DUTCH SDG BAROMETER: TIME TO GET MOVING!
Interview with Mirjam Minderman and Filip Caeldries on requirements to achieve the SDGs by 2030
INTERVIEW
Now that we are halfway to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals deadline, how is the Netherlands doing? The Dutch SDG Barometer 2022 offers insight. This is a survey that was recently conducted by educational institutions TIAS School for Business and Society (Tilburg University), Amsterdam School of International Business and Maastricht School of Management. Mirjam Minderman, Policy Adviser on Sustainable Development at TIAS, and Filip Caeldries, Professor of Strategic Management and Organization at TIAS, reflect on the Barometer results and discuss what must be done to achieve the SDGs in 2030 and how TIAS is contributing. They both agree that to make it happen, organizations will need to make sustainability an integral part of their business strategy. According to the Barometer, only 20% of the organizations that responded have done so yet. Time to get moving!
Prof.dr. Filip Caeldries is Full Professor of Strategy and Organization at TIAS School for Business and Society. He has extensive experience as an instructor in strategic management programs for various corporations in Europe, China, and the US. His research and teaching interests focus on strategic management (competitive strategy and strategic change) and sustainability as a source of competitive advantage. Mirjam Minderman is Policy Adviser at TIAS School for Business and Society, with a specific focus on the integration of ‘Business & Society’ into TIAS’ education. Her areas of expertise are Higher Education for Sustainable Development, competencies for sustainable development, and the strategic implementation of CSR and the SDGs.
Filip Caeldries
Mirjam Minderman
Filip: “If your organization has not taken any action by now, you risk truly running out of time.”
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TAKEAWAYS FROM SDG BAROMETER
High awareness of SDGs, with both pioneers and stragglers
When he looks at the positive and negative takeaways from the SDG Barometer 2022 for Dutch organizations, Filip is struck by the huge variation in how these organizations are dealing with the SDGs. “There are pioneers and stragglers. Now that we are halfway, you would think everyone had begun taking action, but that is not the case. I find that a sobering thought. When I consider all the rules and regulations bearing down on those organizations, I get very worried. If your organization has not taken any action by now, you risk truly running out of time.” “Indeed, one in ten organizations indicated a lack of awareness of the SDGs, but I prefer a more optimistic view,” is Mirjam’s response. “For me, the positive takeaway is that 90% of respondents are aware of the SDGs. At the same time, though, integration of SDGs into strategy is lagging.”
Mirjam: “While SDG awareness is high, the link with strategy lags behind.”
No integral approach yet
Mirjam notes that while around half the survey respondents have incorporated SDGs into their operations, only 20% are linking them directly to their strategy. “While awareness is high, when it comes to implementation, once the questions address the integration of sustainability at deeper organizational levels, the responses become less positive. Companies are lagging when it comes to a more integrated approach with links to strategy, and the same applies to measurement and monitoring. Those rates are also very low, I think.”
Good intentions regarding monitoring
Mirjam finds it interesting that 75% expect to have implemented measurement and monitoring within two years. “Things appear to be speeding up enormously in that area. I wonder if it is to do with those laws and regulations Filip mentioned. Looking at the EU regulations on non-financial reporting, for instance, I suspect a certain correlation.” Filip shares her suspicion. “Mirjam is referring to the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which will go into force for certain types of companies on January 1, 2024. This will make it very important for organizations to measure where they stand with regard to sustainability. I agree that it is a likely explanation for the positive developments we are seeing in this area. A lot of good intentions are being expressed right now.”
Positive attitude towards government
Filip is encouraged by organizations’ positive attitude towards government efforts to achieve the SDGs. “People actually want a greater degree of government intervention. Some respondents even indicated that they would like to see the government take a firmer hand. In other words, most organizations consider the government a partner, not an opponent, and are in favor of stricter regulations to help achieve those goals.”
SDGS OFFER A CLEAR FRAMEWORK FOR SUSTAINABILITY DISCUSSIONS
Mirjam Minderman has been involved in sustainability efforts for years, both professionally and in her personal life. “The SDGs are particularly helpful as reminders of how simultaneously broad and complex sustainability can be. In my work especially, they offer a framework for the structuring of sustainability discussions between people from different sectors and industries. When you are talking to people who are initially uninterested in sustainability or doubt its relevance to their organization, referring to the SDGs tends to reveal issues they do in fact consider relevant and are often even addressing already, just without classifying these as sustainability-related.”
