As sustainability becomes more and more crucial for business success, simultaneously, top sustainability talent is becoming more difficult to find and attract. (That kind of makes sense when you think about it, doesn’t it?).
Sustainability services — the specialized expertise and solutions provided by freelance sustainability professionals — are emerging as an effective solution to this double-barreled issue.
By availing of sustainability services, companies can access the expert sustainability help they need in a flexible, affordable, on-demand way. Meaning they can fully embrace sustainability, without the stress of trying to attract top talent.
(Think of it as sustainability ‘staff on demand’; there whenever you need them, but no need for a permanent hire).
But how do these sustainability services work? How can companies integrate them into their existing business strategy?
Well it’s actually quite straightforward really. Follow the simple steps below, and you can seamlessly use sustainability services to overcome any sustainability-related challenges you might have.
Step 1: Assess your sustainability goals
It all starts with assessing your particular goals. Are you trying to reduce your emissions? Make more sustainable products? Do you need to cover an expertise gap for an employee on temporary leave? Maybe it is all of the above?
Whatever you are looking to achieve, make sure to define it clearly from the beginning. Then, with a clear understanding of your sustainability objectives, you can start thinking about which sustainability services can best help you achieve those objectives.
Step 2: Identify the right sustainability services for your needs
Once you have your objectives in order, this step couldn’t be simpler really. Just a matter of matching each objective with the corresponding service/expert.
Looking to achieve a strong EcoVadis score? You can access the services of an EcoVadis expert. Need help spreading the word about your sustainability efforts effectively? A sustainability communications expert is the service for you!
Maybe you have a long list of sustainability objectives and you want to start working towards all of them at once? Well to that we say, fantastic! We admire your enthusiasm, and of course that is very possible too. You can integrate multiple sustainability services together at the same time whenever needed. (At the end of this article, we’ll even tell you how to easily find all these wonderful services).
Step 3: Ensure cross-departmental collaboration
Whichever service or services you are looking to integrate, collaboration across departments will be necessary in most cases to ensure they are successfully embedded throughout your entire business.
For example, if you are integrating a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) service, it might seem like only the product design or R&D teams need to take action. But LCA insights also need to be shared with procurement, to ensure that sustainable material choices are made. And operations, to assess the environmental impact of manufacturing processes. Marketing also needs to be part of the integration, to ensure sustainability claims are accurate and transparent when communicating with customers. Without close collaboration across these departments, you are unlikely to gain full benefit from the LCA service.
Sustainability communications services are another good example here. This is not something that only the marketing and PR departments need to know about! Legal and compliance teams should also be involved, to ensure messaging aligns with regulations and avoids greenwashing risks. It is crucial to include HR here too, so that sustainability messaging can be embedded in internal engagement programs and other communications. Sales teams should also understand the communication strategy so they can effectively communicate sustainability to clients and stakeholders. Essentially, without all departments on board, sustainability messaging risks being inconsistent or even misleading.
Our point here overall is that for each service you integrate, effective cross-departmental collaboration is needed to ensure that sustainability efforts are not siloed, and instead become a seamless part of your wider business strategy.
Step 4: Set measurable objectives to ensure value
With all departments on board and working together, you should be able to seamlessly and successfully integrate whichever sustainability services you need.
But to get the most out of them, the process shouldn’t end there. Once the services are integrated, it is essential that you set measurable goals for tracking their effectiveness.
After integrating Scope 3 emissions services for example, it would make sense to set some specific (and realistic) targets for emissions reduction over time. That way you can monitor progress, and ensure that the service is delivering value and aligning with your overall strategy.
Similarly, if you have integrated a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) service, you might set measurable objectives around reducing the environmental impact of your products. Increasing the percentage of recycled materials used for example, or improving end-of-life recyclability. By tracking these kinds of metrics, again, you can ensure that the LCA service is delivering value by leading to meaningful product improvements.
Ultimately, for each sustainability service you integrate, setting these kinds of clear objectives and keeping track of progress ensures that your investment is delivering tangible benefits.
Step 5: Celebrate successes
If you’ve followed the previous steps, and the sustainability services you’ve integrated are high-quality ones, then you’d better be prepared to start overcoming challenges and surpassing your sustainability goals.
And when that happens, make sure to celebrate! You should absolutely be sharing these successes throughout your company. This will help to keep employees engaged and motivated, and confident that sustainability services are an effective way to improve your business strategy and push the company forward.
Of course, you should also communicate these successes externally with customers and investors, who are bound to be impressed by the value sustainability services can deliver. (To make sure your communication efforts really resonate, and that you avoid greenwashing, you can always avail of a sustainability communications service!)
You’ll notice we did specify above that the services you integrate need to be high-quality ones. But how can you guarantee that’s the case?
Well thankfully, Dazzle already has that covered.
Easily access top-quality sustainability services with Dazzle
Dazzle is a platform that offers easy access to over 75 sustainability service categories. Including the top ten services available today.
This is made possible because the Dazzle platform is home to the world’s best sustainability freelancers. Freelancers ready and waiting to be your very own sustainability staff on demand.
With Dazzle, quality is guaranteed because we extensively pre-screen all of our freelancers. While the process is very flexible because you can choose to work with our experts on a project-based, on-demand, or interim basis.
Contact us today, and within hours, we can send you several expert profiles related to any sustainability service you require. So that you can find your perfect solution in no time.
In a world where top sustainability talent is becoming increasingly difficult to attract, Dazzle’s sustainability services give you stress-free, on-demand access to the sustainability expertise you need.
