7

Roles to Create Sustainable Success

carola wijdoogen

a practical guide for sustainability and csr professionals

7 Roles for Sustainable Success is printed in the Netherlands by Wilco Printers, who themselves aim to work with respect for the environment, their employees and customers (ISO 14001 certified). The heat generated by the printing process is reused to warm their building. The company is compensating all production, transport and employee commuting, to neutralize their CO₂ emissions to zero. In addition, new trees have been planted by Land Life Company to compensate for the paper and the CO₂ emissions to get this book to you. See the trees we planted for this book here: www.landlifecompany.com. Land Life Company is a tech-driven reforestation company that restores degraded land in Southern Europe, the US and Australia.

In order to extend the lifetime and positive impact of the book, we used good quality design: please share or resell the book after reading. And at the end of the book’s lifetime, please recycle.

Cover design and layout: Justus Bottenheft

Editing: Selese Roche, Jodi van Oudheusden-Peita

Illustrations: Shirley Warlich, www.visenchips.nl

© 2020 Carola Wijdoogen and Sustainability University Foundation Amsterdam

ISBN 978-90-829497-4-2

ISBN E-book 978-90-829497-5-9

All parts of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise after prior express written permission of the author.

Tabel of Contents

Forewords

Why?

1 Introduction

2 The Networker

3 The Strategist

4 The Coordinator & Initiator

5 The Stimulator & Connector

6 The Mentor

7 The Innovator

8 The Monitor

9 Sustainability dynamics

10 Sustainability competencies

Closing note and prelude to new beginnings

Acknowledgements

List of contributors

List of figures and tables

About the Author

Figure 0.1 Roles of a sustainability professional

For Sarah and Juliet

Forewords

Speeding up transitions: new mindset, skills and competencies

The transitions we’re currently experiencing are of such magnitude that “business as usual” is no longer an option. The Covid-19 outbreak dramatically exposes the vulnerability of our vital systems and magnifies the vulnerability of vulnerable individuals in our societies. In times of uncertainty, listening to the needs of all kinds of individuals is no longer a “nice to have” (if it ever was…) but a “need to have.” Digitalization is radically changing the way we interact, share and produce. The energy transition requires us to question commonly held beliefs about abundance and scarcity, fundamentally rethink business models and processes and co-create innovative solutions. With the roles of government, companies, societal players and citizens shifting, the days when ideas could be developed in ivory towers are definitely gone.

Sustainability and CSR professionals are crucial change agents who can help shape and speed up these transitions. Fulfilling this important role requires the right mindset, skills and competencies. It is far less romantic and definitely way more complicated than it sounds but, in the end, far more satisfying than many of the traditional roles. At its core, it demands a strong belief that change is not only possible but urgent and non-negotiable. If you do not truly believe in what you do, why should others follow you? And because of the scope of the changes needed, you cannot do this alone. Partnership based on equality, real dialogue and co-creation are preconditions for success. Obtaining what you want is not about selling a slick story but about creating a shared mission and narrative with unexpected experts, as well as the usual suspects.

These approaches are about asking the right questions rather than receiving definitive answers. What was said and what wasn’t? And what was said between the lines? The late physicist David Bohm wrote about dialogue:

“Free dialogue may well be one of the most effective ways of investigating the crises facing society and indeed the whole of human nature and consciousness today.”

Meandering processes of developing shared plans and ambitious missions are, by definition, chaotic. So linear processes and hierarchical reporting lines generally do not apply. Change agents create the paths and connections necessary to free up the way for the incremental steps that will lead to systemic change. Paradoxically, working with so many others to serve a big goal can feel lonely. So, what do you, as a professional, need to be happy and effective in such a dynamic environment? Whether you think independently, are constructively disruptive and harmoniously persistent, is a personal choice. But giving up is not an option and self-reflection and humor are a must in order to survive.

The remarkable Carola Wijdoogen knows firsthand what it takes to be professionally effective and personally aligned with the work she undertakes in sustainability and CSR. In this survival guide, she generously shares her rich experiences and insights. It can thus help those who not only want to speed up transitions but also want to practice these principles in their everyday lives.

