It’s that time again:  a new year, new promises.  This practice doesn’t just happen in our individual lives, but it applies to our organizations, as well. After all, isn’t that what budgets and program plans are all about?

As we enter into the new year, it is a perfect time to ask:  what are my organization’s sustainability goals for 2010?

If the organization has a sustainability strategy that’s integrated into your strategic plan and a formal sustainability program that includes collecting data and monitoring performance against a set of objectives and targets, this is a very straightforward question to answer.

However the reality in 2010 is that very few organizations have such a mature sustainability program. This is hardly surprising; in 2008, McKinsey reported that less than one-third of corporate decision-makers have instigated sustainability efforts in their organizations. The fact that it has been so difficult to reach consensus on a basic definition of sustainability – coupled with the depressing track record for governmental leadership on critical issues such as climate change, human rights, and good-governance – we are still very much at the earliest stages of widespread adoption of deliberate sustainability practices in businesses and non-profits.

For the majority of organizations, these trends should actually be seen as good news.  Why? Because it indicates that despite all of the hype about ‘green’, there is still an opportunity to differentiate and realize a competitive advantage by initiating or enhancing a sustainability program.

This year should be a time for organizations to take stock of where they are on the sustainability spectrum – are we more ‘brown’ than ‘green’? – and to determine a path forward towards sustainability.

Here are a few steps that your organization can take to begin its sustainability journey in 2010:

Identify Sustainability Champions. Look around you.  Are there others that value and support sustainability efforts?  Does your organization have a ‘green team’ that can be enlisted to promote the broader goals of sustainability? To jumpstart an initiative, find someone in a senior leadership role to be a visible Executive Champion.  If you’re in senior leadership, let others know that improving your organization’s sustainability is important to you!

Educate Your Organization. If those of us pushing sustainability can’t decide what “it” is, how are those that aren’t as well versed in the topic going to understand it?  Until there is a common understanding and acceptance of the term (or a synonymous term in your organization’s lexicon), your program is not going to go anywhere. Invite co-workers to attend events related to sustainability in the community. Organize short educational sessions, such as coffee breaks or brown bags, on sustainability. Highlight case studies from similar organizations. In a nutshell: communicate the message in any way you can.

Perform A Governance Review. Perform a review of strategy documents and corporate policies through the lens of sustainability. What does our strategy include that may support or hinder various aspects of sustainability (note:  these are most likely not going to obvious)?  Are we merely compliant, or do we also operate ethically and with transparency? Are our personnel policies fair? What behaviors does our purchasing policy promote?

Develop A Sustainability Policy. After reviewing your strategy and organizational policies, you should be well-positioned to craft a sustainability policy.  It is important that this comes after the governance review to ensure that the resulting policy is aligned; a misaligned sustainability policy will be seen as being out-of-touch with reality and may open the organization up to criticism for ‘greenwashing’ – or paying lip-service without any intention of pursuing sustainable performance.  The policy doesn’t have to speak to every component of sustainability, nor does it have to document principles that are unattainable.  Have the policy state, simply, guidelines that will nudge the organization further along in its journey.  Remember:  organizational policies reflect the strategic plan and therefore are subject to review and updating as the organization evolves.

Identify Key Measures and Review Performance. Identify five to ten metrics for which data already exists and look at how the organization has performed on average in the past few years.  Look at how much has been spent on consumables – items such as paper, ink, water and energy.  Or perhaps staff turnover or absenteeism.  From a product/customer perspective, how many product defects or returns were there? What have been the nature and magnitude of charitable contributions or community outreach programs?

Identify Priorities for 2010 and Build The Business Case. Now that your organization has gained an understanding of sustainability and reviews of governance and past performance have been completed, several gaps and needs related to sustainability likely have emerged.  Some of these may take several years to address, while others are relatively easy fixes that can be knocked out in a single year. Develop a business case that includes a good mixture of the two types for the coming year so that you can demonstrate some successes early on, but also focus on the endemic issues over long term.

Monitor Performance and Plan for the Future. After you get your sustainability program up and running, follow-through is important!  You may have heard it said that sustainability is not something that is ‘achieved’, rather it is a journey.  I would add one thing to that statement:  it makes no sense whatsoever to embark upon a journey if you don’t have a sense of where you are going and where you have been.  It is important to be able to look back to view the path that you’ve taken and what you’ve achieved so far….and just as important, upon looking back, to be able to adjust course to continue the approach towards your goal in the most efficient manner possible. While monitoring the tangible results of the program, don’t forget to consider its impact on intangible metrics, such as employee satisfaction.

If you’re still reading this, perhaps you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by what I’ve laid out above.  Don’t be; the beauty of this kind of journey is that you get to take it at your own pace.  There will always be those that jump out and sprint the entire way – and we don’t all have to be sprinters!  You likely know the pace at which such an endeavor can proceed based upon previous change initiatives undertaken within your organization.  Don’t try to rush it because that can only generate criticism.  Instead, view it like this:  every journey has a starting point.  The important thing is that you take the first step.

Make this your 2010 Sustainability Resolution.

Greg Stine is President & CEO of sustainability firm CollaborativePM and founder of the St. Louis Sustainable Business Network.

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