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Sustainability and ESG: Keynotes, Trainings, and Workshops
Ulrich Lichtenthaler • 2. Juli 2024
As sustainability and ESG are on top of many firms’ strategic agendas, there is a growing need for specialized trainings, workshops, and keynotes.
Many companies speed up their sustainability and ESG initiatives. Often, these initiatives lead to substantial transformation processes. In turn, this need for change often increases the need for impulses from external experts, and I am regularly invited to give keynotes, trainings, and workshops
about ESG and sustainability.
A key learning from these activities is the need to tailor the content to the company setting. In fact, this need for targeted content seems to be more pronounced for sustainability and ESG than for other topics, such as strategy, leadership, innovation, and AI. Of course, some challenges like carbon emission reduction are shared by many firms. In a similar vein, the same keynote to increase awareness may work perfectly in many different companies. Beyond these common challenges, however, the specific context is essential for enabling the audience to transfer some of the new knowledge to their own job context based on frameworks, such as the SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATION MAP.
In this regard, it really matters to have a solid understanding of the target group (e.g., sustainability or corporate responsibility experts vs. managers from other functional areas, like supply chain management or marketing), the firms’ maturity level in terms of sustainability management, and the organizational context. On this basis, I have reviewed and systematized my sustainability-related services in three categories with some example topics of keynotes and workshops for each category:
Relevance, basics, and management
Strategy, innovation, and business models
HR management, leadership, and change
Moreover, my recent collaborations with firms across industries have underscored the need for advancing most firms’ sustainability management. In this regard, my trainings and workshops often combine the interactive communication of new content, intensive discussions, small group exercises, and initial ideas for applying the new knowledge to the participants’ job context. For a free initial discussion about a specialized sustainability and ESG training, workshop, or keynote (in English or German) for your organization, please contact me here.
A key learning from these activities is the need to tailor the content to the company setting. In fact, this need for targeted content seems to be more pronounced for sustainability and ESG than for other topics, such as strategy, leadership, innovation, and AI. Of course, some challenges like carbon emission reduction are shared by many firms. In a similar vein, the same keynote to increase awareness may work perfectly in many different companies. Beyond these common challenges, however, the specific context is essential for enabling the audience to transfer some of the new knowledge to their own job context based on frameworks, such as the SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATION MAP.
In this regard, it really matters to have a solid understanding of the target group (e.g., sustainability or corporate responsibility experts vs. managers from other functional areas, like supply chain management or marketing), the firms’ maturity level in terms of sustainability management, and the organizational context. On this basis, I have reviewed and systematized my sustainability-related services in three categories with some example topics of keynotes and workshops for each category:
Relevance, basics, and management
- ESG and sustainability: Relevance and basics
- Sustainability: Carbon emission reduction and what else?
- Sustainability management: Evolution and maturity model
- The importance of sustainability for supply chain management
Strategy, innovation, and business models
- Beyond reporting: Sustainability and ESG as an opportunity
- SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATION MAP: Why resource efficiency is not enough
- The GREEN GRASS STRATEGY for sustainability and innovation
- In 10 steps towards sustainable business models
HR management, leadership, and change
- Gen Z as SUSTAINABLE NATIVES: Challenges for HR and employer branding
- Why do companies need a sustainable purpose?
- Sustainability skills and key competencies for the future
- Sustainability and I: Exciting new career opportunities
Moreover, my recent collaborations with firms across industries have underscored the need for advancing most firms’ sustainability management. In this regard, my trainings and workshops often combine the interactive communication of new content, intensive discussions, small group exercises, and initial ideas for applying the new knowledge to the participants’ job context. For a free initial discussion about a specialized sustainability and ESG training, workshop, or keynote (in English or German) for your organization, please contact me here.
Nachhaltigkeit und ESG stehen bei vielen Unternehmen ganz oben auf der Tagesordnung, daher wächst der Bedarf an spezialisierten Schulungen, Workshops und Vorträgen.
