As sustainability and supply chain issues dominate headlines, businesses increasingly seek expert guidance to navigate these complex challenges. Globally, they cannot sustain their resource and energy consumption and continue polluting the environment, all while striving to increase profits yearly.
Companies want to be more sustainable overall, but need more knowledge. They can set targets to make small changes; the problem lies in creating a system that allows them to overcome roadblocks to produce monumental and exponential change, thus becoming iconic in their industry and sustaining increased profits.
Until recently, sustainability within an organization has been “nice to have.” But that landscape is rapidly changing as regulators and standard-setting bodies look to make environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting standardized and limit the artistic interpretation of many current sustainability reports. ESG targets — and an organization’s progress on them — would be subject to standardization but, more importantly, measurement, where they could be measured yearly against their target progress or other companies in their market sector. As standardization rolls into place region by region globally, organizations must adopt a framework as the foundation for their efforts to achieve success.
Denice Viktoria Staaf, known as the “Supply Chain Diva,” uses her consultation company Labeling Sustainability to create organizational sustainability and supply chain circularity with a focus on ESG issues. She helps companies approach sustainability with a growth mindset, tailoring her educational and consultation resources to meet each organization’s unique needs through a framework of tools they can use to create and track their progress. Her approach builds a foundation for practical and repeatable results measuring an organization’s sustainability targets across multiple quarters and years. The framework is customizable to give every organization the power to transform sustainably.
An educator, mentor, and coach
Denice is a trusted adviser to companies who desire to align sustainability with their company’s strategic objectives. She is passionate about sustainability and circular supply chains at a time when those champions are desperately needed. “The current method of managing sustainability has led to increased greenwashing — not on purpose, but due to the lack of existing guidance,” she explains.
Denice completed her master’s degree from Harvard University in Environmental Management and Sustainability and dedicated her career to helping organizations build sustainable and circular practices into their operations and supply chains through systematic tools that create repeatable results year after year. In addition, she believes deeply in assisting organizations that need help figuring out where to start their sustainability journey. “By putting together tools and processing that have been used with success globally, I was able to help companies strategize and create a functional sustainability program in their organization,” she explains.
As the Technical Committee Director for Supply Chain Sustainability and Circularity Initiatives for the VCare Academy, Canada, Denice leads the research and development activities in sustainable procurement, supply chain sustainability, and adopting circularity as a way forward for organizations to overcome the ever-evolving supply chain problems. She is creating the future of value chains within organizations to drive sustainability and profitability.
Developing a successful framework for organizational sustainability
Denice is a highly respected organizational sustainability and risk management authority. Her authoritative and well-researched book, “Organizational Sustainability and Risk Management: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide,” co-authored with Dr. Robert Pojasek, is a comprehensive resource that provides a detailed roadmap for organizations seeking to achieve their sustainability goals. The latest edition incorporates the rapidly changing standards and regulations globally in sustainability, including the critical role of circularity in organizational sustainability. This practical guide provides organizations with the tools and resources to drive results through sustainability efforts.
Sustainability within an organization is a process. Very few companies are innately sustainable; therefore, the greatest sustainability champions have learned and developed their techniques to produce results. Finding which processes are suitable for an organization can be a trial and error attempt or, with expert guidance, they can create success in half the time. Denice’s book cuts down the learning curve for creating sustainability in an organization.
“The term ‘organizational sustainability’ was created because sustainability in an organization is about the people, and it is the people that make sustainability happen,” says Denice. She collaborates directly with the thought leaders within an organization, from CEOs to the manufacturing and supply chain professions, coaching them on producing environmentally preferable products and services and robust supply chain practices.
Aiding businesses in staying agile and profitable
Denice uses tools and transparency declarations to educate stakeholders on an organization’s progress. In the modern age, stakeholders support and buy brands they connect with.
Communicating sustainability progress allows organizations to pivot their processes to save resources and waste and communicate their progress to customers. Staying competitive and profitable in an increasingly environmentally conscious business environment is possible with stakeholder communication.
When discussing competitive advantages for those choosing sustainability, Denice explains that “it will come from a group effort that includes senior management, the supply chain management, and the sustainable procurement team — in essence, this means the entire organization.” “The sustainability manager can only do small tasks themselves, but the team created by the tools outlined in the framework can move mountains in the world of sustainability.”
Denice Viktoria Staaf’s expertise is an indispensable resource for businesses prioritizing sustainability.