HRH PRINCESS LAURENTIEN OF THE NETHERLANDS, AUTHOR, FOUNDER READING & WRITING FOUNDATION, MISSING CHAPTER FOUNDATION, NUMBER 5 FOUNDATION

Business leadership for sustainable development

We live in a volatile world. Even though life — before COVID-19 — was a better experience for more people than it has been at any time in history, it is clear now that the system simply has not been functioning effectively — socially, politically, environmentally and economically.

Through shocks like COVID-19, which has caught us all woefully unprepared and has been stress-testing the system dramatically, it has become apparent that business as usual is out of question and that we need to press hard on creating a more sustainable long-term world for our people and planet, with improved risk awareness and resilience in our supply chains, operations and business models. With social inequality sadly being on a steep rise and bigger shocks than the Corona crisis yet to come, including climate change, we should better be prepared next time.

Now is a pivotal moment for business to lead the way in achieving a world where more than nine billion people have a decent quality of life within the boundaries of our planet by 2050; if we miss this opportunity, we will have failed. In 2015, both the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) gave us internationally agreed frameworks we can use for transforming systems. Put simply, they emphasize the need for a deep change in the way our economies work, and in the way our energy, mobility, urbanization, food and social systems contribute to planetary and societal well-being. In particular, the SDGs provide us with a global agenda that can help stimulate action from all sectors that benefit both people and the planet.

For companies, there is a clear business case for engaging with the SDGs. Companies that understand (and improve) their SDG impacts are better placed to manage operational, regulatory and reputational risks. On the path to 2030, unlocking potentially historic market opportunities can yield at least USD $12 trillion in business value, while generating up to 380 million jobs, as well as consolidating an enduring license to operate.

At the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), we have been working twenty-five years, with over two hundred member-companies from across the globe, to develop practical solutions to accomplish this. We advocate that business has a leading role to play as the world embarks upon this vital journey. In fact, forward-looking companies are not only integrating sustainability at the core of their strategy, decision-making and disclosures, as long-standing masters of innovation, they are also ideally positioned to become the implementation partner of choice in capturing opportunities across systems change. The time has now come for accelerating the transition to a sustainable world where business and the capital markets contribute to a flourishing society and where managing a company within the boundaries of the planet is the norm.

At the core, corporate sustainability leaders are key to the achievement of these goals; they create a meaningful contribution and have a positive impact, both for their companies and for society at large. In order to effectively translate sustainability goals into action and success, companies need sustainability professionals equipped with the necessary skills. I am pleased that this book is helping accelerate sustainable development by providing the tools for professionals on their sustainability journey.

The result will be a world that is better for everyone — including businesses, which cannot survive in a society and planet that fails.

PETER BAKKER, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE WORLD BUSINESS COUNCIL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (WBCSD). MR. BAKKER HAS LED WBCSD — A GLOBAL, CEO-LED ORGANIZATION OF OVER 200 LEADING BUSINESSES WORKING TOGETHER TO ACCELERATE THE TRANSITION TO A SUSTAINABLE WORLD — SINCE 2012.

Why?

The challenges we face are enormous. I have seen with my own eyes that the ice in the Arctic is melting faster than expected and our natural “air-conditioning” is disappearing. Plastic pollution in the oceans is increasing and plastic micro debris is likely to enter our food chain. The loss of nature is ongoing. Environmental disruption is increasing our vulnerability to pandemics that threaten our health, well-being, and economy. In order to protect our planet and create a sustainable future, we need to speed up and accelerate our transition to an inclusive, fossil-free and circular economy.

We have a hard task ahead, but we should not be discouraged by the magnitude of the challenge. Gradually, we are getting to know what needs to be done and we — at least most of us — even agree that action needs to be taken. The Paris Climate Convention and the UN Sustainable Development Goals have been signed and new ways of thinking about economic growth, like the Doughnut Economy, have been introduced.

A growing number of companies aim to play an important role in this transition. They see not only challenges but also opportunities and seek ways to possibly turn the tide. To support their transition to sustainable business, they often appoint a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) or a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) manager.

In 2010, I became the first Chief Sustainability Officer for the Dutch Railway (NS). The position was not only new to NS, it was also new to me. Fortunately, at that time there were several CSOs already doing a great job in similar organizations. To learn what a CSO does, I started interviewing them.

