The ESG Advocate 014 - Unlocking Employee Passion

Sep 27, 2022

Inspiration is easier than action these days.

Inspiration abounded between NYC Climate Week and the UN General Assembly last week, but action was the call. S&P Global declared At Climate Week NYC, calls for less talk and more action. Similarly, WBSCD asked Are Companies Really Reducing Supply Chain Emissions, or is it all Smoke and Mirrors?

There are two directions that ESG and sustainability efforts get done at companies. One is from the top-down when leaders prioritize these initiatives. The other is bottom-up, with employees driving the change from the edge.

The inspirational speak and commitments aren't cutting it, but companies have a secret weapon - their employees.

Let's get to it!

It's time to go to work

Let's set the ground rules for action with a story. I find myself lucky enough to work on sustainability and ESG with some of the largest companies in the world. As a result, I have a lot of conversations about the topic. Once, someone asked me this question:

Have you ever encountered a situation where you disagreed with the company's sustainability stance but had to work with them anyway?

Oof, what a loaded question! Let's unpack it.

First, if we're talking ESG, this is usually easy because there aren't values assigned to risk management.

Second, if it's sustainability-related, values are ascribed to these discussions. Overall, I'm a fan because my values are aligned.

Third, working with companies with controversial practices is at the crux of this question. Lucky for me, I sit on the WW Sustainability Team, and no company has yet said, "help us greenwash this." No matter the industry, companies seek help to drive actions and outcomes.

As an employee, I take my role seriously and love that I can make an impact at scale.

And so, I take every call, unpack every issue, and try to drive towards action through inspiration and technology. My conversations sit squarely with employees today, which is good because employees are where the action happens! Alison Taylor notes this about employees in this read on romantic love and corporate passion:

And so we’re experiencing a real bottom-up push where workers are finding their voice and using that to enable more democratic decision-making...Now that power shift — where leaders can’t control the culture and corporate narrative anymore — is completely new in the last decade.

We are definitely at a unique moment in corporate history. The path is charted today by those brave enough to capture the momentum and act. Like any transition, things are perfect. Taylor also tackles the complexities and validity of this movement. The conclusion is that unrealistic expectations could lead to employees with broken hearts, no matter how much we love the purposeful work.

But most of the time, work won’t love us back — it will write us off as soon as there’s not enough money to go around.

As someone who has brought his all to every job he's had only to have companies go bankrupt or be bought and summarily dismantled, that resonates. On the other hand, when there isn't enough expertise to go around, ESG and sustainability represent interesting opportunities for employees to make a change at their company or find one where they are valued for their values and passion (check here and here).

Let's be clear. There's no quelling the passion, so set your expectations and be ready to job hop if needed.

Tech offers a path forward for the hopeful

Fortunately for me, tech appears to be an industry that is paying attention to these issues.

You can find this passion in strong employee coalitions at many big tech companies, which might be why I'm so busy as of late. The article calls out that it isn't all rosy, though. Again, set your expectations and be ready.

The question is, why are tech employees leading the charge? The article also waxes philosophical about generational aspirations, similar to what Taylor calls out about her students.

Well, the employee base skews younger. It may be that simple. We know that there's an age skew in the population in terms of how concerned people are about this whole problem.

As a 46-year-old who pivoted towards ESG and sustainability, that doesn't sit right with me. While the younger generation is looking for meaning in their work, championing their personalities at the office, and pushing, I think big tech has two direct intersections with this topic:

Technology is a material risk and opportunity, like ESG.
Technology companies are dealing with core business challenges. ESG is a core business challenge.

For me, these reasons drive technology employees to be more willing to push their employees. Still, every employee in any industry should feel empowered to get the conversation going.

Leaders should be paying more attention.

An employee who is passionate about ESG topics AND who understands the business is a gift to their company. If leaders empower those employees to act on that passion, you have powerful agents of sustainable change.

Empowering employees isn't a passive enablement exercise but takes active care. There are pressures that an employee can feel not to organize, as The Hill points out:

A Salesforce survey showed 3 in 5 workers are eager to incorporate sustainability into their work.

The employees also felt additional challenges, including the insanely complex sustainability reporting landscape and low investment in sustainability training.

This article also touches on a sentiment that I see more and more.

Language in the sustainability field is very technical — there is a language gap. People understand personal sustainability but not corporate sustainability.

Structured training is another key investment that leaders can make.

To summarize, leaders can take three steps to empower employees:

Inspire - Seek passionate employees and encourage them to organize (think Employee Resource Groups).
Activate - Empower employees to make the change (financial backing and shared leadership in decision-making).
Educate - Provide employees with structured ESG and sustainability learning.

At this point, I realized I've argued for a similar conclusion my co-worker, Drew Wilkinson, came to. Drew has worked at Microsoft to foster our WW Sustainability Community and has pushed for real progress here.

Don't miss his deep dive on this topic for useful tips!

Make Sustainability Part of Everybody's Job — techcommunity.microsoft.com

Sustainability should be a part of everybody's job and how to get there.

If you are passionate about these topics and have options to move around, it is worth pushing up to your leaders. Read the executive room and do your due diligence. If you need some ideation on the value, check out The World Economic Forum article with use cases, showing how even ESG reporting (something basic, despite the myriad of standards) is driving change.

I often write that ESG and sustainability flow into each other.

For employees:

Material ESG issues can be an excellent conversation starter looking to unlock future sustainability efforts from your leaders.

For leaders:

Addressing material ESG issues can feed your employees' passion while you mobilize around a sustainable business.