Corporate Environmental Planning is built around five coherent steps to ensure the right environmental performance projects are funded. Firstly, the establishment and distillation of overall environmental goals into key performance indicators fit for incorporation into business execution strategies. Secondly, the issuing of guidelines that highlight focus areas for performance improvement and provide direction for business unit environmental plans. Thirdly, leveraging best practice methodologies in the development of these plans to identify environmental initiatives that align with business requirements and strategies. Fourthly, a consolidated corporate analysis of the projected costs and benefits of proposed projects to determine those with the potential to deliver the largest environmental returns relative to company-wide sustainability investment. And finally, the implementation of projects selected, including communicating their anticipated contribution to achieving overall environmental goals. By optimizing cost and resource allocation, this model accelerates progress towards environmental objectives while identifying synergies and focusing efforts on voluntary rather than compliance-driven initiatives.
While much of the Corporate Environmental Planning framework may seem intuitive, the devil is in the execution. With large corporations typically run as discrete business units, environmental performance management is often plagued by a lack of transparency and clarity when aiming for organization-wide coordination. Without an integrated business planning approach, potentially significant opportunities can be lost because they are not immediately apparent, or buried within a business unit. While DuPont is now recognized as an innovator in sustainability performance, the early days of trying to control environmental impact were defined by the need to rally the company as a whole, rather than limit risk mitigation efforts to individual business units. In the period since, though, improved integration of sustainability and business strategies has seen major investments in new or redesigned products with quantifiable environmental benefits. This has enabled the company to exceed environmental objectives, while at the same time generate substantial new revenue streams.
Like all business models entailing cultural change, implementation of a Corporate Environmental Planning approach must begin with a strong and visible management commitment. Indeed, this reflects a key belief held by DuPont: that people and leadership are the most important factor in shaping the success of sustainability practices. Part of this involves setting specific, ambitious goals that simultaneously motivate employees, demand genuine resource allocation, and promote accountability. Even more importantly, it is the responsibility of senior leaders to thoughtfully align strategy and goals by developing a consolidated roadmap that integrates environmental and business cycle planning. With a horizontal view across a company, this planning model provides the perspective necessary to execute a process that brings business unit leaders together around the table to identify opportunities and leverage operational synergies. Similarly, this planning model provides the perspective necessary to determine the most impactful and cost effective projects to pursue as part of a unified action plan.