Both game changer and source of struggle
Filip’s involvement in the SDGs is more or less accidental. As a Professor of Strategic Management and Organization, he collaborates closely with, primarily, for-profit organizations. He sees how these organizations struggle with this theme on a daily basis. “What is your sustainability approach? How do you embed it in your organization’s policies? How does it affect daily operations and your company’s competitive position? Those questions are very relevant to me. These days, pretty much everyone is familiar with the SDGs. As Mirjam notes, they act as common ground for discussions about sustainability with businesses, government agencies and NGOs. It makes it vastly easier to communicate between various parties and for them to reach an agreement.” From his for-profit perspective, Filip sees sustainability as a huge game changer, but also knows how hard many organizations struggle with it. “Sustainability is too much of a side issue still. It needs to be much more deeply embedded in companies’ business strategies.”
Helping to implement sustainability
According to Mirjam, the 2030 deadline was set for a reason. “It reflects the urgency. As Filip just said, by now everyone is more or less in agreement that our current production and consumption patterns are non-sustainable, in the sense of ‘not viable for the long term.’ Despite this acknowledgement of the need for change, putting sustainability into practice remains a challenge. The SDGs can help with that.”
Mirjam: “For us to continue producing and consuming sustainably, all the SDGs are important, even the ones that appear most remote.”
FOCUS ON SDGS ‘CLOSER TO HOME’
Life Below Water, Zero Hunger and Peace lag behind At first glance, the SDG Barometer shows that Dutch organizations tend to be less concerned with SDGs such as Life Below Water, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and Zero Hunger. They care most about Good Health and Well-Being, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Climate Action and Affordable and Clean Energy, SDGs that feel ‘closer to home.’
Lower urgency in Dutch context Mirjam sees two reasons for this. “First, in the Netherlands there is relatively little hunger and institutions are relatively strong, generally speaking. I say ‘relatively’ because of all the developments in the past few years, such as increasing poverty and declining trust in government. Those mainly affect individuals, though. They are less relevant to organizations. And that brings me to my second reason. It may be that most of the organizations included in the SDG Barometer are not very active in these areas. If an organization is operating in a Dutch context with a fairly good infrastructure and their own employees are not visibly hungry, those goals will feel less urgent. Life Below Water is also less immediately relevant to many organizations, is my guess. It does not affect the Barometer’s respondents as directly.”
No direct link between operations and impact Filip: “For some SDGs, it can be harder to see the link between your operations and their possible impact on those goals. Besides, the impact of SDGs that are ‘closer to home’ can be much easier to measure. For example, for the Climate Action SDG, you simply measure your reduction in carbon emissions. Relationships between your actions and certain other SDGs can be harder to pin down.” Filip is referring to the various categories used to measure the impact of business activities. Scope 1 covers an organization’s direct business activities, Scope 2 concerns the energy required to perform these activities, and Scope 3 includes everything relating to overall input and output.
Filip: “To take SDG policies to the next level for 2030, data is essential. To measure is to know.”
Struggling to measure indirect impact “Let’s be honest here. In the end, most current sustainability efforts emphasize Scopes 1 and 2,” says Filip. “Every organization I know is struggling with how to measure Scope 3 right now. That automatically encourages a focus on certain SDGs. Scope 3 covers what consumers do with products once they leave your factory, for example. The value chain approach, which can include issues such as lithium battery production’s impact on water quality or working conditions, also falls under Scope 3.”
Interconnected SDGs “That is one reason an integral approach is still lacking,” Mirjam concludes. “Companies tend to mainly consider their core business. ‘What will most directly affect our business operations, and where can we have the most direct impact ourselves?’ Ultimately, though, the SDGs are interconnected. They all affect each other.” That means that to enable sustainable production and consumption in future, we will also need to achieve the more remote goals, such as Peace, Life Below Water and Zero Hunger.
Indirect positive effects on other SDGs Still, an organization’s focus on one popular, measurable SDG can also positively affect other SDGs. Filip: “The SDG Barometer 2022 shows that the Climate Action SDG is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. This can help reduce flooding and thereby protect crops from damage, for example. That contributes to Zero Hunger, which can improve a country’s stability and reduce unrest, which in turn is good for the Peace SDG.” Mirjam brings up the reduction of (single-use) plastic as another example. “That is often considered part of Responsible Consumption and Production, a popular SDG with organizations, but reducing plastic waste also affects Life Below Water, of course.”
Staying vigilant “On the other hand, you also have to watch out that a focus on one SDG does not negatively impact other SDGs,” Mirjam warns. “For example, the energy transition is boosting electric and solar energy right now, but the products to enable that are raw material-intensive and their manufacturing is harmful to the environment. Furthermore, lithium extraction has been linked to child labor. There are always considerations. You have to be careful to stay vigilant. Even with the very best of intentions, contributions to one SDG can unwittingly harm another SDG.”
Data making a difference When it comes to awareness of positive and negative indirect effects, Filip is optimistic regarding the future. “We started working on the SDGs in 2015. Now, seven years later, we are beginning to have access to data with which to chart the direct and indirect effects. That data will help increase awareness and make it easier to manage SDG interactions. To take SDG policies to the next level for 2030, data is essential. To measure is to know.”
Mirjam: “When I look at how awareness has grown and how much more constructive the debate has become, I think now is the time to press ahead.”
WILL ALL SDGS BE ACHIEVED IN 2030?
Acceleration is achievable Both agree that to achieve all the SDGs by 2030, acceleration will be required. It is well-known that for many new developments, after an initial slower period to get going, there comes a time of exponential acceleration when the development truly takes hold. Mirjam believes it very possible that such a period of acceleration is imminent. “I see how awareness has grown and how much more constructive the debate has become. Five years ago, people attending our programs were much more concerned with raising awareness. Now everyone is asking, “What should we do?’ ‘How do we approach this?’ and ‘Give us tools.’ I can see a real shift there. I think now is the time to press ahead.” Both Mirjam and Filip believe that the data now coming available can play an important role in this.
No ‘checkbox compliance’ Filip does have one cautionary note on data collection. “On the one hand, more data can help accelerate the achievement of SDGs, but if you allow data collection to turn into ‘checkbox compliance,’ it can hold you back instead.” Despite most SDG Barometer respondents’ positive attitude toward government interventions, legislation is becoming so strict and all-encompassing, many of the executives Filip talks to daily are at their wits’ end. “We must take care that ‘to measure is to know’ does not expand to the extent that it replaces actual progress. More than one manager I know of is already sounding the alarm in that respect. And the financial side should not be ignored either. This will all ask a lot of companies’ administrative systems.”
Recommendations to trigger acceleration Besides emphasizing data’s usefulness, the report on the SDG Barometer 2022 also includes three important recommendations to help trigger the accelerated achievement of SDGs. The recommendations:
- Sharing best practices with one another
- Raising awareness of both positive and negative impacts on SDGs
- An integral SDG approach to enable progress on all SDGs
Greater consistency and higher ambitions
Mirjam agrees completely with these recommendations. “On top of that, I would like to emphasize the importance of consistency and ambition. By consistency, I mean: always consider the effects of any actions to improve one SDG on all the others. And regarding ambition: if you look at organizations’ current contributions to the SDGs, we will never make it. Not by 2030, not by 2050. To achieve those goals, acceleration is absolutely crucial; even a full-on transformation in many industries. Compared to the current situation, both government agencies and organizations will need to raise the bar for SDG contributions.”
Filip: “All the various parties involved in this process of ecosystem change need to coordinate their policies. Consistency is vital.”
Limiting factor “However way you look at it,” Filip adds, “to implement sustainability, the ecosystem must change. One limiting factor I see right now is everyone getting in each other’s way in their eagerness to implement the SDG Agenda. Consistency, and by that I mean the coordination of policies between all the various parties involved, can contribute enormously to the desired acceleration. We need to eliminate the possibility of conflict between companies’ policy choices. And that is before you even consider the supranational aspects.”
Mishmash of institutions and regulations “The sustainability goals do not just concern the Netherlands. These are supranational issues, and we cannot and should not be trying to solve them nationally,” says Filip. “We must coordinate our efforts, both within Europe and worldwide.” Companies that operate internationally are encountering an incoherent mishmash of local institutions and regulations. All the various parties involved in this process of ecosystem change need to coordinate their policies. Consistency is vital.”
Mirjam: “We take an integrated approach to Business and Society in our programs.”
THE CONCEPT ‘CREATING SHARED VALUE’ REALLY OPENED MY EYES
I have taken on the role of catalyst and raiser of tough questions in my organization, to further interconnect business and society and shape the Corporate Social Responsibility policy.
Erwin Tuin Manager Driver Care – Customer Care ALD Automotive
APPLYING LEADERS’ CORE COMPETENCIES TO THE ACHIEVEMENT OF SDGS
TIAS Business and Society Competency Framework According to Mirjam, the ecosystem change mentioned by Filip is at the core of what TIAS stands for as a School for Business and Society. “We develop leaders to serve society by transforming business. This is our purpose. A wonderful sentiment, to be sure, but how do we achieve this in practice? Well, by taking an integrated approach to Business and Society in our programs. That means that instead of separate courses on business and social issues, we aim to include such content in our existing courses.” Mirjam is the driving force behind the development of the TIAS Business and Society Competency Framework. This framework consists of four competency areas, which are incorporated into all TIAS study programs: Responsible Leadership, Collaboration, Business Modeling and Sustainable Innovation.
