Aligning Values With Company Mission

Integrating sustainability into organizational culture 🌎 Sustainability only delivers lasting impact when it’s rooted in culture. It needs to show up not just in strategy or reporting, but in how people think, act, and make decisions across the organization. It starts with leadership. When executives make sustainability a clear priority and hold themselves accountable, it sends a signal throughout the organization. This alignment between words and actions is essential for driving real change. Values and mindset matter just as much. Sustainability should be part of how an organization defines success. When people understand how it connects to their roles, and when sustainable behavior is encouraged and recognized, culture begins to shift. Internal communication plays a critical role. Sharing updates, telling real stories, and being transparent about both progress and setbacks helps make sustainability part of the everyday conversation—not something separate from the core business. Engagement is what brings it to life. Providing training, encouraging participation, and supporting employee-led initiatives creates ownership. When people feel involved, they become drivers of change, not just recipients of top-down direction. It also needs to show up in operations. Embedding sustainability into procurement, meetings, reviews, and decision-making processes ensures it's not just a goal, but a way of working. Collaboration is another piece of the puzzle. Bringing together people from different departments to tackle sustainability challenges helps break silos and generate stronger, more creative solutions. Finally, progress requires feedback and experimentation. Tracking results, learning from experience, and supporting innovation keeps sustainability evolving and relevant. The most effective organizations are those that listen, adapt, and improve over time. • Repost if you think this framework could be useful to others • Follow Antonio Vizcaya Abdo for more content on sustainability and business strategy #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange

I'm excited to share the launch of "Bold Measures to Close the Climate Action Gap," the latest report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the World Economic Forum Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders. https://lnkd.in/e8MCFKAm    We see businesses doing more to tackle climate change, but collectively, the world is moving way too slowly. This new report focused on opportunities for companies and governments to translate their individual actions into more substantial global progress. The bottom line is that our individual efforts must be more geared to driving systemic change. The report highlights five ways for companies to do this, including: 1. Accelerate supplier decarbonization. In many companies, suppliers’ emissions are 3x to 8x their own Scope 1&2. Cutting the first 50% of many products’ supply chain emissions can be achieved with an end-price impact under 1% 2. Enable customers to make greener choices. Product redesign, circularity, reducing customers’ energy consumption can substantially lower the emissions footprint of many products. 3. Drive change with peers in your sector, especially in supply chain ‘pinch points’: Ten players or less control more than 40% of many key markets; clearer product labeling is another great area of opportunity 4. Engage in cross-industry partnerships, especially large-scale buying groups, to mobilize capital and accelerate development and scaling of advanced technologies 5. Advocate and support bolder policies. First, make sure you and your lobbying partners are not harming climate progress in your government engagements. Then, look for opportunities to go further to be an effective partner to governments to encourage bold and pragmatic changes in incentives, policies, and reporting. The report is filled with real life examples of what companies are doing today in each of these areas. Thanks to Pim Valdre and Pedro G Gomez Pensado from WEF and my colleagues Dr. Patrick Herhold, Jens Burchardt, Cornelius Pieper, Edmond Rhys Jones, Trine Filtenborg de Nully, Galaad Préau and Natalia Mrówczyńska for leading the work on this important report. And to my Alliance co-chairs, Jesper Brodin, Christian Mumenthaler, Ester Baiget, and Feike Sijbesma for your continued leadership.

