Leadership for Sustainability
by Osbert Lancaster @ Realise Earth
" I absolutely love it. Out of all of the different sustainability podcasts I listen to I’d recommend it to anyone working in sustainability." Libby Kerman, Sustainability Manager, Lincolnshire Housing Partnership.Want to get more colleagues supporting sustainability – and not just paying lip service to the idea but getting actively involved in making change happen?Most sustainability leaders focus on trying to build more persuasive arguments, instead of building more effective relationships. And that’s a problem.Even though they may not talk about it, four out of five people are concerned about the climate and nature crises, and do want to take action – if only they felt able to.But stronger arguments don’t make people feel more able to act. More effective relationships do.When you connect with colleagues over what really matters to them, you grow your network of active allies and work together better – and that’s exactly what you need to make change happen.In the Leadership for
Episodes
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Make change happen: turn colleagues into allies
How do you actually make change happen? What’s the right balance between collaboration and competition? How important is it to convince people about the importance of sustainability? Last year we (Osbert, Morag and Rich, co-founders of Realise Earth) headed for the hills of Westmoreland to camp,...
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Making sustainability something people care about
Daniella Vega is Senior Vice President of Health and Sustainability with Ahold Delhaize, a Dutch-Belgian multinational retail and wholesale holding company. Daniella talks with Osbert about this unusual role and the synergies between reducing emissions and improving health. She also talks about...
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Grappling with climate, biodiversity and the circular economy
“It’s no longer sufficient to think about sustainability through the climate lens. The challenge and the exciting thing now is really grappling with the interconnectedness of the biodiversity crisis and the opportunity and necessity of the circular economy.” In this episode I interview Sam…
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How to succeed as a new sustainability manager
How do you get started as a brand new sustainability manager? Libby Kerman stepped into the newly created role of sustainability manager with Lincolnshire Housing Partnership just a year after university. Now, two years on, she reflects on what she’s achieved and learned. Libby talks about: the...
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How to be a courageous sustainability leader
Courage is identified by the Inner Development Goals as one the key skills needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It takes courage to go against the flow. It takes courage to say things others don't want to hear. It takes courage to innovate and do things differently. That’s why, if...
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Embedding sustainability in your organisation’s culture - the missing metric
At Realise Earth we’ve always been focused on helping sustainability leaders build support for, and catalyse action on, sustainability across their organisation. A challenge is how to do this at scale. That’s why we’ve now partnered with the Most Sustainable Workplace Index which can help you do...
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Roundtable: Getting Beyond Net Zero
Climate is only one of the planetary boundaries we need to work on. And we also need to tackle a whole range of social issues. That's why item four and our sustainability leadership manifesto is: "develop and deliver initiatives that offer multiple benefits for people and nature". In this...
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Roundtable: Collaboration for Sustainability - What Works?
In this Roundtable event, our guests are: Sandrine Ricard, Deputy Director Sustainability & Responsibility with Pernod Ricard in the UK Michael Solomon, Founder of Responsible 100 Sarah-Jane Littleford, Head of Responsible Business: Global Delivery with Fujitsu These sustainability leaders…
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Sustainability leadership and collaboration - a how to guide
Collaboration is essential to making greater progress on sustainability – within organisations and supply chains, across sectors – and across society globally. This is recognised by the UN Sustainable Development Goal 17 ‘Partnership for the Goals’, and Collaboration is one of the five dimensions...
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Roundtable: Discussing the sustainability leadership we need in 2024
What kind of approach to sustainability leadership do we need in 2024? In this Roundtable event, our guests reflect on their experience as sustainability leaders and give feedback on the draft sustainability leadership manifesto that Osbert talked about in the last episode. The topics discussed...
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Sustainability Leadership in 2024 - a manifesto for success
In the last year or so we’ve seen a slew of reports about the state of the environment showing that we’re close to, or perhaps have already gone beyond, the point of no return with climate change and several other planetary boundaries. It’s genuinely scary stuff, and it sometimes floors me. And...
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Delivering a successful circular economy initiative – insights from SSE Renewables
"How do we transition to net zero and build up the renewables we need in a way that respects our planetary boundaries and the natural world?" "How do you create a circular economy and break the link between business growth and resource use?" Kate Wallace Lockhart is head of sustainability with…
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More successful sustainability leadership with a theory of change
"You also need a theory of change. If you haven't understood what the big thing is you're trying to achieve, and you haven't understood how you are going to achieve that thing, then you have no theory of change and you're not going to achieve it." Bob Gordon told me that when he started out as…
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How to create and deliver your business's first sustainability strategy
Discover how Dee made the case for a global sustainability strategy, created Deluxe's first global sustainability role, and then developed and delivered their first sustainability strategy. Deluxe Media & Entertainment is a leading media services company with over 4,500 people across the world.…
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How to facilitate a workshop: A case story for sustainability managers
Run a workshop that encourages colleagues and stakeholders to be actively involved in your sustainability initiative. How to plan and facilitate a workshop that builds collaboration What are good activities? How to get people engaged? Some top tips inspired by our workshop for the Coalition for...
