How to Use This Book
Every company and every reader of this book will be at a different point in their sustainability journey. Therefore, I’ve written this book to help you, the reader, no matter what phase you are in. The book is chock-full of tools, activities, and real-world successes to provide you with the blueprint for sustainability implementation.
It is organized around three themes:
1. The Business Case: No matter what, you must always tie things back to this issue. This is the reason you are playing the game. (Chapter 1)
2. Fundamentals: These are the building blocks that are essential for your success. This is the blocking and tackling that will enable you to get to the next phase. (Chapters 2–6)
3. Engagement and Value Creation: This is where you look to score and win the game. This involves change management, employee engagement, and the policies and systems around sustainability that you need to institutionalize so that you can throw deep for the end zone. (Chapters 7–11)
The Hagen-Wilhelm Change Matrix, shown in Figure 1, is designed to help you recognize where your company is and what it still needs in order to truly integrate sustainability into everything you do. In each phase, there are different characteristics, drivers, and leaders. It is important to realize that as you progress as a company, you will reduce your negative social and environmental impacts while driving business growth and value through sustainability.
If you are just getting started, you need to read the book chronologically to make sure you first nail down the business case and fundamentals before tackling how to Make Sustainability Stick.
If you are a person or company that has been at this for a while, feel free to jump ahead to the Part II, “Engagement and Value Creation,” chapters.
If you are stuck or feel as though you have lost momentum, take inventory as to where you are on the Hagen-Wilhelm matrix and go back and brush up on your fundamentals. Then pick the specific chapters where your company needs to focus.
These tips are merely suggestions as this book provides illustrative examples, stories, and key insights throughout each chapter of the book; but the goal is to help you implement sustainability successfully and to make it stick for the long term, so read it however it best meets your needs.