SOS Standards: The Roadmap for Change

• Author: William R. Blackburn
• Pages: 163-188

Chapter 5

SOS Standards: The Roadmap for Change

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”1

—W. Edwards Deming

You have defined a vision of sustainability for your organization. You

have convinced company management that the journey toward

sustainability is worthwhile. A leader has been appointed and support

teams have been organized and motivated to sail the corporate ship on its

way. Now what? The next step is to chart the pathway to this elusive des-

tination, to define a process that will extract the greatest business value

from the effort year after year.This sustainability management process or

“operating system” should be mapped out, recorded in some way—such

as in a set of system standards—and communicated to all who will be in-

volved in implementing and measuring sustainability performance. SOS

standards let participants understand the overall process and their role in

it. Togetherwith a sustainability policy, the standards serve as a constitu-

tion of sorts, setting the values, relationships, and approach that can suc-

cessfully guide the organization over the long term regardless of circum-

stance, regardless of people. Like a constitution, the SOS standards

should be institutionalized in a written document. Recording the process

also makes it easier for the leader to solicit feedback on it and amend it

over time to improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

The core team may want to share the SOS standards with external

stakeholders who are targeted to provide feedback. This shows the stake-

holders how the company will constructively use their input. Telling

stakeholders about these standards also underscores that sustainability is

not merely a public relations concern as it may be in other organizations,

but something more serious: a basis for running the business.

Natural Evolution of SOS From Reporting

Companies pursuing a sustainability agenda often try to omit this step,

devising an approach to sustainability reporting before they devise an ap-

proach to sustainability itself. Some do this because they believe report-

ing is the essence of a corporate sustainability program; others may go

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straight to sustainability reporting because they are already doing a pub-

lic environmental or social report and it’s easy to convince the company

to expand that report for greater coverage and value. Some may believe

public reporting will help management and other employees better un-

derstand the nature of sustainability, thus laying the groundwork for

more aggressive efforts later on.

Even if a company starts with sustainability reporting, sooner or later it

will be led back to an SOS. Reporting companies that fill their publica-

tions only with good stories or “greenwash” will gain little value from the

effort: their reputations will be tarnished and, in time, stakeholders will

likely scrutinize their performance and press them for greater transpar-

ency on problems and progress. An SOS will help such companies re-

spond. Other companies that start by transparently reporting their

strengths and opportunities for improvement will eventually develop a

routine for gap identification and closure. Over the years, that will evolve

to an SOS-type process as well.

In the end, both transparent and nontransparent reporters will find it

much more efficient and productive to spell out their SOS standards and

continue to refine them as experience is gained with the process. These

standards should help ensure that efforts are coordinated, aligned, and

timely and that resources are focused on stated priorities and not squan-

dered on lower value whims. Properly implemented, the SOS standards

will prove a powerful engine for driving change toward sustainability.

Advantages of Management System Standards

How do we know that management system standards can drive this change?

Baxter’s experience over the last few decades provides some insight.

In the late 1980s, while Baxter was exploring ways to revitalize its en-

vironmental programs, its environmental leaders began to wonder why

some facilities were consistently able to comply with the law, effectively

manage risks, and aggressively reduce and prevent waste, while other

sites had a dismal record on this. They noticed from their audits that the

successful facilities often used some tools, followed certain practices, or

displayed particular characteristics that their less successful counterparts

did not. Among these elements of success were the following:

1. A process for identifying regulatory and company requirements;

2. Rational goal-setting;

3. Well-considered implementation plans;

164 THE SUSTAINABILITY HANDBOOK