What makes a Chief Sustainability Officer effective? Most of the CSOs answered that it takes perseverance — dealing with ups and downs — and learning by trial and error to find out what is effective. As no company and no situation are alike, a one-size-fits-all solution does not exist. At the same time, I found that, although companies and situations might vary, the 7 different Roles of a CSO — based on scientific research — appears to be the same for every sustainability professional around the world. An effective CSO knows how and when which role is needed, and s(he) can alternate the different roles if the situation requires it.

From these peers, I also learned that there is no such thing as a “sustainability profession.” Our jobs are temporary, since the assignment of a CSO is to embed sustainability in all processes and activities of a company or an organization. So, the sooner we — as CSOs — become redundant, the better.

Nine years later however, the first generation of sustainability professionals is still here and the challenges we face are more complex and more urgent than ever. As a consequence, the need for more effective corporate sustainability leaders, who can speed up the transition, is growing.

Most of us learn the job by listening and exchanging information with our peers. When I was awarded the title of Dutch CSO of the Year, I made it my goal to stimulate peer-to-peer learning for sustainability professionals to boost their impact around the world.

With 7 Roles to Create Sustainable Success, I want to contribute to that goal. I wrote it with my own experiences in mind, using the structure of the 7 Roles. What did it take to make NS the world’s first railway company with 100% wind-powered trains? Which roles did I use, when and how? In addition, the book draws upon the experiences and best practices of many other CSOs and sustainability professionals. Their willingness to help stems from the “deeper drive” that unites us: accelerating sustainability in business.

7 Roles to Create Sustainable Success is just one step in my journey to stimulate peer-to-peer learning between corporate sustainability leaders around the world. It covers only a fragment of the existing know-how among CSOs. I hope that it will also inspire other (former) CSOs to share their knowledge and join the global peer-to-peer learning platform of the Sustainability University Foundation1, a co-founded social enterprise with the purpose of accelerating sustainability in business!

1 http://sustainabilityuniversity.org/

1

Introduction

What is the added value of a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) manager for a company? And what kind of work is (s)he supposed to do in a company? When is a CSO, sustainability or CSR manager effective in his or her job? The answers to these questions are described in this book on the basis of the 7 Roles that are needed to fully embed sustainability or corporate social responsibility in a company.

Each role is different and adds specific value to the embedding process in the company (Figure 1.1). The roles are based on the scientific research of the competencies of CSO or CSR managers of Eghe Osagie1, in which she describes the Networker, Strategist, Coordinator, Stimulator, Mentor and Monitor roles. After conducting applied research among sustainability professionals, three amendments to her findings were made:

▪The Coordinator role — based on the formal governance of a company — is expanded with the Initiator role, because starting a project or activity yourself and showing how changes can been made often works as a catalyst

▪The Stimulator role is expanded with the Connector role, because the CSO — as a sustainability ambassador without formal influence — not only stimulates change but also creates new connections with a multidisciplinary cross-company approach

▪The Innovator role is added, since driving relevant innovations is essential for achieving the sustainability goals and for realizing new sustainable business models.

Figure 1.1 Short overview of the roles of a sustainability professional

SO or CSR managers should not take on the execution or production roles of a company. In 7 Roles to Create Sustainable Success, I link each of the 7 Roles with the specific CSR or sustainability activities that need to be done within a role, based on the practical experience of many CSOs or CSR managers.

One could view this list of roles and CSR activities as a chronological and continuous step-by-step plan. Opinions vary on the correct order in which to take the steps, but it seems logical to start with the Strategic role. Then you are focusing on the “why” of sustainable entrepreneurship or CSR and the creation of a vision and (integrated) strategy. The interpretation of the “why” largely determines the focus of your work as a CSR or sustainability manager. But starting with the Monitor role can also be effective because, in that role, you can determine your starting point by making clear what has already happened in the field of CSR or sustainability. My experience, however, is that practice is not always reflected in a step-by-step plan. I myself have followed a different order and I have often been busy with different activities and roles at the same time.

Some activities are linked to more than one role. In this book, I describe a role by showing the typical key activities that need to be executed, although these might be useful for other roles as well. So, for example, I show the role of the Networker by describing the practice of involving stakeholders. However, by involving stakeholders in your Network role, you are also creating internal support for sustainability (Stimulator role) by bringing questions from outside into your organization. And in your Network role, you are not only involved with stakeholders, you are also building networks of peers to obtain ideas for your innovative processes.

