CEOs play a crucial role in fostering an environment that supports embedding sustainability into the strategies and day-to-day decisions of their organizations. This guidebook derives from a report we undertook for the Network for Business Sustainability South Africa that asked:
Why do some CEOs make the shift to incorporate sustainability into their decision-making (and what holds others back)?
This guide is based on a review of prior academic research on CEO decision-making, combined with the practical experiences and insights gleamed from interviews with over 100 CEOs, board members, and sustainability executives from a range of global companies and industries including financial/insurance, extractives, retail, manufacturing, transport, logistics, utilities and agribusiness. We also engaged with companies with a range of ownership structures including public corporations, privately owned businesses and co-operatives. We share insights on how corporate change agents can help influence CEO thinking on sustainability. We presented and discussed our interim findings, our frameworks and resources in a series of three global workshops with 24 international companies, which supported the further development and refinement of these resources.
This guidebook compiles what we have learned, incorporating as much of these leaders' direct experiences as possible 'in their own words.'
We also developed Being an Effective Change Agent - A Personal Inventory to help sustainability change agents reflect on these tactics to support your CEO and to identify which of them might be most appropriate for your own setting.