1. Seventh Environmental Management Leadership Symposium
Responsibilities in Sustainable Industries
ROCHESTER
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
J. Morelli L. Greenwood K. Lockwood C. Portillo

2. Where should responsibility reside?
Business organizations are consumers as well as producers
Sustainability-related consumption and production is influenced by where within the organization responsibility resides
Essential to understand how to most effectively allocate responsibility among the organization’s functional units
Sustainability is a term that is applied commonly and ubiquitously, stripped of any specific meaning and left open to individual political and philosophical interpretations. This is strongly evidenced in recent employment advertisements for sustainability managers and directors. Posted job descriptions associated with employment opportunities for sustainability managers in US corporations reported great diversity in expectations regarding the associated scope of duties.
This work examines where within business organizations responsibility for sustainability is most appropriate. The goal of this research was to provide a better understanding of which professionals and functional units within an organization are most appropriately prepared and positioned to contribute to the various elements of an organization’s sustainability and social responsibility efforts.

3. Description of the Study
7,400 professionals surveyed
20 functional areas
523 respondents
45 questions
Derived from 220 action items in ISO26000
16 related to sustainable production, consumption, and communication
Survey premise: Organization declares its commitment to social responsibility & sustainability; what level of responsibility will you hold?
Professionals were surveyed working in over 20 different functional areas, including: legal affairs, environmental management and engineering, occupational health and safety, purchasing, product and process design, materials management, manufacturing, operations, purchasing, production, facilities management, marketing and sales, communications, human resources, and risk management, quality, finance and accounting, engineering, customer service, business development. Attempts were made to reach at least 200 individuals in each functional area but there was considerable variation in the number available in each.
The premise of the survey was that the leadership of the organization has announced its intention to move the organization toward a more sustainable and socially responsible future, and asked all the professional members to assess 45 action items and identify for which and to what extent they believe they are prepared to take responsibility. The action items were constructed by consolidating representative elements of the 220 action items in the proposed ISO26000 Social Responsibility standard.
The professionals were asked to rank their responsibility for the given action items as: no role or responsibility, minimal role or responsibility, supporting role or responsibility, major role or responsibility, or principal in charge.
Every question had two parts. The first was the individual’s responsibility and the second was to identify any other professional group in the organization that the individual felt should take some responsibility.

4. Operations/Production Environmental, Health and Safety
Sustainable Consumption
Ensuring that the organization offers consumers socially and environmentally beneficial products
Providing consumers with accurate information about environmental and social factors related to products and services
Self-Indicated
Few
Perceived by Others
Marketing
Operations/Production
Environmental, Health and Safety
Self-Indicated Marketing/Sales – 29% Perceived by Others Marketing Communications/Public Relations Legal
Regarding Sustainable Consumption,
This action item stated: Ensuring that the organization offers consumers socially and environmentally beneficial products. Few respondents indicated an intention of taking either principle or major responsibility for ensuring that the organization offers consumers socially and environmentally beneficial products.
However, the Marketing, Operations/Production and Environmental functions were identified as perceived by others as having roles in this regard.
The following action item: Providing consumers with accurate information about environmental and social factors related to products and services. With respect to providing consumers with accurate information about environmental and social factors related to products and services, the Marketing function was strongly perceived by other professionals as having a significant role, followed to a lesser extent by the Communications/Public Relations and Legal functions. However, few respondents in any functional area self-indicated an intention of taking either principle or major responsibility in this regard, including only 29% of Marketing/Sales professionals.

5. Environmental, Health & Safety – 92%
Protecting Consumers’ Health and Safety
Ensuring that the organization will provide products and services that, will be safe for users and the environment
Instructing consumers in the proper use of products and conveying appropriate safety information
Self-Indicated
Environmental, Health & Safety – 92%
Perceived by Others
Operations/Production
Health & Safety:
Self-Indicated Environmental, Health & Safety – 89% Perceived by Others Marketing Legal Health & Safety Operations/Production

6. Operations/Productions Self-Indicated
Fair Marketing
Sustainable Resource Use
Ensuring the organization will not engage in any deceptive, misleading, fraudulent or unfair practices, including omission of critical information
Implementing programs and practices for sustainable material, energy and environmental resources
Self-Indicated
Finance and Accounting – 80%
Human Resources – 50%
Environmental - 48
Operations/Productions – 48%
Perceived by Others
Human Resources
Environmental
Operations/Productions
Self-Indicated
Environmental, Health & Safety-70%
Perceived by Others
Operations/Production
Facilities
Environmental
Health & Safety
Purchasing

7. Self-Indicated Purchasing-60% Perceived by Others Purchasing
Climate Change and Mitigation
Identifies potential adverse impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity; and implement planning, design and operating practices to eliminate or minimize them
Considers environmentally and socially responsible performance when evaluating and selecting suppliers and contractors.
Self-Indicated
Purchasing-60%
Perceived by Others
Purchasing
Self-Indicated Environmental, Health & Safety-64% Perceived by Others Operations/Production Environmental Facilities Health & Safety

