What is happening?

Delivering on sustainability goals is a highly interdependent endeavor. Whether through Scope 3 emissions reductions, energy partnerships to address Scope 2 emissions, circular networks formed to meet extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations, joint efforts for cleantech or climate tech, or the development of new green products, organizations profoundly benefit from forging and nurturing formal coalitions. Coalitions are also critical to share expenses while delivering sustainability results, increasing the number of initiatives able to make a significant impact.

But these coalitions are unlikely to entail business as usual working relationships. They will require a far deeper level of mutual visibility, alignment, and collaboration across organizations.

Why does it matter?

Sustainability is a developing competency for most organizations. That means that coalitions dedicated to sustainability are not driven from or able to leverage mature capabilities and operations. Instead, they are likely to be learn-as-you-build enterprises as contributing stakeholders new to each other learn to work together to produce efficient results.

Sustainability programs need a secure digital platform to operationalize these coalitions and enable multiple organizations to plan, orchestrate, manage, and measure performance across different initiatives. And the first two steps – plan and orchestrate – will need a deeper level of context for key stakeholders to be onboarded, aligned, and working cohesively against a shared understanding of purpose and targets.

Without this type of system, well-meaning organizations will flounder, expending resources without the expected results. With this system in place, highly orchestrated coaltions are able to collaborate, invent, and find the best path forward to produce financial and sustainability performance.

What does it mean to organizations going forward?

Forging new or extending existing coalitions is a critical success factor for sustainability programs. It is a powerful way to increase efficiencies and produce far better results, whether that is in the service of Scope 2, Scope 3, new products, or shared development of cleantech or climate tech.

It takes time to build coalitions. It takes more time and superior management to make them efficient and productive.

Sustainability leaders should accelerate efforts to put in place a program management and measurement system able to onboard, align, orchestrate, and measure multiple stakeholders across multiple organizations to address the extraordinarily entangled nature of sustainability.