🌱 Are we walking the talk on corporate climate action? A new study by Colesanti Senni et al. (Environmental Research Communications, 2024) examines how corporations disclose their climate transition plans. Using a Large Language Model-based tool, the research assessed the disclosures of Climate Action 100+ companies—the largest global emitters. The findings reveal critical gaps and opportunities in how companies communicate their climate commitments. 📊 What the study found: ✔️ Most companies are adept at outlining ambitious targets (the “talk”), such as net-zero goals and interim milestones. However, they often fall short on the actionable steps needed to achieve them (the “walk”). ✔️ The companies that disclose more tend to show lower emissions, suggesting that transparency might signal a stronger alignment between planning and progress. ⚠️ A lack of standardization in reporting frameworks remains a major barrier. Without clear, consistent benchmarks, stakeholders are left questioning whether disclosures reflect genuine efforts or greenwashing. 🧩 My reflections: When I think about corporate climate responsibility, I see three interconnected layers: intentions, actions, and outcomes. Each is critical, but the gaps between them are where trust and progress falter. ✨ Intentions: Bold commitments are often a sign of leadership, but when they remain vague or unsupported by detail, they risk being seen as little more than a marketing exercise. 🔨 Actions: This is the most critical layer—and often the weakest link. Without concrete, measurable steps, even the best intentions lack credibility. Actions should demonstrate not just a plan but a willingness to take tough, sometimes unpopular, decisions. 📊 Outcomes: While outcomes are the ultimate goal, they’re also where the evidence lies. The study’s findings suggest that detailed disclosures might correlate with lower emissions, but is this because these companies are more transparent—or simply more prepared? This cycle of intentions, actions, and outcomes is not just a corporate issue—it’s a systemic one. How can we better connect these layers to create a climate response that is both transparent and transformative? 🌍 What are your thoughts? 💡 How can companies ensure their actions truly bridge the gap between intentions and outcomes? 💡 Are current disclosure frameworks helping stakeholders distinguish between real progress and polished promises—or are they creating more confusion? You can read the full study here: https://lnkd.in/exEDwzaK #ClimateAction #Sustainability #Greenwashing #CorporateResponsibility #NetZero

I've built two businesses worth ₹300 crores over the last 20 years. And here's the secret I used to solve any business problems. A few years ago, I came across a concept called Occam's Razor, which means values are the simple solution. Nowadays, many entrepreneurs complicate things when making decisions instead of keeping them simple. But what they didn't understand is true simplicity comes from our decisions in values like trust, integrity, and long-term thinking. Here's how you can apply this principle: 1. Build trust through transparency:  📌 The problem with most companies is they don't have open communication, which makes it hard for others to understand what you're doing. Be honest about challenges and decisions with both your team and customers. 📌 Example: Zomato shares its operational metrics and also openly communicates about its struggles; as a result, now Zomato has a culture of trust and accountability. 2. Focus on long-term customer relationships:  📌 Companies need to understand that it's easier to retain customers than to acquire new ones. So, focus more on improving your retention by building a solid and loyal community of customers. 📌 Example: There is no company in India that people trust more than TATA across sectors—this is only because of their customer-centric approach in every business they do. Most importantly, they back their customers at every stage, ensuring customers feel valued and engaged. 3. Lead with purpose:  📌 More than products, people love to associate sincerely with the company's mission. A mission with which the people can resonate is crucial for lasting success. 📌 Example: Over the last 78 years, Amul (GCMMF) has built a brand around community impact by supporting local farmers and promoting dairy products. This commitment resonates with customers and strengthens their relationship. Remember, building a successful business often comes down to these simple values: trust, integrity, and long-term thinking. By applying these core values, you can make a big impact on your business and its people. What simple solution has impacted your business more? Let me know in the comments! #entrepreneurship #businesslessons

How do you talk about sustainability and climate issues in your company? If you’ve ever found yourself struggling to make sustainability resonate with your team, you’re not alone. At Microsoft, for example, they’ve found that speaking the right "language" makes all the difference. Being a tech company, their conversations around sustainability are deeply rooted in a quantitative, data-driven approach after all, they’re engineers at heart. They use the same principles that drive their technology to frame sustainability risks and opportunities. But what if your company isn’t full of engineers? Every organization speaks its internal language, whether that’s the analytical mindset of finance, the creativity of marketing, or the operations-driven approach of manufacturing. Tailoring sustainability messaging to align with these unique perspectives can bridge the gap, making it easier for employees to see how it connects to what they do every day. One thing is clear across all industries though: the language of science is essential. Whether you're talking to your marketing team, engineers, or executives, scientific facts are the backbone of any meaningful conversation about sustainability. Data on carbon footprints, climate risks, and environmental impacts provide a foundation everyone can work with. According to the IPCC, we need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030 to stay on track with climate goals numbers. Take Unilever, for example. They made sustainability a part of their company culture by translating climate goals into everyday actions for each department. Their marketing team talks about sustainable sourcing, while their R&D team focuses on lowering the carbon footprint of products. By embedding sustainability into every part of the business, Unilever is empowering all employees to contribute, leading to a 32% reduction in their environmental impact. Sustainability isn’t a one-size-fits-all conversation. But when you frame it in terms that make sense to your team, it becomes part of how your business thinks and operates every day. So, how will you start the conversation within your organization?

