Brendan May argues that company heads must personally and publicly take sustainability seriously

Brendan May argues that company heads must personally and publicly take sustainability seriouslyIn 2010, two moments highlighted the importance of a chief executive in driving (or not) the sustainability agenda. Anyone who tuned in to the global webcast launch of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan in November will have noticed the degree to which Paul Polman is personally navigating the environmental and social challenges faced by the planet and what the company he runs plans to do about them.

At the other end of the scale, former head of BP Tony Hayward’s performance after the Deepwater Horizon episode will provide a generation of case studies on how not to respond to a sustainability disaster.

All decent companies now have resources assigned to sustainability. Whether as a standalone department or, better still, a true process of embedding responsible practice across all commercial activities, more multinationals have skilled and experienced people among their ranks.

But few chief executives have the knowledge or courage to step outside their comfort zone of shareholder calls and brand restructuring. Companies that win the sustainability race will be run by leaders who are edgy, risky, knowledgeable and bold enough to take personal responsibility for their performance on green and ethical issues.

In part, the emergence of new ethical brands such as Innocent has changed the role of the chief executive. Business leaders are expected to be campaigners for a more equitable world, to provoke debate, challenge the existing order and explain what they are doing about problems they no longer pretend are temporary or beyond their influence.

They need to listen, not just at shareholder meetings, but also to the broader spectrum of opinion that will determine the fate of their business, and hence their own career prospects.

The most compelling business conversation I have heard took place some years ago at Ceres in Boston. Jeff Swartz, chief executive of Timberland, and Gary Hirshberg, president of Stoneyfield Yoghurt, discussed the ethical imperative and commercial realities of creating true value from their business activities. Swartz, with his regular tweeting and focus on “moral capitalism”, has fast become a model of an ethical chief executive. Others before him, like Seventh Generation’s Jeffrey Hollender and Body Shop’s Anita Roddick, led the way.

Now for the multinationals

Increasingly, attention will turn to the multinationals that serve billions of consumers a day. What role will they play in meeting the challenges of water access, decarbonisation, sustainable sourcing and respect for human rights?

The key is to move from speech-giver to engaged champion of these issues. At the Unilever launch, Polman gave a good introductory speech. But that was the easy part. Where he excelled was in the panel discussion, where he responded to questions, challenges and criticisms from the floor.

He did not pretend to know everything or have it all worked out. But you left the room knowing you had witnessed not merely a cleverly orchestrated PR opportunity, but a true journey going on in one of the world’s largest companies.

So how should a chief executive go about moving from reading out words drafted by others to become a campaigning advocate for lasting change?

• Immersion – become deeply familiar with the environmental agenda and the impact of your company upon it. 
• Walk the shop floor – know as much as possible about how the company behaves day to day, what it buys, from whom and under what social and environmental criteria.
• Provoke and debate – pick leadership issues and set out challenges and ambitious goals.
• Mobilise your people – thousands of employees go home every night and talk about their company so a chief executive should make them sustainability champions too.
• Challenge the norm – think about changing the business model, not just reducing impacts.
• Educate investors – the least receptive audience on sustainability, but the most interested in the chief executive’s opinion.
• Entice the media – personalise your company’s efforts, and take reporters to see interesting things.
• Keep reading – don’t rely on briefings from others, as immersion is a constant process, not a one-off.

The personalisation of companies is a trend that will only grow. Pioneered by the likes of Richard Branson and Donald Trump, it has often been confined to niche brands or privately owned business empires. Now, chiefs of publicly owned multinationals need to recognise that their personal commitment to sustainability is a key lens through which their firm’s seriousness intent is judged.

Brendan May is a contributing editor to Ethical Corporation and founder of the Robertsbridge Group.