The classification of roles and activities fits well with my own duties and that of various fellow CSO and CSR managers and professionals in medium to large organizations. During my research, I found that the 7 Roles are recognized in different parts of the world; however, the definition and maturity of sustainability or CSR differ substantially. As the former West Africa CSR Director of SIFCA group Franck Eba states:

“You have to take different culture into account. CSR must adapt to the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental realities of the countries where it will be implemented.”

Differences might decrease in the coming years, when international organizations and multinationals will continue to play an important role in setting the “sustainability agenda” globally.

Every company has its own sustainability journey. For a service provider without an innovation department, the role of the sustainability manager is different from the role in a manufacturing company with its own innovation team. Additionally, the roles and activities of the sustainability manager (or team) can change as sustainability is integrated more deeply into the organization. In an organization that is just starting its sustainability journey, you are likely to be the first sustainability manager. The Coordinator & Initiator roles will probably be your dominant roles, focusing on initiating projects and mapping what is in place already. When sustainability is integrated into the vision, the strategy and the innovation process, the CSR or sustainability manager will then focus more on challenging the organization to raise the bar and on driving breakthrough innovations. Some roles, like the Monitor role, might be taken by other departments. Eventually all 7 Roles will have to find an “owner” in the organization.

The everyday practice is different for every CSO, CSR or sustainability professional. That also makes the job interesting: not so easy to define!

What’s in a name?

In this book, sustainability and CSR (social responsibility) will be used interchangeably, unless the context requires a precise interpretation of the difference between the two terms. I often use sustainability, because it is in line with UN definitions and covers the overall social impact of companies. The same holds for organization and company, or any other entity that engages in business. Although I often use the CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer) as the “main character” in the book, the 7 Roles also apply to other sustainability or CSR job levels, such as sustainability managers or project managers in divisions, staff and sustainability teams.

My journey

Throughout the book I will share my experiences and practices of my journey as a CSO of NS. In order to understand the context of these examples, I will first give you a short introduction to the company NS.

NS is a train operating company for passenger travel. It concentrates primarily on improving operational performance on the railways, supported by activities that include bicycle facilities, stations and improving the door-to-door journey, together with other public transport partners. It has 36,600 staff, yearly revenues of €5.9 billion, 89% of which comes from passenger transport. It is based in the Netherlands, was founded in 1837 and has one shareholder, the Dutch state. To many stakeholders, customer satisfaction, safety and punctuality are more important than the financial position. In the Netherlands, the State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management awarded NS the main rail transport franchise for a term of ten years to 2025. Another important stakeholder is ProRail, the network operator (part of the Ministry) that takes care of the national railway network infrastructure and allocates rail capacity. NS also operates franchises in Germany and the UK in order to — like other major European state railway companies — prepare for possible further deregulation of the European rail market.

To illustrate my journey to make NS the most sustainable railway company in the world, I will frequently refer to the major milestone, that all electric trains in the Netherlands have been running on 100% wind power since January 1st 2017. The Netherlands is believed to be the first country in the world to do this, which became world news when it was communicated by Roger van Boxtel, CEO of the NS in a very unusual way: he was tied to a windmill that was running on wind power as well. Figure 1.2 shows the still of the video. People often ask me, “how did you persuade your CEO to do this?” The answer can be found in this book.

Figure 1.2 Still of video with CEO Roger van Boxtel

Structure of the book

7 Roles to Create Sustainable Success can be read from cover to cover, or you can focus on specific sections if you have questions about certain issues or roles. Every sustainability manager’s job is different: there is no fixed set of roles or activities that applies to all. Sustainability managers or professionals who fulfill only one or a few of the 7 Roles can easily find the roles or activities relevant to them.

In Chapters 2 to 8 consecutively, I describe the 7 Roles, explaining their deployment by describing the key activities linked to each role. I have indicated what I have done in practice, whether or not based on existing models and frameworks. I supplement each chapter with practices of other CSOs or experts and I end each chapter with a list of tips I have collected.

In Chapter 9, I describe the dynamics of the roles and how they can be deployed among others through an interview with Kate Raworth. First thoughts about the future of the sustainability team are shared by other experts. In Chapter 10, I describe which competencies a CSO needs most to be effective in relation to his or her roles and context. These chapters are at the end of the book because of the necessary references to Chapters 2 to 8. To get a better insight into the relevant roles and competencies for your own position, Chapters 9 and 10 can also be read first.