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Creating a sustainability strategy in a new industry – insights from RoslinCT
Adam Liddle, Head of Sustainability, RoslinCT, on creating a sustainability strategy in an industry, life sciences, that is completely new to him. 👉 Check out our new newsletter What if we saw our purpose as helping create the conditions for people and the rest of nature to thrive – whatever...
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Finding common ground to engage colleagues with sustainability /114
Relating sustainability to people's interests and concerns, and to organisational values and culture, is crucial for engagement. Here's why it's so important, with case stories from our experience, and practical guidance on how to put this into practice in your organisation. 👉 Check out our new...
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How to inspire collaboration for sustainability - 10 practical steps
This is part 2 of our interview with Alan Hendry, Sustainability Director at Mott MacDonald Osbert and Morag discuss what we heard to pull out important insights and offer 10 practical opportunities for action inspired by the interview – with a particular focus on collaboration. 👉 Check out our...
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How to inspire collaboration for sustainability - insights from Mott MacDonald
Alan Hendry, Sustainability Director, Mott MacDonald, a global technical services firm, on supporting colleagues make their services more sustainable. 👉 Check out our new newsletter What if we saw our purpose as helping create the conditions for people and the rest of nature to thrive – whatever...
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Sustainability leadership insights from the world’s fourth largest bank (Part 2)
Not all of us are sustainability directors of a global finance house like Tobi Petrocelli who Osbert interviewed in Part 1. So, for this post, Part 2, Osbert and Morag got together to discuss the interview, and to pull out some insights and recommendations that are relevant to everyone leading...
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Sustainability leadership insights from the world’s fourth largest bank (Part 1)
In the first of our new interview series, I talk with Tobi Petrocelli, at MUFG, Japan's largest, and the world's fourth largest, bank. Tobi is Head of Sustainability & Transition Finance Strategy at MUFG Americas. She offers fascinating insights into the world of funding the transition to a net...
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Develop key sustainability leadership skills for you and your team /109
How do you develop the key skills that you and your team need to create change, build relationships and bring people with you when you are leading on sustainability in your organisation? In this guide Richard Profit summarises what the key skills are, and how you can go about developing them,...
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The key skills sustainability leaders need to create change /108
What are the key skills that you need to create change, build relationships and bring people with you, when you are leading on sustainability in your organisation? Richard Profit talks about these essential skills, drawing on his research into sustainability leadership at Ashridge, his years...
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What makes a great sustainability team? /107
What are the characteristics of a great sustainability team? Rich Profit shares his experience as a senior sustainability manager with Pepsico, the world's second largest food and beverage company. 👉 Check out our new newsletter What if we saw our purpose as helping create the conditions for...
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How to run a sustainability workshop to engage your board and other colleagues /106
We talk you through exactly how to prepare and delivery of a workshop with your board, senior managers or other colleagues, that will lay the foundations for the success of your sustainability initiative. 👉 Check out our new newsletter What if we saw our purpose as helping create the conditions...
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How to build support among directors and senior managers for sustainability /105
Support from directors and senior managers is essential to maximise the success of your sustainability initiative. Osbert shares how he does this in consulting projects, and then takes you through the specific steps so you can apply this experience yourself. 👉 Check out our new newsletter What…
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How to talk about sustainability with colleagues /104
Discover how to talk with colleagues about sustainability in ways that make it more likely they’ll be interested and engaged, and be more open to supporting your sustainability strategy or initiative as collaborators or allies. Including lessons Osbert learned the hard way! 👉 Check out our new...
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Why you should use emotion to build support for sustainability /103
Osbert Lancaster explains how you can get potential collaborators and allies for your sustainability initiative interested and engaged by using the most powerful motivator - emotion. (And debunks the objections to this approach). 👉 Check out our new newsletter What if we saw our purpose as…
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Two approaches to build support your sustainability initiative (and why you should only use one of them) /102
Have you ever talked with colleagues about why it’s a good idea for your organisation to do more about sustainability only to be met with disinterest or even hostility? In this episode Osbert Lancaster takes you through two approaches to building support for your initiative – and explains why you...
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Why building support is crucial to the success of your sustainability initiative /101
In this very first episode, we explain why building support from colleagues and stakeholders is so important to the success of your sustainability initiative or strategy. Find the show notes at realise.earth/101
About this show
" I absolutely love it. Out of all of the different sustainability podcasts I listen to I’d recommend it to anyone working in sustainability." Libby Kerman, Sustainability Manager, Lincolnshire Housing Partnership.Want to get more colleagues supporting sustainability – and not just paying lip service to the idea but getting actively involved in making change happen?Most sustainability leaders focus on trying to build more persuasive arguments, instead of building more effective relationships. And that’s a problem.Even though they may not talk about it, four out of five people are concerned about the climate and nature crises, and do want to take action – if only they felt able to.But stronger arguments don’t make people feel more able to act. More effective relationships do.When you connect with colleagues over what really matters to them, you grow your network of active allies and work together better – and that’s exactly what you need to make change happen.In the Leadership for
Hosted by
Osbert Lancaster @ Realise Earth
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