An Introduction to Corporate Sustainability Training

Public pressure is increasingly demanding companies to tackle sustainability issues caused by their business activities. Nevertheless, how can this be deemed possible if expertise and environmental awareness are not widely spread within organisations?

Given that "small actions make a big difference", all employees should be engaged from the bottom up to champion sustainability. To do that, it is crucial to link sustainability to operations and daily work. That is where Corporate Sustainability Training comes into place.

At the managerial level, sustainability training educates executives to conduct business while managing competing interests of shareholders, the planet, and society as a whole. Additionally, the training provides employees with the competencies to embed sustainability within their everyday work.

Training plays a crucial role in human resources development as a source of competitive advantage and increased efficiency, motivation, and productivity. Moreover, it is fundamental in driving corporate change by creating a uniform base of expertise through which the organisation pursues business' goals. If companies desire to embed sustainability within their DNAs, then training is key. It creates an involved and acknowledged workforce, stimulates innovation, and ties sustainability to the way of working and thinking.

In terms of tangible benefits that companies can derive from investing in sustainability training, the following are worth mentioning:

Through sustainability training employees understand the potential of sustainability efforts implemented by their company, thus comprehending the "business case for sustainability". Hence, employees themselves will learn how to best embrace sustainability and shape strategies to leverage corporate sustainability performances.

Finally, it has been empirically demonstrated that through sustainability training, the engagement of employees in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices notably increases.

At this point, we turn attention to the who, the why, and the how of sustainability training.

Who is sustainability training for?

For executives, sustainability training is crucial in developing skills and expertise to address environmental and social issues, manage risks, and integrate sustainability within the strategy. Training also provides executives with the essential competencies to be transformational leaders and inspire change among the entire business structure.

Concerning that, training plays a huge part in supporting managers redirecting their organisations towards sustainability. Whereas for executives, it can be difficult to manage trade-offs between economic, environmental, social goals, other than short and long term ones.

After integrating sustainability within executives' values and decisions, all employees have to be involved as well to build the change from the ground up. In conclusion, sustainability knowledge should be spread vertically and horizontally within the whole organisational structure.

Engaging workers in ESG programs should not be that hard based on the results of the 2016 survey conducted by Cone Communications, according to which:

• 70% of the respondents perceive stronger loyalty to companies involved in sustainability initiatives;
• 58% of the interviewees stated that organisational sustainability commitments are taken into consideration when looking for job opportunities.