For the sake of legibility, the number of endnotes regarding literature and other sources has been limited in the chapters. The list of sources at the back is more extensive and also contains links to a number of relevant websites.

1 E. R. Osagie, R. Wesselink, V. Blok, T. Lans & M. Mulder, “Individual competencies for corporate social responsibility: A literature and practice perspective,” Journal of Business Ethics, 135 (2016): 233-252. doi: 10.1007/s10551-014-2469-0;

E. R. Osagie, R. Wesselink, V. Blok & M. Mulder, (Accepted) “Contextualizing individual competencies for Managing the Corporate Social Responsibility Adaptation process: The Apparent Influence of the Business Case Logic,” Business & Society, vol. 58 issue: 2 (2019) 369-403. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650316676270

2

The Networker

“Networks are defined equally by the nodes and the holes in between them.”

Peter Eversman, Associate Professor of Theater Studies, University of Amsterdam

Networking is a key component of the CSO’s role. This means maintaining relationships with external parties, creating connections and recognizing and shaping collaboration opportunities. You represent the sustainability profession and your company at external events or in external meetings, like a stakeholder dialogue. You build a network of peers who meet together and learn from each other. And usually you are responsible for the communications on the sustainability results of your organization, which includes speaking engagements.

The Network role is indispensable for stakeholder engagement. This chapter outlines stakeholder engagement activities and explains the related tasks for which a CSO or sustainability manager is responsible. This is highly dependent on how stakeholder engagement in an organization is structured. If stakeholders are already engaged and relationships are in place, then activities of a CSO include collecting and structuring sustainability-related information from existing stakeholder relationships. If nothing is in place or sustainability-related stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are not engaged, then activities include organizing engagement from sustainability-related stakeholders.

Diane Holdorf (now Managing Director Food & Nature, WBCSD, formerly CSO and VP of environmental stewardship, health and safety of Kellogg Company):

“Key to the commitment of responsibly sourced palm oil is the power of dialogue, engaging stakeholders and benchmarking to promote changes within the industry.”

When many stakeholder engagement activities already exist within the organization, the Network role is combined with the Coordinator role. In that case, the CSO or sustainability manager’s main task regarding stakeholder engagement is to map and further develop the information collected. In short, the focus then is to integrate sustainability deeper into existing stakeholder processes.

2.1 Stakeholder engagement

Corporate responsibility or sustainability management is a continuous process. Together with stakeholders, companies structure the content of this process. stakeholders share what their sustainability interests are and how they perceive the company’s economic, social and environmental value creation process. Engaging the stakeholders is, therefore, both an important and a complex condition to give direction and meaning to corporate sustainability and/or social responsibility.

Who are the stakeholders, actually? A broad definition is recommended: all internal and external people on whom your products or services have a significant impact and whose activities — in turn — can have a major influence on a company’s performance. This includes clients, communities, shareholders, politicians, government officials, suppliers, employees and civil society organizations, like NGOs.

Figure 2.1 Stakeholder diversity

Stakeholder interests can be expressed and served in different ways, either through individuals and organizations, but also through market research and international frameworks. There is a wide range of different engagement processes, including monitoring, consulting, negotiations, collaboration informing and active engagement.

Stakeholder interests will not always be aligned. They can conflict with each other, with the interests of the company and even with society at large. This causes dilemmas for companies. Sometimes, such dilemmas can move into the public domain, where media, politics and others join the conversation about the dilemma.

Actively engaging stakeholders does not simply help to give direction, it also helps to generate support for the organization and its CSR or sustainability strategy. It can even inspire a new social purpose for a company, as highlighted by Harriet Hentges, who was previously Senior Director of stakeholder Engagement at Walmart.

“The combination of the impact of Katrina and NGOs emphasizing the positive impact Walmart could have in solving common social problems, made the CEO realize that he could do so much good. That is when he decided to set sustainable goals for Walmart.”

Stakeholders influence a company’s strategy in terms of how it can achieve its mission as well as in the daily course of events. Stakeholders have direct or indirect interests and will respond when these interests are affected. To ensure this influence is a positive one when facing dilemmas, it is vital to be proactive and transparent during discussions. In short, for any company, it is important to take stakeholders into account and to involve them proactively. For the CSO or CSR manager, it is therefore of great interest to build a strong network and to organize the inclusion of relevant stakeholders and their social interests.

