Strategic Corporate Conservation Planning by Margaret O’Gorman

Author:Margaret O’Gorman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781610919418
Publisher: Island Press/Center for Resource Economics

Moving to Implementation

Which operation gets to go first? Which site can easily implement a corporate conservation strategic plan? How are sites chosen and how are later sites included in the effort? Where a company starts and how it onboards a site, location, or operation is a determinant of success. When a strategic conservation plan is introduced, two different responses will emanate from the sites. If a strong, structured communication effort is undertaken, one that ties the message to operations and provides incentives for implementation, a big positive response will result. Many locations will become excited to start and implement projects. But with a weak communication effort that starts with a corporate dictate that ignores existing conditions and ongoing efforts, there will be a collective shrug as operations react to yet another pronouncement from head office. While, in the strong-communications scenario, the first response may be great, the risk of “fast fade” is nevertheless high, as other responsibilities take priority. And in the weak-communications scenario where a corporate dictate is met with indifference or hostility, further effort will be needed to rebrand the plan and relaunch the initiative.

In the case of the enthusiastic response, care must be taken to back up the communication with resources, or else momentum will be lost and locations where conservation work is done will soon run out of steam. Projects started with great enthusiasm will falter if not fully supported. The apathetic response will, without intervention, lead to no action taken on the ground, and the conservation strategy becomes yet another shelved plan. A middle ground exists. The middle ground is found in a more structured way to capture the excitement of a well-communicated conservation goal or overcome the inertia at operations that are underwhelmed by the plan. It includes a pathway to sustainable onboarding of new projects in the launch communications.

CRH Americas is a large building materials company that supports conservation efforts across a wide variety of its quarries and other locations (such as the Marcus Autism center profiled in chapter 2). CRH has been very successful at creating an onboarding process that measures the readiness of a site to engage in conservation activities. No location can enroll in the formal program unless the conservation activity has been in place for at least two years, has clear conservation and education objectives, and has secured support from a member of the executive team. In this way, CRH sees little delinquency in its conservation projects. It creates clear communications around each new project and adds the effort to its corporate conservation scorecard. Requiring executive interest and support adds an extra lever for maintaining longevity, as no site wants to disappoint the boss.

A corporate conservation strategy will only be as good as what happens at each site. By taking the time to gather an understanding of the site with its operational restrictions and opportunities, as well as a recognition of the possible conservation and community context, employees will have better buy-in and the corporate plan will have ownership at the local level.

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