MHD sat down with Robyn Johnson, Director at Blend ESQ, and Prological’s Managing Director Peter Jones, to better understand how long-term sustainability objectives can be attained – and why small changes and small ideas are as important as headline-grabbing corporate sustainability targets.
Robyn Johnson, Director at Blend ESQ, is an expert in helping people and companies effect behavioural change in how they approach issues of sustainability. She says that real, long-term change comes about by changing how people think and act on a day-to-day basis, rather than solely thinking about headline sustainability metrics.
Host of the ‘Wollongong, Let’s Get Salty’ podcast, she says that one of the first things she asks guests of the show or clients of Blend ESQ is: ‘What is your favourite way to immerse yourself in nature?’
“It’s a way to remind us to get outdoors and enjoy these beautiful places and environments we live in and sometimes take for granted,” Robyn says. “When we care about the environment, and feel a personal connection to it, we’re more likely to do something about it.”
Blend ESQ is a consultancy that works across environment, health, and safety (ESQ) quality management services.
“We do this across various industries, including professional technical services and manufacturing,” Robyn says. “Basically, we offer either short- or long-term contracts, and we come in to support existing ESQ teams where they need to put programmes in place, or implement policies, procedures, or training.”
Blend ESQ recently partnered with Prological because they share a similar mindset when it comes to consultancy practice, as well as developing sustainability mindsets.
While everyone likes, these days, to talk a big game about sustainability, Robyn says there’s still much work to be done.
CHANGING MINDSETS, CHANGING BEHAVIOURS
“With big corporates, there’s a lot of focus on sustainability metrics and monitoring – which is certainly important, but it’s not the whole story,” she says. “Reports and scorecards on these things can take years to pull together, and a report doesn’t always mean change will be implemented across a business. What we need to focus on more – and what we at Blend ESQ try to bring to the table – is a focus on empowerment: really trying to have an influence over workforces and have individuals make changes in their thinking and adjustments in their personal and professional lives.”
This might be as little as considering how someone gets to and from work to considerations around the procurement choices across the organisation: stationery, furniture, appliance choices. Looking at choices both big and small, Blend ESQ helps companies to weave sustainability thinking into quality management systems and business operations at a larger scale – with buy-in from all stakeholders.
“You can really get some benefit to individual staff and subcontractors across your supply chain when you start thinking in terms of reducing consumption, and working with what you have,” Robyn says. “The big things to focus on are transport energy (personnel travel and freight), what it is you’re procuring, packaging and stationary – they’re the four things that are really going to be the bulk of the initiatives you need to put in place. But if you start with policy and metrics – as can be the case especially in large organisations – it can take a long while to drill down into individual behaviours. But that’s where long-lasting change occurs.”
Robyn says that changing mindsets is more important than setting goals, per se, because if you change mindsets, then people will figure out new ways to achieve sustainability objectives in a grass-roots manner. With actual buy-in and interest, it will be more about intrinsic motivation to solve sustainability problems than top-down coercion.
“A great example is icare, a Victorian paper manufacturer, toilet paper in particular,” Robyn says. “They don’t make a big deal about sustainability metrics on their website – they’re not about being flashy. But what they do tell you is how they solve problems. They tell you how they invested in reuse of wastewater within their process and how much of an impact that has had on their water volume consumption; this is vital for sustainability, because it’s not often enough acknowledged within industry that a lot of our electricity consumption comes from water use.”
Sometimes, overmuch focus on ESG metrics can be a replacement for taking concrete action, Robyn says. “We don’t want to look back in five years and say, ‘Well, we really focused on monitoring how badly we’re performing – and we’re still performing badly!” Instead, companies should focus on changing mindsets from the ground up because that’s where great sustainability initiatives often come from.
WORKING TOGETHER
Changing mindsets and behaviours around sustainability can’t be the responsibility of any one company or consultancy. It’s essential to get buy-in from all partners in supply chain.
That’s why Blend ESQ and Prological recently joined forces, as the two companies share values and objectives while bringing different perspectives and skillsets to the table.
“What both our companies are focused on,” says Robyn, “is making Australian industry sustainable. And a lot of that change needs to come from small- to medium size businesses. Prological and Blend ESQ can play a key role here, because a lot of those businesses aren’t big enough to have their own in-house resources to address sustainability objectives in a holistic fashion.”
“Peter and the Prological team are playing an important role, here, because they tie in sustainability considerations into practical supply chain planning projects,” Robyn says. “For instance, SMEs that are planning new warehouse solutions often need help – because from my perspective the industrial property sector could do with a lot of improvement. For those companies that are working with existing infrastructure, they often need guidance on how to use that infrastructure in the most sustainable fashion – because they don’t have the resources to do a new build or create a sustainable warehouse from scratch.”
In this connection, Robyn notes that there’s a perception within industry that tenants don’t have any influence over landlords in terms of demanding things like solar and battery charging stations.
“I think a lot of people don’t even ask about, let alone demand, certain sustainability infrastructure,” she says. “That’s why it’s crucial for us at Blend ESQ and Prological to be advocates for the environment in this space. Landlords and occupiers both need to progress, so it’s vital that a plan is in place that gets occupiers and landlords on the same page for sustainability objectives. Occupiers need property and infrastructure, but landlords need tenants, too. With the correct approach, occupiers might be surprised how much influence they can exert on their landlords.”
“We all need to work together for a sustainable future,” Peter Jones says, “and I think Robyn’s team and our team at Prological are complementary. There are lots of pieces to the puzzle, and we’ve worked with the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at the University of Wollongong – tapping into their best minds, as well – to develop maturity and methodology into our consulting practice and bring sustainable energy production, storage, and consumption into a new world. That component has been incorporated into our future warehouse thinking, and we’re working hard to get clients to roll out strategies to that end.”
But while Prological can help companies deliver big sustainability gains, Peter says that will still only take care of 25 per cent of the problem.
“My gut feeling is that were we to run a full Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions assessment across large companies, and they went full tilt at what we’re already capable of doing – I daresay that we’d still only have put a dent in what is still a very big sustainability liability ledger they’re carrying. Robyn’s team understands all the other bits as well as an ability to lead personal change within the people of the organisation – and that’s why we wanted to work with Blend ESQ.
“Metrics and monitoring show us where we’re falling short, and so provide the stick in the carrot-and-stick approach to sustainability goals. What we need more of is the carrot approach, which is what Robyn and her team provide. Getting people motivated, personally engaged, and proactive – that’s what creates small changes. And then small changes, small ideas, can be industrialised – scaled up – by supply chain experts.”
For more information on Prological, click here.
To learn more about Blend ESQ, click here.