You can organize stakeholder engagement by looking at your organization in two ways:

▪What forms of regular contact already exists with your stakeholders? Through which processes?

▪Which stakeholders are not yet engaged? How can you structure their engagement?

In any company, a process is usually already in place to engage market-related stakeholders that influence a company’s core activities, such as clients, shareholders and core suppliers. Each department maintains its own relationships with its key stakeholders. As CSO or CSR manager, you can then insert sustainability topics into existing processes like client surveys, user panels or account management. There is also usually something in place to involve staff, like the employee-satisfaction survey or a worker council. Again, as CSO or CSR manager, you can request adding sustainability topics or questions to such surveys or agendas.

For the sustainability stakeholders that are not yet engaged, like NGOs or governments, first consider which department should build and maintain such a relationship. You can try to organize the involvement of this department, but you may have to initially develop the relationship yourself.

Companies with a longer history of stakeholder engagement usually hold (bi)annual central stakeholder dialogues. All stakeholders are invited to join and, as a group, discuss the results, ambitions and strategies of the company. These stakeholder dialogues are very valuable, not in the least because, through conversation, stakeholders are better able to calibrate the importance of their own interests. As CSO or CSR manager, you ensure that the stakeholders with strong sustainability interests are well represented.

For your own company, you can map the different stakeholders and determine how you want to engage with them. There are several roadmaps available, such as the GRI guidelines, ISO 26000 and local CSR guidelines.

It is important to conduct the stakeholder analysis together with senior management and colleagues who already have a relationship with various stakeholders. This helps you generate fundamental insights into who is engaged already and how, and whether this is something more structural or ad hoc. Capture the outcome of the stakeholder mapping in a policy document signed off by senior management.

Networking

A CSO or CSR manager represents the company at external events or in external meetings, not only at stakeholder dialogues, but also at other venues. Networking serves many purposes: finding partners in your sector or supply chain with whom to cooperate or innovate. Examples of this can be found in Chapter 7 in my discussions on the Innovator role. Learning from your peers is common practice when learning on the job as a sustainability professional. A network of peers to meet with and learn from is, therefore, crucial in developing know-how and gathering best practices.

There are many networks that a CSO can join: sector, product-specific or more general, national or international, like the World Business Council for Sustainable development (WBCSD). Some networks are free of charge or requirements, others are not. A proactive and careful selection of added value of a network for you or your company’s goals is important, since time and resources are always limited. Ask the advice of your peers to find out what network would serve your purpose best, although you may eventually have to build a new network for a specific purpose or goal, such as a system change in your sector. Also, you might want to invite other colleagues, like procurement professionals, to this network to make use of their know-how or share their best practice.

At venues or events, which are often organized by networks, a CSO or CSR manager is usually responsible for communicating about the sustainability results of his or her organization, which includes speaking engagements. Chapter 5, which discusses the Stimulator role, gives insights on how to communicate in an effective way, including the selection of the most appropriate speaker, which could be a person other than yourself.

2.2 Stakeholder engagement in practice

One of the lessons learned by CSOs or CSR managers is that stakeholder engagement should be about building relationships and acting on issues and not about endless lists of issues and stakeholders.

“I do not believe in B2B or B2C, we are of course all B2S. Business to Society.”

Wineke Haagsma (Director Corporate Sustainability PwC The Netherlands & EMEA)

Stakeholder engagement is all about people, relationships, and communications. Dialogue takes place between people rather than between organizations. Mutual fears, fueled by opinions about each other, usually decrease in personal conversations and through a better understanding of each other’s perspectives. Truly opening your door by inviting stakeholders for a working visit in order to really understand your business processes can positively trigger the spirit of partnership.

Being transparent, building relationships and opening the door seem to be repetitive themes in “best practices” for the Networker, even when it is your experience that a specific stakeholder might be out there, “to get you”. It takes courage to be transparent, openly discuss or even publish a company’s conflict of interest. And, it takes courage to be transparent about how the interests of different stakeholders are weighed. It is crucial to be explicit about what a stakeholder can and cannot expect and to provide feedback. This can take many forms, including small things like sending participants a summary of a dialogue or conversation and big things like an invitation to work together to find solutions.

