Measuring sustainability progress – a thorny topic!
23 January 2025 - Dr Ellie Standen, Senior Associate at CISL and Master’s in Sustainability Leadership Supervisor at CISL, joined the Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business (PCSB) Value Chains cohort for a day of learning and discussion on the topic of sustainability reporting.
As someone inclined to action, I’ve always thought of sustainability reporting as a necessary evil – something needed by current standards, and boards, but which probably detracts (at least in terms of resources) from real action. I was therefore delighted by the opportunity to grasp this thorny topic when I was asked to moderate a panel discussion at the Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business (PCSB) on measuring sustainability progress, following sessions by expert contributors Margo Reynolds, Dr Ursula Davis and Sophie Walker.
Margo’s session on Measuring Change was an excellent overview and breakdown of the crowded standards landscape, and it was clear from the students’ questions that even those with day jobs in these areas found this just as valuable as I did.
During her session, Margo explored the tension points in measuring change. One of those areas was the scale at which to measure. Too small a scale may be reductive or short sighted, ignoring impacts on the whole system. Too macro a scale makes it difficult to assign accountability within operations. I realised that some of these tensions were likely to be the reason for my discomfort with reporting, and that in bringing them to light, it was possible to see how I could design metrics in future projects that take account of these . It’s practical learning like this, from the forefront of academic research, that makes PCSB so worthwhile.
Dr Ursula Davis took the group into a more reflective space during her session on influencing supply chains. She emphasised the importance of talking to, and understanding the needs of suppliers, to ensure that initiatives will work for them. Managers working within supply chains need to understand who is included and excluded in any new initiatives and consider the mechanisms of power involved. Ursula also led a discussion on the pros and cons of technology as a sustainability fix, and as a tool within the supply chain. As a techno-optimist, I really enjoy sessions like this, where intellectual discussions challenge some of my long-held views!
Sophie Walker then led a truly inspirational session on her work as an entrepreneur using digital tools to make a radical shift in the way material properties can be traced through systems. By defining open data standards, her project Open 3P showed how the specific products used in packaging can be tagged with environmental data and then accessed by all users to allow reporting or regulatory compliance throughout the entire life cycle. These open standards make compliance passive, so that data is available to allow sustainability related decisions to be made easy, and reporting is a by-product of day-to-day activities.
Following these thought-provoking sessions, I moderated a panel discussion with the three contributors. As always, the fantastic students had a wide range of probing questions, from the role of marketing in sustainability to progress at COP29, which was being held that week. Whilst there are increasingly negative views in the media on the usefulness of the current COP process in driving radical change, I am always struck by the fact that as a human race, we have the ability to hold global discussions on global issues with such disparate stakeholders which do deliver progress.. It’s always worth reflecting on how far we have come, especially when in the short-term the tides feel against real progress.