Bottom up, but no further
“Because of the law’s requirements, we found that some of the larger organizations had dedicated sustainability officers, while the smaller ones did not because they lacked resources,” Yuriev says.
“In some cases, they just had someone who was responsible for filling out forms and producing reports. They were meeting criteria on paper, but without substantially integrating anything new.”
The success of the sustainability initiatives depends in large part on innovation stemming from individual employees. This allows each organization to develop its own individual approach to sustainable development, adaptable to its own mandates and resources. An aluminium-smelting plant would have a different approach to sustainable development than a ministry, for instance.
The researchers identified three types of factors that influenced proactive employee-driven innovation: individual, organizational and public-sector-specific. All three contained elements that determined whether an organization’s implementation of sustainability innovations went beyond symbolic measures. According to Yuriev, only about six of the 25 bodies had implemented substantial employee-engaging measures in line with the Sustainable Development Act.
Often, it was not for lack of trying on employees’ part. Yuriev says a combination of factors, from internal culture to hierarchies to political agendas to lack of resources, often stand in the way of meaningful staff-driven action.
“Most interviewed sustainability officers had good intentions and knew what they were doing,” he adds. “But they found they could not push their ideas through. They would frequently be stopped at some level toward upper management.”
He notes that substantial innovations were far more likely to be adopted in organizations where sustainability was the focus of their mandates.
Foster a growth culture
Yuriev says the law as it is written is partly to blame. It can be overly bureaucratic, requiring multiple time-consuming forms to be filled out, and has often vague criteria to measure evaluations. This allows organizations to claim compliance by adopting only superficial measures.
“Having an internal culture that looks favourably on sustainable innovation is crucial,” he says. “However, it is difficult to install that kind of culture. A continuity of concrete objectives, in which one is met and then a new more challenging one is implemented, would help ensure a sense of authenticity and commitment to sustainability among employees.”
Read the cited paper: “Is there a place for employee-driven pro-environmental innovations? The case of public organizations.”