8. Environmental, Health & Safety-48%
Climate Change and Mitigation
Considers market mechanisms, such as carbon emissions trading, to internalize the cost of environmental burdens resulting from the organizations’ activities, products and services.
Incorporates the protection of natural habitat, wetlands, forest, wildlife corridors, protected areas and agricultural lands into land development projects.
Self-Indicated
Environmental, Health & Safety-48%
Perceived by Others
Operations/Production
Environmental
Self-Indicated Environmental, Health & Safety-49% Perceived by Others Environmental Operations/Production

9. Self-Indicated Perceived by Others Self-Indicated Perceived by Others
Prevention of Pollution
Ensuring that the organization measures, records, reports and publically discloses the amounts and types of toxic and hazardous materials used and released, and makes known the associated risks to human health and the environment.
Implementing measures to minimize waste, prevent pollution and properly manage that which is unavoidable
Self-Indicated
Environmental, Health and Safety – 84%
Perceived by Others
Environmental, Health and Safety
Self-Indicated
Environmental, Health & Safety – 86%
Operations/Production-61%
Perceived by Others
Operations/Production
Environmental
Facilities
Health & Safety

10. Self-Indicated Purchasing-89% Perceived by Others Purchasing
Community Involvement & Development
Promoting SR in Sphere of Influence
Giving preference to local suppliers of products and services and contributing to local supplier development where possible and practicable
Ensuring the organization participates in raising the environmental and social responsibility awareness of those with which it has relationships
Self-Indicated
Purchasing-89%
Perceived by Others
Purchasing
Self-Indicated Environmental-58% Perceived by Others Human Resources Purchasing Environmental Operations/Production

11. Human Rights Due Diligence
Organizational Governance
Ensuring that the organization does not partner with those who engage in human rights or environmental abuses.
Ensuring the organization is governed in a manner that balances the needs of the organization and its stakeholders, including immediate needs and those of future generations
Self-Indicated Operations-67% Environmental, Health & Safety-54% C-Level-89% All Functional Areas-44%/80% Perceived by Others Operations Human Resources Environmental Health & Safety
Self-Indicated Environmental, Health & Safety-42% Perceived by Others Human Resources Purchasing Legal Op/Prod:

12. Red – Self-Indicated
Blue- Perceived
After the data was gathered, we made a chart to better see where the Self-Indicated responsibility collaborated with the Perceived Responsibility.
(overlaps are indicated with blue boxes with red X)

13. Conclusions Opportunities for collaboration
Environmental, Health & Safety and Operations
Environmental, Health & Safety and Purchasing

14. Conclusions
Evidence that organizations are engaged in some sustainable production activity
No significant commitment to socially responsible products
Offer environmentally/socially beneficial products
Accurate consumer information on environmental and social factors for products
Most respondents from the Environmental and Health & Safety functions self-indicated major or principal responsibility for all but three of the 16 action items related to sustainable consumption. This level of responsibility was corroborated by the perceptions of professionals from all other functions for virtually all items. While this generally indicates a willingness of EH&S professionals to take the lead on issues related to sustainability and social responsibility, the data strongly suggests opportunities for collaboration and sharing of responsibility with other functional areas.
In ten of the 16 action items, both the EH&S and Operations/Production functional areas were identified as having significant responsibility. In some cases this makes sense because the EH&S function would be associated with identifying, measuring, and reporting aspects, and the Operations function would be associated more so with designing, planning and implementing practices necessary to minimize them. However, while most EH&S roles were self-indicated, most roles for Operations/Production were identified as the perceptions of others. This is evidence of the need for collaboration between these two functional areas specifically, in addressing many items, and suggests that the contributory role of operations in sustainability and social responsibility efforts should be emphasized and more strongly encouraged.
Purchasing professionals generally indicated principal or major responsibility for issues related to suppliers and contractors, but few self-indicated a major role in raising environmental and social responsibility awareness of those with which the organization has relationships, or ensuring the organization does not partner with those who engage in human rights abuses. Respondents from other functional areas perceived both the Purchasing function and EH&S functions as significant contributors in these latter roles. Purchasing professionals may not currently have the expertise for raising awareness of these issues, suggesting an opportunity for collaboration with EH&S to promote social responsibility in the sphere of the organization’s influence.
The data suggest that the responsibilities related to pollution prevention, sustainable resource use, minimization of adverse environmental impacts, and provision of products and services that are safe for users and the environment are generally entrenched in the organization as a part of the role of the EH&S function, with perceived opportunity for the Operations function to play a comparably significant role. However, only a few individuals indicated intentions of taking any significant responsibility in offering consumers socially and environmentally beneficial products, or providing consumers with accurate information about environmental and social factors related to products and services. No functional area emerged with any significant commitment in these areas.
Thus, while there is evidence that organizations are engaged in some efforts to make production activities more sustainable, in other words, focusing on their own internal consumption of goods and resources, there is no indication that businesses are presently engaged to any significant extent in external social responsibility with regard to sustainable consumption of their products and services.

15. Conclusions Future research: Executive level
Target more response in particular functional areas

16. Conclusions .

17. Conclusions .

18. Questions?

19. Thank you for your kind attention.