Actions for human resources

Five actions for HR teams

Know what’s known For employees to understand what action they need to take on sustainability, they first have to know the impacts the organisation’s products or services have on the environment and society, as well as the bottom line. They also have to understand which impacts are most important (or material). If your organisation doesn’t systematically tell its workforce about its products or services in this way, a good first step is to ask employees what they’ve managed to pick up and what they would like to know.

Raise awareness Once you know what your employees know, and what they are interested in, work with your sustainability team and other allies (such as product managers and internal communications) to devise an awareness raising or a more formal training programme. This should connect the stories of how your products or services are delivered, to their impacts on the environment, society and profits, with some gauge of materiality. You need to tell the story from the beginning to end, even if your organisation is just one layer of a multilayered supply chain – where there are blanks, be honest about it. Use some life-cycle analysis data, if you have it, but keep materials as engaging and inspirational as possible. If your employees don’t seem that interested in sustainability, work with internal comms to figure out how to make the programmes engaging. It would be worth considering an overarching piece, with additional sections for different job functions – although, many actions on sustainability will require different teams to work together, so try to join the dots. Education and awareness raising feature in several UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), including 4, and 12-15.

Embed sustainability into HR structures and policies Build sustainability into people’s job descriptions, performance measures and rewards. Start with the functions that are likely to have the most impact. For example, which ones contribute most to greenhouse gas emissions, or use most water or other resources, or generate most waste? Don’t forget about social issues, your procurement team could be instrumental in driving better worker conditions and wealth in your supply chain. Offer pensions, healthcare and insurance schemes that align with your organisation’s sustainability goals. Offer incentives to encourage employees to more sustainable practices, like using less impactful travel options for commuting or work travel. These actions will drive progress across the SDGs.

Align volunteering with goals Several of the SDGs lend themselves to volunteering or other good corporate citizen projects, for example tackling poverty, protecting marine environments and restoring degraded land. Look for initiatives that will engage and inspire your people that are well managed and verified. 

Identify champions and celebrate successes Look for people throughout your organisation who actively engage on sustainability initiatives and have demonstrated that they make an impact. Ideally you want ‘champions’ throughout locations and functions. Consider developing a group or committee to connect champions, so they can share experiences of what works and what doesn’t and build up critical mass. When targets are met, develop a rewards scheme to celebrate successes and encourage others to do good. Share successes with the communications function and make sure the stories are told to internal and external audiences to encourage others and demonstrate leadership and best practices.

Full list of HR actions by SDG

SDG1 No poverty

Ensure employees in different functions know product and service stories or life cycles including the relationship with creating or alleviating poverty among different communities relevant to your organisation, including employees, suppliers and consumers. Work with team and/or line managers and sustainability team to gather expert opinions from different functions on potential solutions to poverty-related issues. 

Does your organisation’s voluntary or charity work tackle poverty? If not, investigate programmes that are relevant to your products or services. (SDGs 1.a and 1.b)

SDG2 Zero hunger

Relevant to the agriculture, food and grocery retail sectors. 

Know your product or service life cycles or stories and impacts related to food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture that are relevant and material to your organisation. Work with the Board and sustainability team to consider how actions might be included in certain managers’ job descriptions and performance reviews, and how this might cascade through the organisation.

SDG3 Good health & well-being

Relevant to all organisations.

Make sure data on employee health and wellbeing is collected, working with your occupational hygiene team. 

Do you, or can you, collect data relating to non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory disease, associated with your products or services? Working with occupational hygiene and board-level, can you devise new protections for employees, communities near facilities, and customers to mitigate any health impacts. Set targets and track progress. 

What data do you have, or could you collect to demonstrate the well-being of your employees? SDG3.4 calls for a reduction by one third, by 2030, of premature mortality rates from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment, and promotion of mental health and well-being.

SDG4 Quality education

Relevant to all organisations

This goal includes targets for ensuring inclusive, equitable, quality, lifelong learning for adults. Can you apply this to your employees? Specifically SDG4.7 sets a target to ensure that all learners acquire knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development, including education for sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, global citizenship, appreciation of cultural diversity, and culture’s contribution to sustainable development. Work with your sustainability team to devise education and awareness programmes to tackle each of these issues, depending on your priorities. Track employee responses to demonstrate progress towards this goal, through surveys or qualitative research.

The goal also opens up opportunities for volunteering or sponsorship. For example: SDG4.b calls for a substantial expansion of scholarships (by 2020!) available to developing countries for enrolment in higher education in subjects including technology, engineering and science; and SDG4.c calls for a substantial increase, by 2030, in the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation.

SDG5 Gender equality

Relevant to all organisations.

Does your organisation have policies in place that tackle all forms of discrimination against women and girls? If not, make it a priority to develop them. Make sure these policies are implemented and collect and verify data to show how your organisation is performing in terms of gender equality? SDG5.1

If you are not doing so already, work with your procurement team to develop supplier standards that embrace gender equality and discrimination? How are these standards verified? How do you work with suppliers to elevate gender equality and the protection of women? Set targets and a timeframe to measure progress SDG5.2

Does your organisation support employees who are carers? (SDG5.3)

What is the balance of women in leadership and decision-making positions in your organisation? Do you have transparent targets for achieving equality? If there is an imbalance, or you don’t have targets, make it a priority to implement strategies to recruit, train and promote women to leadership and decision-making positions; set metrics and targets to track progress.  SDG5.5

How does your organisation support women to have ownership and control of their finances and natural resources? SDG5.a

Does information technology in your organisation promote empowerment of women? SDG5.b

SDG6 Clean water and sanitation

Relevant to all organisations.

