Building Buy-In for Sustainability Projects

STEVE HENDERSHOT

As Earth Day comes around, many of us have a renewed focus on sustainability. But this is no longer a once-a-year topic for companies. Sustainability projects are helping the planet and can make a big impact on an organization’s bottom line—but it can take some effort to get there.

For example, it’s easy to proceed as though everyone at your organization shares your passion and conviction and to communicate accordingly. That road can lead to disappointment, though—not because the other stakeholders don’t care about the planet, but because you skipped some key steps around engagement and buy-in.

So today let’s get practical and talk about the skills and strategies that make sustainability projects actually work.

NARRATOR

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STEVE HENDERSHOT

This is Projectified[R]. I’m Steve Hendershot.

The World Economic Forum released its annual roundup of the top long-term global risks, and not only did climate change top the list, it practically was the list. Six of the top 10 global risks are environmental, including every one of the top four.

So there’s an urgency for organizations to pick up the pace in their sustainability efforts. That takes commitment, including resources, but it also takes savvy project leadership because the success of climate-focused projects—and also of sustainability-related components within larger projects—often depends on convincing people to do things differently.

Today we’ll check in with a couple of project leaders about how they’re making that happen. First is Brittany Brama, the principal sustainability program manager at C.H. Robinson, a logistics company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, in the U.S.

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STEVE HENDERSHOT

Thanks for joining us, Brittany. So tell me about sustainability at C.H. Robinson. How do those priorities get worked into your projects and practices?

BRITTANY BRAMA

It’s very much a cross-functional effort. So what we do is try to prioritize those ESG [environmental, social and governance] projects that offer the greatest potential across the board, that create that shared value. So it not only drives the impact for people and our planet but also customers, business, and [to] be able to find that intersection between what is the business strategy today and what do our stakeholders need. As a logistics provider, our goal is to reduce waste, increase efficiencies in our supply chain. So we try to take that mentality in all that we do.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

Now let’s move on to a specific project example. Tell me about one particular initiative that you’re proud of with a big sustainability component. Where did it come from, what was it trying to achieve and then how did you bring that about?

BRITTANY BRAMA

We built an industry tool called Emissions IQ, and this tool enables any company to measure the emissions of their freight transportation and instantly single out those potential opportunities for carbon reductions. So for many companies, this would be, for example, their first step in their sustainability journey because Emissions IQ is giving that visibility to the freight transportation emissions for the first time. You can’t really manage what you don’t measure, so this is a big step in helping many of our partners and customers get started or remove a hurdle in their journey.

Emissions IQ started as a passion project with a number of colleagues. So folks in data science, sustainability, product—all of these partners came together knowing that there was a problem that customers were trying to solve: emissions and emissions reporting. So building this together was a manner of personal dedication; it was a cross with that professional expertise that they already had.

In the first six months of this, we saw a tremendous reduction for customers just from having visibility. Just giving them the access to this tool, they were able to reduce the equivalent of 39 million gallons of gasoline in that short period of time. And that was just a fantastic “aha!” moment because that is a moment where you’re saying, “This is working, and we’re going to continue to loop this into customer conversations and work forward on it.”

STEVE HENDERSHOT

Let me dig into a couple [of] aspects of that. First, [you] can’t manage what you don’t measure. So how important is data to pursuing these sorts of projects or even the long-term vision?

BRITTANY BRAMA

Thank you for that question. That’s fantastic because I think the most important part of starting on a sustainability journey is getting your arms around what are the problems that you’re trying to solve? And the U.S. EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] says that 90 percent of your emissions are going to be in your Scope 3, and that’s really in your supply chain, and that’s what we do at Robinson. So trying to figure out how to solve that is where we come in. We have a massive scale, and we’re able to leverage all of this data. And so we’re able to help put those answers in the hands of our customers so they can get started and make decisions using smart solutions like this. So they can walk into a room, have a meeting with their co-workers, their colleagues and leadership and say, “This is where we are today. Where do we want to be in the future?”

