How to Be a Sustainability Champion in Challenging Times

This guide provides strategic advice for employees seeking to implement sustainability and energy efficiency initiatives within corporations that are initially resistant or indifferent to such goals.

• To gain the attention of senior management, sustainability advocates should align their project ideas with the organization's specific values, strategic objectives, and guiding principles. This can be achieved through a top-down approach by focusing on risk management and value creation, or a bottom-up approach by building consensus through collective action and volunteers.
• Building a successful business case requires quantifying impact in financial terms that matter to the organization, such as net present value (NPV) of savings, brand equity in dollars, or increases in employee productivity and stakeholder engagement. The use of relatable case studies and narratives is recommended to increase the subjective and symbolic value of the project.
• The guide suggests starting with a pilot project focused on "low-hanging fruit" to ensure a quick turnaround and guaranteed impact, which helps prove the project's value to skeptics. Once the business case is established via a pilot, the advocate should then push for more challenging projects that offer long-term savings rather than those that support the status quo.
• Effective sustainability leadership requires building a diverse team of passionate internal stakeholders and maintaining open communication with those outside one's comfort zone, including finance executives. The author warns against "antiprofit vigilantism" and suggests that listening to and understanding the perspectives of senior management is more effective than trying to prove the organization is too self-serving.

APA

RMI (2017). How to Be a Sustainability Champion in Challenging Times. https://rmi.org/resources/sustainability-champion-challenging-times/

Chicago

RMI. How to Be a Sustainability Champion in Challenging Times. 2017. https://rmi.org/resources/sustainability-champion-challenging-times/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=How to Be a Sustainability Champion in Challenging Times |date=31 October 2017 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/sustainability-champion-challenging-times/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2017how, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{How to Be a Sustainability Champion in Challenging Times}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2017}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/sustainability-champion-challenging-times/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }