Skill Sets and Knowledge

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Happy New Year and welcome to the first post from Sustainability Inc. for 2013.

In my last post at the end of 2012, I started to talk about the different skills and areas of knowledge that a practitioner working in Sustainability, or as I like to call it sustainable business, would need. I have listed the disciplines here, as a reminder and for reference purposes: -

Skills required:

1. Project Management:

2. Communications

3. Strategic Management
4. Risk Management

Areas of Knowledge:

1.    Politics/ Policy: Frameworks/ Environment/ Human Rights/ Communications

2.   Economics: - more specifically macro- economics

3.   Operations Management

4.   Finance: - Corporate Finance/ Strategic finance,

5.    Technology: - Non technical understanding/ Strategic Management

6.   Innovation: - Consulting methods

In this blog I shall briefly outline why the three skills are important for a Sustainability Professional and then over the next few post I shall take topics from the ‘Areas of Knowledge’ and explain why they are important for someone working in Sustainability and how

Skills

The three skills are not the only ones required, but they are in my view to of the most important to enable someone to function correctly in a sustainability role.

1.    Project Management is very important because a Sustainability Professional would have to be able to roam across all departments of a company putting together projects and successfully managing them to conclusion. 

2.   Communication is important, the Sustainability agenda and the subsequent recommendations it generates are new concepts for businesses, which have to be explained clearly to all stakeholders of a company. For a sustainable project to be implemented successfully it is important that stakeholders have a clear understanding of the proposals in the project for a number of reasons: -

·      Stakeholders would be able to make recommendations to improve the proposals.

·      Good communication increases the chances that the project will be talked about across the company, creating better buy in and increasing its chances of success.

·      Good communication is also more likely to influence stakeholders to adopt the proposals and see the project implemented. Especially the Executive Management Group who need to understand how the project will enhance the strategic direction of the company, improve productivity and increase sales and importantly approving the project.

·      Communicating the sustainability message to the company’s customers and the press is important. As consumers over the last 15 years have become more selective about which companies they purchase from. There is evidence that companies that engage in sustainable practices have seen an increase in their profits and they are less likely to receive negative press.

·      Communication is also an important aspect of project management, areas such as, influencing and communicating the successes of a project. This is not an area I intend to cover in any depth, as it is part of the discipline of project management. 

3.   Strategic Management is an important skill required because Sustainability is a strategy that must be implemented into a company from the Board to all areas of the business. Firstly, the strategy has to be developed, ensuring it meets the required goals of the organization, both internally and externally and then it must be implemented across the business. 

This is a brief explanation as to why these skills are important for a Sustainability Professional. There are others skills, which are needed, but they are also required in any roles, as such I shall not dive into them.

Over the next few post I shall take topics from the ‘Areas of Knowledge’ and explain why they are relevant for someone working in Sustainability