Importance of systems thinking Mirjam: “At TIAS, we believe that to achieve transformation, combining those four competencies is essential. I also want to emphasize the importance of system thinking, a component of responsible leadership. To be able to take a consistent approach to tackling the SDGs and linking them integrally to your strategy, system thinking is hugely important. So is searching for connections and collaboration opportunities, of course, including beyond the usual suspects in the value chain and across industries. Furthermore, this transformation will require companies to adopt other profit models. That means leaders must be capable of critically evaluating existing profit models, developing alternatives, and valuing and facilitating sustainable innovation to help with that. These elements are crucial if we want our participants to achieve the transformative impact to which we aspire.”
Intensely practical tools Filip: “It so happens that I was lecturing 25 senior executives at for-profit and not-for-profit organizations on sustainability only yesterday. Some of the issues that arose: How to embed sustainability, or more specifically the SDGs, in an organization’s strategy? Which choices can you encounter when defining a sustainability strategy? What are the challenges involved? Based on our competency framework, we offer them practical tools to address these questions.”
Adapted to specific audiences and fields Mirjam: “I think the strength of our competency framework is that the competencies are applicable to all participants and all study programs, but that depending on the target group and field, our lecturers adapt their explanations and offer tools to fit participants’ specific circumstances.” “It helps participants focus on practical actions they can take in their own context,” emphasizes Filip.
REAL-LIFE TRANSFORMATIONAL INSPIRATION
Every year, in collaboration with AIM2flourish, an international platform ‘Celebrating Business Innovations for Global Good,’ Mirjam has TIAS’s fulltime MBA participants do an assignment on the integration of SDGs into business practice. The focus is mainly on inspiration, success and positive impact. Participants seek out business leaders and ask them how they contribute to the SDGs and sustainable innovation in a strength-based interview.
Prize-winning stories
The resulting stories by participants worldwide are subsequently published on the AIM2Flourish website. The most inspiring stories receive an award. Of the 57 TIAS stories published so far, six have won a prize.
Change of course
Some participants find studying at TIAS and hearing business leaders’ real-life stories so inspirational, they decide to change course and prioritize sustainability in their careers from then on.
Filip: “By giving participants practical tools they can put to use immediately the following Monday, we boost their confidence.”
Practical action within your own organization Mirjam: “In my own lectures, besides the competency framework, I also like to make a division between individual, organization and system,” says Mirjam. “By showing participants their own role within their organization, the organization’s role within the system and vice versa, and how they can find and use their own spheres of influence within those roles, they are less likely to become discouraged by the huge challenges we are facing at a system level. We work explicitly on teaching them to see the big picture, but also on how to formulate practical actions at a lower level. Participants’ reflections confirm how useful they find this approach. While they are even more aware of the issues’ complexity and size, they also feel they have the tools to start taking action themselves. I think that is one way TIAS adds value for our participants. We show them what they can do at their own organization in practical terms.”
One person at a time, one organization at a time Filip: “The latter is crucial. During our programs, we do our best to imbue our participants with a certain amount of self-confidence. ‘Yes, you can! Even if you cannot achieve everything you want, you can still have an impact.’ One person at a time, one organization at a time. By giving participants practical tools they can put to use immediately the following Monday, we boost their confidence. That comes back repeatedly in the feedback we receive. It is also very gratifying to us as lecturers. It is a confirmation of our own contribution.”
LEARNING HOW COMPANIES CAN IMPACT SOCIETY IN A GOOD WAY, WAS THE RIGHT APPROACH
TIAS does not simply guide you through a business management program, but offers an in-depth look at our responsibility for addressing society’s needs as business leaders.
Caio Garrido Sustainability consultant at one of the largest banks in the Netherlands
THE BUSINESS SCHOOL FOR TOMORROW’S LEADERS
TIAS School for Business and Society is a place for leaders, professionals and managers who want to make a change, just like you; to get the best out of themselves and create an impact within and with their organization. TIAS has a broad portfolio of part time Masters, Advanced programs, MBAs, Master Classes, TIAS 8hrs and InCompany programs.
Our programs systematically incorporate Business and Society. At TIAS you develop four competency areas: Responsible Leadership, Collaboration, Business Modeling and Sustainable Innovation. Combining all four of them is what will enable you to transform your business and make an impact as one of tomorrow’s leaders.
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