In the guest post below, Julie Urlaub, Founder and Managing Partner at Taiga Company, discusses the skills leaders need for a sustainable business future.
In business, every function has a purpose and every job requires a unique set of skills in order to fulfill on that purpose. When it comes to defining rolls for a sustainable business future, what skills and leadership qualities will your business leaders require to meet its purpose?
More companies today are looking to ‘sustainability’ leadership as a competitive core competency. Defined formally by some as Sustainability Officers, these leadership roles are often tasked with a singular purpose: identify and manage potential environmental, social, and economic risks. While this may sound straight forward, these concerns can vary greatly across industries.
When Avon set a goal to be a leader in the campaign to end deforestation and Herman Miller set out to deliver the first fully recyclable chair, the purpose and function of these business sustainability leaders were set. These organizations needed business sustainability leaders with a strong sustainable supply chain management mindset in order to drive change in their material sourcing and procurement practices.
Leveraging these examples, there is a clear relationship between purpose and need. Sustainability leadership should be aligned with the business sustainability goals and objectives of the organization. In seeking to define required competencies of your own sustainability officers, our sustainability consulting suggests you start with some basic business sustainability questions to assess sustainability risk: click here to continue reading.
Guest post provided by 3BL Media
Image credit: opensourceway via Flickr under a CC license