This morning's breakfast discussion with Business Insider reinforced something I see daily: #resilience isn't just a buzzword, it's become the defining capability that separates thriving organizations from those merely surviving. The conversation centered on how companies are leveraging #sustainability insights to build organizational resilience through comprehensive risk evaluation and translating climate considerations into sustainable competitive advantages. What struck me most was the shared recognition that these aren't separate initiatives, but interconnected strategies for long-term business continuity. Exercises like #doublemateriality and climate risk and opportunity assessments (#CCRO) have evolved far beyond compliance tools. They've become essential frameworks for understanding how environmental and social factors intersect with core business operations, supply chains, and strategic planning. When done rigorously, they reveal the connections between sustainability performance and business resilience that might otherwise remain invisible. Last week, we published our updated Sustainability Materiality Report, which reflects years of learning about how to make these assessments truly decision-useful rather than just comprehensive. The process taught us that the most valuable insights come not from identifying every possible risk, but from understanding which factors could fundamentally alter our business trajectory. As #ClimateWeek unfolds, these conversations feel particularly timely. Building deep understanding of both #mitigation and #adaptation strategies isn't just about environmental stewardship, it's about developing the organizational awareness needed to navigate an increasingly complex operating environment. Those around today's table represented diverse stakeholder groups, yet we all shared similar challenges: how to build systems that can anticipate change rather than simply react to it. The answer consistently pointed back to the quality of our risk assessment processes and our willingness to integrate those insights into strategic decision-making. #ClimateAction requires this level of institutional intelligence—the capacity to see connections, anticipate disruptions, and adapt accordingly. Companies that master this integration will find themselves better positioned not just for environmental challenges, but for the full spectrum of changes reshaping business today.

Community is a climate solution. In December, I helped ClimateVoice organize a webinar called "Green Team Success Stories: How Employees Advance Climate Action at Work" and now, we're following up with a blog post that goes a level deeper! This article provides an exclusive glimpse into how employees from Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Pinterest, and Salesforce have self-organized into employee sustainability communities (often called Green Teams) for years, showcasing their successes, challenges, similarities, and differences. Their efforts have shifted the dynamics of who can engage in sustainability work at these companies, created industry leading green innovations, and in each case, unlocked more resources and support for sustainability work. I authored this month's Connect the Dots newsletter to recap the session (find a link to the recording in the comments below) and explain just how powerful and transformative these communities can be. ✋ Green Teams work in organizations of all shapes and sizes and mostly run on volunteer labor, enabling individuals to align their passion and purpose with their work, while providing valuable career development opportunities and improving employee attraction and retention 🕸️ Their decentralized structure breaks down organizational silos, fostering connection and collaboration across the entire workforce, while increasing overall climate literacy 🪴 They uniquely embed sustainability throughout every part of an organization, driving innovation while reducing environmental impact simultaneously. 💡Most importantly, they transform sustainability from an operational task driven by a single team to a core part of organizational culture, making sustainability part of everybody’s job in the process. We learned that the challenges employees face doing this work are more similar than different: lack of place (no sustainability community), lack of time (burnout, layoffs, and competing priorities), lack of influence (employees are not considered a critical stakeholder), lack of knowledge (little to no climate literacy in the workforce), and crucially, lack of support (no top down sponsorship from a Chief Sustainability Officer or executive). The good news is that all of these obstacles can be overcome, and the employees in Green Team Success Stories: How Employees Advance Climate Action at Work told us how each had uniquely done it in their organizations. Read on to learn more and share your experience with green teams in the comments below. Help us tell your story! Kevin Houldsworth Mia Ketterling Alyssa Chen Prashansa Sonawane Nidhi Kaul Céline Zollinger Antoine Cabot 🌱Lindsey Peterson Rohan Nijhawan Sam Gooch Zoe Samuel Holly Alpine (née Beale) Van Riker Aiyana Bodi Chris Bradley Patrick Flynn Manav Goel Nina Panda Kimberly Forte Abraham Chen, MBA Ryan Eismin, PhD Peggy Brannigan Dana Jennings Elizabeth Shelly Maddie Stone Cecilia Emden Hands 🌱Kati Kallins Lucy Piper Katelyn Prendiville Nivi Achanta

