2.3 Make it a priority

Passion and prioritisation is the key

Many agencies have started to make progress on sustainability due to passionate individuals taking it upon themselves to start improving the sustainability credentials of the organisation. This might be organising and communicating an internal recycling policy – or it might be circulating inspiring examples of award-winning creative work that has been produced sustainably or that encourages sustainable behaviour change from an audience. This is to be applauded and encouraged. Indeed, you need to identify the passionate people in your organisation to help drive this forward – more on that in step 2.6 of this phase.

But the feedback from the interviewees we spoke to is clear – a passionate group of individuals can only take the agenda so far. If you want your agency to move to the Pioneer category, to gain competitive advantage with clients, to really be seen as a leader, then you need agency leadership to understand the importance of sustainability, and to prioritise it, alongside commercial targets. With so many competing priorities and pressures, we know that sustainability can often be dropped off the top priorities for the year, but if long-term business survival, let alone success, is important to the business then sustainability must be near the top of the list.

Interviewees argued that sustainability – environmental, social and financial – should be the starting priority for any business (see the definition of sustainability in the accompanying Agents of change - the expert view report). Until that’s the case, only limited or compliance-based progress will be made regarding sustainability, keeping you firmly in the Passive group.

Start with low-hanging fruit to build momentum

The prioritisation, or reframing, of sustainability may be an easier task for smaller agencies than larger ones, but equally, smaller organisations may have less resources than larger ones.

The good thing to note is that there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit that both small and large agencies can begin with to help build momentum (see step 3: Take action) and, in some cases, sell the business case to leadership to make it a top priority – see step 2.2.

Align with performance objectives

While senior leadership need to make sustainability a priority – this needs to be owned by everyone in the organisation.

The responsibility for delivering on sustainability needs to rest with every team and every individual in the organisation. It needs to become the way business is done – part of the culture of the organisation. The most practical and efficient way to do this is to incorporate sustainability targets into the performance objectives of everyone within the organisation.

Three steps to make it a priority in your agency:

• Prioritise sustainability as a leader – be vocal about your support, but humble (and reassured) that no one has all the answers, everyone is still learning.
• Spread the responsibility – align performance objectives with sustainability targets.
• Sell the sizzle – reframe the messaging: instead of telling people how bad it’s going to be if we don’t change, tell them how great it’s going to be when we do – there are opportunities in abundance.