SDG 6.6, 6.a and 6.b provide volunteering and sponsorship opportunities for organisations who want to support restoration projects in general, and water-and sanitation-related projects in developing countries. 

SDG7 Affordable & clean energy

Relevant to all organisations.

Make sure training programmes and employee information include relevant elements on energy use and efficiency relevant to your products and services. Ask relevant employees if they know how to contribute to progress on energy use and efficiency? If not, set up training or education sessions, if extra help is needed. 

Consider setting performance targets related to personal energy use and efficiency.

SDG8 Decent work and economic growth

Relevant to all organisations.

Does your organisation (or sector) have a methodology for measuring contributions to GDP, or other metrics related to growth, and especially sustainable growth. For example, GRI data, or SVI’s social return on investment [or other systems]. What strategy and targets have you set to drive and track your organisation’s contributions to sustainable growth? SDG8.1

Does your organisation provide decent jobs? Does HR have a definition of what a decent job is and data on how many of its jobs meet the criteria, both internally and among its suppliers? SDG8.3

Does your organisation’s strategy for growth include how it will decouple economic growth from environmental and social degradation? From an HR perspective, do you measure social value and can it be correlated with your organisation’s growth? SDG8.4

By 2030 will your organisation offer decent work for all, including young people and those with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value? SDG8.5

Has  your organisation taken measures to eradicate slavery and human trafficking, and prohibit child labour both internally and in your supply chains? SDG8.7

Does your organisation protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, especially those in precarious situations, such as migrant workers. Does this apply internally and in your supply chains? SDG8.8

If your organisation is in the tourism sector, does it have a strategy to devise and implement policies that promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products? SDG8.9

SDG9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Relevance to HR unlikely to be a priority.

SDG10 Reduced inequalities

You should be aware of the goal to reduce inequality within and among countries. For example, do your HR policies and actions reflect the following:

• by 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40% of the population at a rate higher than the national average (can you apply this to your workforce, and work with your procurement team to encourage preferential selection of suppliers that do the same?) SDG10.1

• by 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status (can you apply this to your workforce and work with your procurement team to encourage preferential selection of suppliers that do the same?) SDG10.2

• ensure equal opportunities by eliminating discriminatory policies and practices and promoting legislation and approaches that increase equality. Encourage suppliers to adopt a similar approach. SDG10.3

• adopt policies, including wage and social protection, that achieve greater equality. 

Encourage suppliers to adopt a similar approach. SDG10.4

Consider how to give a voice to your employees in developing countries. SDG10.6

Consider how your operations impact migration and mobility of people. Are your actions aligned with safe and responsible migration? SDG10.7

SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities

Relevance to HR unlikely to be a priority.

SDG12 Responsible consumption and production

Relevant to manufacturing and service organisations

Are your people trained to understand sustainable consumption and production and what it means to their day job? For example, work with your sustainability team to devise courses  on:

• material footprints, resource use and resource scarcity;

• circularity and waste minimisation;

• hazardous chemicals in products and waste; and

• measuring sustainable consumption and production.

These courses will be particularly relevant to product managers, R&D and product development, procurement, sales/service, marketing, internal communications and data teams. They will be generally useful to all employees.

SDG13 Climate action

Relevant to all organisations.

What training and awareness raising needs to be done to educate different functions about your organisation’s plans to tackle climate change and climate impacts relevant to products or services? Which functions are priorities for the organisation because they have the biggest greenhouse gas emissions? Can wording be added to job descriptions to drive engagement and action on climate issues; what performance measures and rewards are needed? SDG13 

SDG14 Life below water

Relevant to all organisations that depend on marine environments.

Know your product or service life cycles or stories and the impacts related to oceans, seas and marine resources. If the impacts are material, work with other functions, such as sustainability and internal communications to develop awareness-raising and training materials to educate and empower employees to act to ensure your organisation consistently takes actions to protect marine environments? For example, work with the teams in your organisation responsible for plastic packaging that might end up in the oceans, such as product development, product managers, manufacturing, sales and marketing.

Are there volunteering initiatives that you could introduce aligned with protecting coastal ecosystems, oceans and marine environments?

SDG15 Life on land

Relevant to all organisations that depend on land environments.

Know your product or service life cycles or stories and the impacts related to land use and inland waterways. If the impacts are material, work with other functions, such as sustainability and internal communications to develop awareness-raising and training materials to educate and empower employees to act to ensure your organisation consistently takes actions to protect land, inland waterways and biodiversity? For example, if you work in the agricultural supply chain, what is the impact of run-off on rivers? Can you develop an awareness-raising campaign advising farmers of options to minimise run-off through various methods, such as planting buffer zones around water courses, or by collecting animal waste to feed biofuel production?

Are there volunteering initiatives that you could introduce to align with protecting 

land, waters and biodiversity?

SDG16 Peace, justice and strong institutions

Relevant to all organisations.

Does your organisation have a failsafe approach to avoiding child labour throughout your product or service supply chains? This should include auditing and verification of suppliers. Work with procurement and product managers to ensure this process is effective. SDG16.2 

Does your organisation promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies? SDG16.b

SDG17 Partnerships for the goals

Relevant to all organisations.

Work through professional bodies, trade associations and other channels, such as your organisation’s value chain, to identify opportunities to contribute to SDG initiatives where HR can have impact, for example partnerships promoting fair pay and worker conditions.