therefore a great place to start. Ask, listen and think of what experiences you have had with your staff through time.

A company I worked with, had a very diverse staff group, with people coming from 18 different countries. It meant that they frequently needed help to understand letters from doctors, teachers and other authorities. Some of them also had health issues. These things were ‘translated’ into social initiatives like offering custom made English lessons at the premises at the end of the working day, for free. The company also paid wages half the attendance time. The health issues were ‘translated’ to having a nurse, half a day every second week, on the company premises. Everyone could go to her with any issue they had. It was for free, and the time used on it wasn't deducted in wages.

As part of this initiative staff were also offered an annual health WoF. They were measured, weighed and talked about their health related lifestyle. Eye-sight and hearing was tested and blood-sugar and blood-pressure were measured too. They also implemented special events. For example an event about healthy food, where the nurse gave healthy food information and staff shared fruit and vegetables from their gardens with each other. In relation to this social initiative was also offered vaccinations - in work time, while paid, and for free. 

This way, the social sustainability initiatives became relevant and made a difference to staff. However, these initiatives also became significantly relevant and important to the company. 

They became a huge success!

Staff felt the company cared, and the company managed to retain and attract staff, even in times where it was notoriously difficult. It resulted in a significant increase in revenue, while competitors couldn’t get staff enough to serve their customers, and a steadily growing bottom-line, while the company didn’t need to compete on price.