There are many different approaches to successful sustainability management and this blog post is about a quick and easy introduction to the topic of sustainability management.  

“People – Planet – Profit” is such an approach, probably the best known. He aligns sustainability efforts with three goals: being sustainable towards people, not harming the planet and, of course, being economically sustainable. What sounds so simple and so logical is very quickly complicated in the first practical steps. The question “Where to start?” comes up and raises eyebrows in many sustainability initiatives.

We therefore advise starting with the relationships with the people and partners in your company! Why? Because this way is the easiest and most promising, because you certainly have contract management in your company and if you check with which people and partners you or your company has contracts, then you will certainly find what you are looking for. You will also find that these contracts can be divided relatively easily into 3 groups: The first group are contracts with people and partners IN your company such as employees, freelancers, cooperation partners who work directly in your company, etc .. The second group are people outside the company, such as suppliers, customers, external cooperation partners and many more. And they have the third group of contracts with owners, shareholders and financing partners such as banks, credit institutions, investment institutions, pension insurers, etc.

Our TSM compass has 4 quadrants and with this simple initial analysis of your contracts you have already filled three of them. The fourth quadrant in our management system now includes all those stakeholders with whom you are only connected through “indirect” contracts in the form of laws, regulations, official requirements and social conventions. The “environment” is such a partner in the fourth quadrant, as is society, the local environment, the community, the school or university, the sports club and much more.   With this stakeholder analysis you have taken the first important step in holistic sustainability management: you have identified your partners and got an overview of the people with whom you as a company are in contact stand.

The next posts on this blog will tell you how to proceed.