Sustainability isn't just about sourcing materials and manufacturing.

In every business, choices are made that can have major and lasting impacts on sustainability.

Whether it’s about company structure, product design and development, operations, sales, or indeed sourcing and production, all these decisions and more can be approached with sustainability in mind.   

Therefore, whether a business has had sustainability goals from the outset, or is looking to switch to be more socially and environmentally sustainable, it’s critical to take a strategic approach. Just as with other aspects of business planning, to enable a roadmap for sustainable success you must clearly define a vision, and put in place relevant strategies, frameworks and policies that stand as equal pillars of your business plan.  

The CO Sustainability Roadmap Toolkit helps businesses develop a strong sustainability strategy through prioritising, setting achievable goals, and developing tools for action. It’s laid out in four steps with associated tools and templates:

Step 1: Defining a sustainability vision

This guide will help you clarify and articulate your sustainability vision through defining your values

Step 2: Identifying sustainability objectives

Building on your sustainability vision, this guide will help you to identify and prioritise the areas where you can take action

Step 3: Setting sustainability targets

Once you have your objectives in place, this guide will show you how to turn them into a framework with measurable targets

Step 4: Creating sustainability policies

Finally, you are ready to take your targets – aligned to your identified sustainability objectives – and use it to develop relevant policies and procedures