STEVE HENDERSHOT

A lot of teams are probably full of people who are passionate about climate issues. But not every project stakeholder is going to be like that. So how do you go about building collaboration and compliance beyond the sustainability and ESG team at your organization, and also among your external partners?

BRITTANY BRAMA

If it’s not already on their radar, it’s something that you have to put on people’s radar because they may just not be aware of it and the value that it brings to their own work. So understanding how we work with data privacy, for example, and those elements that bring value to the long-term and integrating that into conversations, that’s really critical, and that’s what you’re talking about.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

And what about high-level C-suite? How do you go about demonstrating the value? I suppose even in the C-suite, you’ll have some people that are just in it, but you’ve got to also convey [the] deeper value or impacts. How do you go about doing that?

BRITTANY BRAMA

It’s really considering in your management approach all of the different elements of environmental, social and governance topics, and that’s about being forward-thinking. And I can’t imagine that there is a C-suite member out there who’s not being forward-thinking—who’s trying to create long-term value for the business. If you have that mindset, you’re going to align with any C-suite member that is out there. So when you’re looking at different projects, how are you leveraging the resources that you have? Are you eliminating those inefficiencies that you see? And I realize that that seems really broad, but honestly, it’s a fundamental mindset that you can put toward almost anything and really find ways to create value out of it.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

So let’s close out by discussing how you show your work. How do you measure impact across your sustainability initiatives—whether what you’re doing is working, and whether those results are resonating within your organization and among your customers?

BRITTANY BRAMA

We measure project impact in a variety of different ways because success can look different for each project, and I think that’s really important for everyone to keep in mind when you’re looking at the ambitions or aims of a single goal or of a single project. You need to just identify that at the outset so you can understand what success is at the end. And for Emissions IQ, our aim was to help our customers identify, measure and ultimately give them the information they need so they can reduce emissions later in their supply chains and have those business-useful decision pieces.

So we are seeing that this technology is already helping our customers meet their sustainability pledges. That’s one way of looking at success. Another way was looking at 350,000 metric tons reduced after the implementation of Emissions IQ. And then of course we continually look at stakeholder feedback. How is that being looped into the customer conversations? How are they using and leveraging this information as they’re setting their strategy moving forward?

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STEVE HENDERSHOT

Some sustainability projects focus on operations, like Emissions IQ, which we just heard about. Others look for different ways to move the needle, such as taking better care of old assets by squeezing more life out of them and making sure they’re recycled. That’s part of what Projectified[R]’s Hannah LaBelle spoke about with Oladele Iyiola, program manager for strategic programs, including sustainability and ESG, at telecommunications tower company Tawal in Riyadh.

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HANNAH LABELLE

Hi, Oladele. Thanks for talking with me today. Let’s start the discussion with your interest in sustainability. What spurred you to lead sustainability-focused initiatives, and why are you passionate about them?

OLADELE IYIOLA

Thank you, Hannah. So I’m going to start off by saying that everyone who believes in the survival of this planet really should be interested in and passionate about sustainability. We should all take conscious and intentional actions as much as permitted and try to influence others, like organizations and nations, to do so because the alternative to not taking action or not getting interested is quite devastating. On a personal level, aside from being a program manager, managing sustainability programs, to further demonstrate my passion, I have invested in upskilling myself [by taking] further formal education.

On the corporate level, I’ve been in the telecommunication industry for over a decade, almost 13 years. Telecommunication industry and the corporations in the industry like mine really depend on energy to serve our customers as well as to provide acceptable uptime services. So this interplay between the dependency and the impact continues to drive players like me to influence and design sustainability-focused initiatives and projects and also to continue to push the conversations forward, including efforts in development and use of alternative solutions that are environmentally-friendly and can impact our natural resources. So every single action I have taken—upskilling myself, getting myself involved, being a good change agent—these actually worked together to spur my interest in sustainability.

HANNAH LABELLE

You’re leading strategic programs, which include sustainability. So let’s talk about value delivery. How are these sustainability projects delivering value to the organization? And how are you sharing the benefits that these projects or initiatives have with key stakeholders?