As a state-owned public transportation company, NS influences many stakeholders and vice versa. The organization is set up according to our societal role, following formal consultation and collaboration structures with our stakeholders. At NS, we actively follow relevant developments and regularly conduct research on the impact of our operational activities (Figure 2.2) on different stakeholders.

Figure 2.2 NS inputs and impacts (annual report 2018)

Whether we like it or not, NS is a regular topic for public debate, which is usually intensely covered by the Dutch media. An annual media analysis helps to understand the impact NS has on society. Therefore, this is also included in our stakeholder analysis.

Guidelines for sustainability reporting usually link stakeholder engagement to the selection of important (or material) topics. The way in which these guidelines structure the engagement of stakeholders with the company’s activity, strategy and reporting, provides useful guidance to set up processes for stakeholder engagement. This section of the chapter outlines the practical example of the stakeholder engagement process of NS along the domains:

▪Stakeholder inclusiveness — who influences us and whom do we influence? (who)

▪Materiality — which themes are important for us and our stakeholders? (what)

▪Responsiveness — how do we respond to material issues which are important to us and our stakeholders? (how)

Stakeholder inclusiveness

On which stakeholders does NS have an influence and vice versa? We began to address this by mapping the stakeholders with whom consultation structures and processes already exist. To this, we then added specific sustainability-related organizations. To prioritize the list of stakeholders, we plotted them in a matrix, with the impact of NS on stakeholders on one axis, and the ability for stakeholders to influence NS on the other axis, as shown in Figure 2.3. The stakeholder matrix also includes the variety of processes used to engage the different types of stakeholders.

Figure 2.3 NS stakeholder matrix

Concerning the most important stakeholders where the mutual influence is large, you want to collaborate on value creation: you may even want to let them influence the direction of the company. You try to work with clients by asking their opinions in client research, asking for input in client panels, and by sharing ideas for new products and policies with them early on. In the case of NS, the latter is done with associations of public-transport users. Employee interests are represented through the works council and employee surveys. Other stakeholders, such as policy makers, are involved through regular meetings and by working in joint project teams.

Suppliers can have a large influence on a company, but that same company may not always impact them to the same extent. In that case, account management plays an important role to inform, consult and involve them.

However, some NGOs and suppliers offer such a wealth of opportunities (for example, as a source of innovations that can help your company achieve its goals), that the engagement takes a much more intense shape, such as collaboration.

Initially, NS did not have a structured engagement format with NGOs. This was changed by inviting them to take part in the central stakeholder dialogue, by consulting them in procurement processes and by asking them to collaborate on relevant activities.

Bob Langert (former VP Sustainability of McDonalds), explains how to choose a partner (NGO) in his book, The Battle to Do Good. It is one of many lessons he learned as a Networker:

“Do not pick a patsy but choose a partner that will challenge your organization. Evaluate partnership choices on a scale of 1-10, with 1 meaning corporate friendly and 10 meaning very radical. Work with NGOs in the 5-7 range, who are independent, credible, collaborative and knowledgeable about business and market forces; and practical rather than dogmatic.”

He adds that you should give up total control and invite this truly independent NGO into your business.

In my role as CSO, I also had a permanent role in proactively translating the interests of sustainability-related stakeholders (such as NGOs) towards the company. However I became redundant as their only point of contact in the organization. Increasingly, they found their own way to senior leadership and other management to provide their input or feedback.

Materiality

With your stakeholders, you want to engage in conversations about topics that matter to both parties. Companies with existing stakeholder relationships often already know what the current topics are and (hopefully) take them into consideration when carrying out their operational activities. Although current topics might be known, it is very interesting to also share with your stakeholders the topics that you envision becoming more important in the years to come. This is something to included explicitly in a (central) stakeholder dialogue.

To guide the discussion on topics for the future, you can use lists of relevant societal issues, such as the Sustainable Development Goals agreed within the United Nations or the Principles of the United Nations Global Compact. In the first central stakeholder dialogue for NS, I not only added NGOs to the list of stakeholders, but also relevant societal issues to the long list of potential material topics to discuss.

A materiality matrix is a useful tool to generate an overview of topics and to prioritize them on importance and impact. In the matrix, the interests of the stakeholders are plotted against the impact of your organization. To create such a materiality matrix for NS, I set up the first central stakeholder dialogues. These dialogues now take place every year or every other year. Meanwhile, the ownership for organizing the central stakeholder dialogue has been transferred to the communications & stakeholder management department.