How to Be a Sustainability Champion in Challenging Times

The guide outlines five key strategies for corporate sustainability champions: aligning proposals with the firm's specific values and CEO's passions, building a financial business case using metrics like net present value, assembling diverse internal teams, starting with low-risk pilot projects to prove value, and building collaborative relationships with skeptical stakeholders, including finance executives.

• To gain support from senior management, sustainability advocates should align their project ideas with the organization's unique values and strategic objectives. 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.
• Effective business cases for sustainability projects must quantify impact in financial terms that resonate with the organization. Recommended metrics include net present value (NPV) of savings, brand equity expressed in dollars, and increases in employee productivity or stakeholder engagement.
• The author recommends building diverse teams of passionate internal individuals to drive the sustainability agenda, noting that non-homogenous teams are more effective at overcoming stale thinking.
• To overcome resistance regarding the allocation of scarce resources, advocates should first implement a pilot project focusing on 'low-hanging fruit' to guarantee a quick turnaround and prove the project's value before pursuing more challenging, long-term initiatives.
• Successful implementation requires avoiding 'antiprofit vigilantism' and instead building relationships with stakeholders who may not share the sustainability vision, specifically including finance personnel, to understand their perspectives before presenting in formal board meetings.

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} }