🧚 Making Operations Matter Is Very Feminist 🧚 So, you want to build a feminist organization, but you still...  🚩 underpay your operations team members;  🚩 overwork your junior or intern team members with operational tasks because your senior or executive ones don't "get their hands dirty" with ops work;  🚩 postpone process improvement, organizational policy and procedure design, platforms for automation and better collaboration systems;  🚩 deprioritize cleaning your internal ops mess or formalizing HR, finance and organizational ops roles within the team;  🚩 give for granted the hands-on effort of team members who put in the work and get execution up and running; That's a red flag! As someone who's been working in organizational/business operations for 9 years, I know the huge risk of snob-ing operations objectives, priorities, and roles. It kills team retention and motivation. It blocks business growth. It puts efficiency at risk. It creates unhealthy org and leadership cultures. Historically, operational tasks have always been considered less qualified and qualifying compared to executive or management ones. This is not only classist but quite sexist. Operational tasks have often been assigned to female-identifying professionals (many cultures still put into women's hands the "day-to-day execution tasks" while men handle decision-making, management, and executive tasks) or to professionals who've been considered less talented, educated, or qualified. This mindset is not what feminist organization principles stay for. So, making operations matter is about making organizational cultures more equitable and feminist. What does that mean? Not just giving value and equal priority to tasks that represent your organization's most foundational growth asset. But also about recognizing the value of operations professionals' efforts to foster a culture of embedded equity within your organizational culture and team. Don't feel bad if this sounds like your organizational setup right now. It's hard to deconstruct patriarchal + capitalist organizational structure and/or operations strategies. If you need some support with making operations, strategy, and growth more feminist AND efficient in your organization, just message me. I will very lovingly suggest some options to make this work right.

Building ESG: Bridging the Gap- Why Climate Action Needs Credibility ________________________________________ There's a growing disconnect between the climate pledges countries make and the actions they take. This gap between policy and action is known as the credibility gap, and it's a major threat to our ability to address climate change. Understanding the Credibility Gap The image shows the difference between the global warming projections based on various scenarios. The key takeaway is the significant gap between the "target emissions pledged to achieve by 2030 and actual emissions pathways”. There is significant gap between these two, based on current pathways the target emissions looks really difficult to achieve by 2030. * NDC stands for Nationally Determined Contributions, which are the specific climate targets that each country has pledged under the Paris Agreement. Why Does the Credibility Gap Matter? The credibility gap is a problem because it undermines trust in international climate efforts. If countries don't follow through on their pledges, it will be difficult to achieve the ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement. This could have devastating consequences for the planet, as it will lead to a rise in global temperatures and more extreme weather events. What Can Countries Do to Close the Gap? Several steps can be taken to bridge the credibility gap: * Set more ambitious targets: Countries need to set climate targets that are aligned with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. This will require significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. * Develop clear roadmaps: Countries need to develop clear roadmaps for how they will achieve their climate targets. These roadmaps should include specific policies and actions that will be taken. * Increase transparency: Countries need to be more transparent about their climate progress. This includes regularly reporting on their emissions and the actions they are taking to reduce them. * Invest in climate action: Countries need to invest in the clean energy technologies and infrastructure that are needed to transition to a low-carbon economy. Closing the credibility gap is essential if we are to address climate change effectively. By taking concrete steps to bridge this gap, countries can demonstrate their commitment to climate action and build trust in the international community. Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! Please feel free to share (Disclaimer: Views are personal, should not be related to organisations view) #buildingEsg #circulareconomy #sustainablefinance #esgreporting #esgstrategy #esgrisk #climaterisk #climatechangeaction #climaterisks #india #emissions #esgratings #esg #cop28 #greenertogether #SDGs #sustainability #business #csr

We often talk about customer acquisition. But what about customer retention? Over the years, I’ve realised — the real growth lies in how well you hold on to the customers you already have. At Equinox Labs, we’ve worked with clients for 5, 10, or even 15+ years. Not because we’re the cheapest or flashiest, but because we show up — consistently, honestly, and with a mindset of partnership. Great customer experience isn’t just about a smooth onboarding call or a festive hamper. It’s about solving problems. Being accountable. Earning trust. 🛠️ When things go wrong — and they sometimes do — how you respond matters more than what went wrong. Trust is built in those quiet moments — in the follow-ups, the transparency, and the small things you do when no one’s watching. If you’re in business for the long haul, treat your customers like lifetime partners. Not just leads in a funnel. #CustomerExperience #ClientPartnership #Trust #Leadership #AshwinBhadri #BusinessWisdom