Change Agents for Sustainability: competencies and activities
..the message of our new study is clear: you have the potential to be a catalyst for change, whether you are based inside a business or interact with it.
Despite the broad consensus on the urgency for businesses to operate within Earth's ecological limits and contribute to societal well-being, businesses struggle to embed sustainability into their core practices. Our fresh off the press study suggests who in businesses can catalyse the necessary shift towards sustainability: they are Change Agents for Sustainability.
“The notion of ‘Change Agent for Sustainability’ applies to any member of a corporation that deliberately pursues and effectively contributes to the necessary radical change of an organization towards achieving a society that functions within the safe and just operating space of Earth system boundaries, [..] meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals and beyond.”
Stefan Schaltegger, Verena Girschik, Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich, Thibault Daudigeos, and myself propose 6 archetypes of Change Agents for Sustainability in our introductory paper to a special issue in ‘Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility’ with 5 change agent articles by, in total, 18 authors. We distinguish between [1] Strategic, [2] Internal Support, [3] Mainstream Operational, [4] Functional, [5] Informal, and [6] External Support Change Agents for Sustainability. The study presents distinct competencies for each of the 6 archetypes of Change Agents for Sustainability and a new framework delineates the key activities through which Change Agents for Sustainability can drive change toward sustainability in businesses.
“Our proposed 6 archetypes of Change Agent for Sustainability reflect the general idea that transforming a company from the inside out requires an “all-hands-on-deck” approach: sustainability needs to be supported by all management levels and departments and to be realized by all actors in an organization.”
Figure: ‘Change Agents for Sustainability’ (based on content and image in full study by Schaltegger et al., 2023)
While external pressures— e.g. regulatory mandates, competitive pressures—set the stage, important drivers of change are the individuals within a business. These Change Agents for Sustainability are not confined to any single role. From the CEO to the grassroots employee, anyone committed to steering their organization towards sustainability can be a change agent. Strategic Change Agents for Sustainability, for example, wield the power to align business strategies with sustainability goals, while Internal Support Change Agents for Sustainability, such as those in dedicated sustainability departments, play crucial roles in coordinating and communicating these efforts both within and beyond the company. Meanwhile, Operational and Functional Change Agents for Sustainability embed sustainability into the day-to-day business operations, ensuring that sustainable practices are not just peripheral activities but are central to implementation of the business model. Our study also highlights the informal Change Agents for Sustainability —those who, without formal sustainability roles, influence change. And finally, the external support [consultants, advisors etc] came later into our archetypes, prompted by a paper contribution to the Special Issue and editing team experience. To me as researcher with deep engagement in practice, this is very satisfying addition because, in my experience, external Change Agents for Sustainability are essential to carry key learnings into businesses at speed.
The full article is freely available and called ‘Corporate change agents for sustainability: Transforming organizations from the inside out’.