OLADELE IYIOLA

The company’s sustainability projects create [a] lot of values and deliver a lot of benefits to our stakeholders. In terms of the larger society, we create a lot of value in forms of, for example, reducing the impact of our operation on the environment. We’re participating in the Saudi Vision 2030 by planting trees across the kingdom as a contribution to combating the impact of climate change. We’ve converted thousands of our diesel generators from off-grid to grid and other hybrid solutions, directly reducing our greenhouse gas emission to the atmosphere. I’m talking about an approximate of 50,000 metric tons of CO2 emission reduction so far.

One of the initiatives that I’m sure I’m going to talk about later in the discussion is waste recycling. Assets that have reached their end of life based on the fixed asset policy, for example, which usually we’ll have packed up and go dump in a landfill, today part of our sustainability initiative is to first ensure whether they can be reused. Like some batteries that might not be able to be full backup battery, they can still support backup for one to two hours. So, we do reuse, and we also do a lot of recycling.

HANNAH LABELLE

Let’s talk more about that waste recycling and asset reuse project now. What was the initiative’s goal, and how did it align with your organization’s strategic objectives?

OLADELE IYIOLA

As an infrastructure company, we basically generate network and operational waste: steel structures, equipment, cable, fuel, oil filters, batteries and the likes of them. In order to avoid possible violation of local environmental regulations, and to promote responsible waste handling and to ensure that we comply with international best practices in management of waste, we launched a recycling and waste management project.

The approach was that we identified, through a rigorous search, I must say, a competent service provider and e-waste treatment company that is licensed by the environmental protection authority in the country. We signed a waste recycling contract that covers collection of disposed assets from sites and warehouses, recycling of the asset materials—assets that cannot be reused, for example, based on joint assessment that will be done, would be recycled. This service provider will also be responsible for selling them off. And at the end of the day, we will be issued a recycling certificate. This certificate itself is proof that the company is committed to responsible waste management.

We successfully did this, and I’m very proud about it. For example, out of the total disposed asset materials [of] over 30,000 with the total weight of about 2,000 tons, 80 percent of this material actually passed through [the] recycling process. So indirect revenue was made from it, which is actually not the primary objective, but that’s secondary. We’re giving value for money to our shareholders. We’re ensuring environmental compliance on our waste instead of dumping our waste in landfill. So this really perfectly aligns with the organization’s strategic goal to make positive impact on the local community and ensure environmental sustainability by contributing to community development and promoting renewable energy.

HANNAH LABELLE

And so, really thinking toward the project leadership aspect of this, what skills were a must-have to lead this initiative?

OLADELE IYIOLA

Technical skill is very key because you really need to understand what you’re managing. You need to have a broader view, a broader picture, at the strategic level. Your collaboration skill must be top-notch. You must be able to collaborate. You must be able to manage different stakeholders who have different interests. You must be able to bring everybody together, and so that is where your leadership skill will also come to play. You must be seen to be a leader; you are clear about what you want to achieve, and you are able to influence and inspire others to achieving the objectives. So all of these I consider very essential to lead this type of program and initiatives.

HANNAH LABELLE

Let’s close out with your top piece of advice to other project or program leaders who are leading sustainability initiatives. What’s the one thing you would want to share with them?

OLADELE IYIOLA

Be a change agent. By that, I mean try to identify levers of change that you can easily influence, and those that you need more stakeholders to effect [change] within your organization. You need to be able to ensure that there is increased awareness. You need to be able to communicate clearly.

So all of these you will need, and you will be able to effect change within the environment wherever you find yourself. If you are able to commit to increasing your level of stakeholders’ awareness, employees’ awareness, the society awareness, clear communication on what to achieve, increasing your technical skill, being able to understand the different stakeholders that your business is impacting—understanding them, understanding how you can deliver values to them—with all of these, you will see yourself as a project manager making significant changes within any environment where you find yourself.

HANNAH LABELLE

Fantastic. Oladele, that is a great way to end it. Thank you so much for talking with me today. I appreciate it.

NARRATOR

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