How to make sure your sustainability committee delivers results

Apr 5

Raise your hand if you’ve been on an office sustainability committee. Keep your hand up if it made your office sustainability initiatives incredibly effective. That’s what I thought.

Here’s how I discovered my distaste for “sustainability committees.” The final class of my master’s program is called a “Capstone” project where you act as a sustainability consultant. I had read a lot about sustainability committees, I had been ON a committee. So I included one in my company recommendation because of course, they should have one. Committees are good! Right? Wrong.

As I delved deeper into the project, I realized the methodology I had created put the sustainability committee out of business. Sustainability is not done by committee, it’s done by individual employees. A sustainability committee is just extra work.

“Sustainability is not done by committee, it’s done by individual employees. ”

Let me repeat, corporate sustainability is not done by committee, it’s done by individual employees. To be fruitful, sustainability must be built into individual job descriptions, procedures and ways of doing business. A business must alter its daily habits, strategies and commitments to meet its sustainability targets. That’s what makes it difficult. And a committee does not make sustainability easier, or effective.

How Committees Work

Committees were fairly popular in the early 2000s. Social committees, building committees. A committee is a group of people meeting to discuss and make changes or progress on an issue. Companies, I think, often lean on committees for comfort. “Taking action,” is often confused with “let’s meet on this.”

A sustainability committee is where people get together and talk about sustainability and try to make it work. Usually, committees will assign tasks to employees or get people “motivated” by sharing initiatives and ideas on sustainability. Let’s look at why these aren’t a great use of time:

Motivation by Sustainability Committee:

Employee motivation is a nuanced and difficult topic with thousands of books, articles, and case studies. I received over 61 million hits typing “How to motivate employees.”

CB Bhattacharya wrote a piece for Wharton on sustainability and employee motivation. He said sustainability champions, “must be cultivated at all levels of the organization.” Each person is responsible for sustainability. Instead of assigning tasks only to a committee or having the committee assign tasks, each member of the organization must have a sustainability assignment.

Task Assignment by Sustainability Committee:

Assigning tasks is more nuanced than telling people what they should be doing. “Turn off the lights!” “ Use less water! These tasks don’t require a committee. Tasks should be assigned by a personal utterly familiar with the employee's job description, either them or their manager. An employee knows how to best integrate sustainable tasks into their day-to-day. A committee does not.

Research from the Netherlands supports this, “Encouragement and support by managerial staff for social or environmental initiatives is a way to gain employees’ respective engagement to achieve environmental or social improvements. Especially supervisors are in a position to fill the role of the change agent who facilitates the integration of sustainability and CSR activities into company strategy, culture, structure, and behaviour. This is because supervisors give guidance on how employees should invest their time and effort. “

Be Effective and Save Time

Companies often name time as a barrier to sustainability. In our time and efficiency-obsessed culture, we’re all concerned with maximizing time. Committees do not maximize time. People do not want to add another meeting to their agenda.

Sustainability requires consistent, effective time and resource allocation to work. A committee is not designed that way. Have you ever finished working on part of a committee or heard a committee’s recommendations for sustainability and thought, “I’m 100% on board. And their plan will work.” Effective sustainability creates momentum, committees kill momentum through endless meetings.

I do not find all committees to be a waste of time. Inquiry committees, party committees, these are great as long as they fit their mission and achieve their goals. My committee thoughts here apply strictly to sustainability committees. If you have an example of one that has worked or disagree with me, please share in the comments. I have set to see an example of this work, and I’d love to find one.

What’s the Alternative to a Sustainability Committee?

Sustainability should be built into employee actions and tasks, not left up to a committee to assign and oversee. The committee creates excess work for everyone and isn’t a good use of time. Instead focus on:

Managers should assign sustainability tasks to employees
Motivate employees on an individual level. Use time allocated to a committee for scheduled check ins on individual teams and between managers and employees
Managers ensure each employee feels involved in sustainability
Employees provide feedback directly to managers and vice versa

Do you agree? Have you been on an effective sustainability committee? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Interested in employee motivation and engagement?

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