Approach to Sustainability for NGOs

• Author: William R. Blackburn
• Pages: 431-439

Chapter 13

Approach to Sustainability for NGOs

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only

thing.”1

—Albert Schweitzer

NGOs, often big advocates of corporate sustainability programs, fre-

quently struggle to develop their own. Or at least most of them seem to

have trouble implementing the facility or operations side of their pro-

grams—one common to any office-oriented business. They have the

same difficulties that small companies face: limited resources and a gen-

eral belief that their office operations have minimal social and environ-

mental impact. Corporations, not NGOs, are the biggest challenge to

sustainability—or so the thinking goes. But from a company perspective,

this appears to be a case of NGOs not walking their talk, not setting an ex-

ample that can motivate, not joining the struggle to find practical ap-

proaches to sustainability that even the small players can pursue. From

this perspective, the failure of NGOs to address the sustainability of their

own operations is a lost opportunity to contribute to the overall

sustainability movement in a meaningful way.

Most social and environmental NGOs view the service side of their

business—the advocacy, dialogue, policymaking, lobbying, reporting,

and other functions they provide—as having the largest effect on

sustainability. At least they hope so. Certainly that is their reason for be-

ing—their mission and vision. Typically their role is designed to build in

others—in companies, governments, and other institutions—the capac-

ity and motivation to further some aspect of sustainability.But even from

the services side, NGOs may miss opportunities to drive their efforts as

effectively and sustainably as can be achieved with the aid of certain

SOS elements.

So how can an NGO move more aggressively toward sustainability in

their operations and services? The sustainability reports of three

NGOs—the Boston-based CERES, GRI from the Netherlands, and the

Canadian-based IISD—provide some insights.

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