ChatGPT und generative KI werden uns nicht überflüssig machen – auch wenn die aktuelle Berichterstattung genau diesen Eindruck erweckt. ChatGPT hat uns allen verdeutlicht, wie schnell sich manche Felder künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) aktuell weiterentwickeln. Auch wenn einige dieser Entwicklungen schon seit Jahren erwartet wurden, ist die Geschwindigkeit vieler Verbesserungen selbst für manche ExpertInnen erstaunlich. Der aktuelle offene Brief des Future of Life Institute, der von über 1.000 Personen unterzeichnet wurde, ist daher grundsätzlich nachvollziehbar. Darin wird insbesondere auf die Risiken von KI hingewiesen und eine sechsmonatige Pause für das Trainieren leistungsfähiger KI-Lösungen gefordert. Eine ausreichende Beachtung der Risiken von KI ist unbedingt erforderlich, auch wenn die aktuelle Berichterstattung dazu oft zu kurz greift. Noch erstaunlicher ist aus betriebswirtschaftlicher Sicht jedoch das Medienecho der letzten Wochen und Monate zu den Auswirkungen von KI auf die Arbeitswelt, das sowohl in klassischen Medien als auch bei Social Media zu beobachten war. Dort wird häufig gefragt, ob wir als Menschen noch schlau genug sind im Vergleich zur KI. Auch wird diskutiert, ob KI künftig die meisten Führungskräfte ersetzen wird. Besonders oft steht also wieder einmal die Frage im Mittelpunkt, wie viele Personen durch KI ihren Job verlieren werden. Diese Frage ist auf den auf den ersten Blick vielleicht nachvollziehbar, weil durch KI-basierte Automatisierung in den nächsten Jahren tatsächlich in nennenswertem Umfang Jobs verloren gehen werden. Insbesondere werden auch solche Büro-Jobs betroffen sein, die bisher noch nicht automatisiert werden konnten. Dadurch sind mit offensiven Schlagzeilen sicherlich hohe Klickzahlen zu erreichen. Außerdem werden auch Arbeitsplätze in der Medienbranche automatisiert werden, wodurch sich die Berichterstattung zusätzlich erklären lässt. Integrierte Intelligenz strategisch oft wichtiger als eigenständige KI Dennoch wird viel zu oft ein einseitiger Schwerpunkt gelegt und damit auch ein falscher Eindruck vermittelt. Der wirklich entscheidende Teil der Entwicklung für die meisten Unternehmen und ebenso für die meisten Arbeitskräfte liegt in der Kombination von KI mit menschlicher Arbeit – und eben gerade nicht in der vollständigen Automatisierung von Jobs durch KI. In den letzten Jahren kamen verschiedenen Studien immer wieder zu ähnlichen Ergebnissen. Der Grundtenor ist dahingehend identisch, dass sich deutlich mehr Jobs verändern werden als komplett wegzufallen (vor allem, wenn die Zahl der Arbeitsplätze berücksichtigt wird, die durch KI zusätzlich entstehen). Diese Kombination von menschlicher mit künstlicher Intelligenz wird auch als integrierte Intelligenz bezeichnet.
Despite the massive attention to sustainability and ESG, many firms still underestimate the opportunities for innovation beyond reducing CO2 emissions.
The GREEN GRASS STRATEGY goes beyond traditional sustainability, and it refers to developing innovative solutions for a ‘net positive impact’. What is the GREEN GRASS STRATEGY? The GREEN GRASS STRATEGY is a sustainability strategy that focuses on innovation and new business opportunities rather than limiting sustainability programs to resource efficiency and the optimization of established processes. As such, the GREEN GRASS STRATEGY goes beyond traditional sustainability concepts that often focus on avoiding harm (no net loss) to consider positive sustainability and to embrace doing good (net positive impact). The GREEN GRASS STRATEGY enables you to leverage sustainability for innovation and value generation, and it can be systematically developed with the SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATION MAP , which helps firms to achieve a competitive advantage by systematically pursuing sustainability innovations in all ESG dimensions – environment, social, and governance.
Generation Z – and what is next? Many of today’s students are ‘sustainable natives’ and expect companies to make a positive contribution to solving ecological and social problems. In an international survey of more than 27,000 people, GlobeScan found in 2020 that for 60% of younger participants, climate change and social inequality are top priorities, combined with the expectation that companies should contribute to solving these challenges. Very importantly, the young generation expects positainability , i.e. making a positive contribution and not just reducing negative effects of doing business, for example by reducing CO2 emissions. To implement this positive sustainability approach, companies would need to pursue a GREEN GRASS STRATEGY . So far, however, many companies are hardly prepared for the future changes due to the ideas of those persons that will be starting their careers in the next few years. In fact, this new generation of ‘sustainable natives’ presents new challenges and opportunities for companies (as I have explained in more detail in a recent article in the Haufe Personalmagazin ). In particular, the following typical perspectives of this ‘Generation PI’ – Positive Impact – have to be considered. 1. Sustainable natives Many current students are ‘sustainable natives’ because they perceive sustainability as a core topic since their early youth. In contrast to the extensive public discussions about ‘digital natives’, the role of ‘sustainable natives’ has been mostly ignored so far. 2. Doubtful prospects Typical for ‘Generation PI’ are doubts whether their future standard of living will remain as good as their current situation and as the life of their parents, especially due to climate change. 3. Expected limitations Many current students expect restrictions on possible behaviors to enable a more sustainable economy and society in the future, for instance bans or massively increasing prices for air travel or the consumption of less sustainable food. 4. Positive contribution Beyond the goal of no-net-loss, ‘Generation PI’ is ready to make a positive contribution in terms of a net-positive-impact. Here, companies need to focus on major innovations rather than limiting themselves to reducing CO2 emissions in established processes.
Positainability – or positive sustainability – refers to the combination of doing good and avoiding bad to arrive at innovative solutions.
On May 28, 2022, Liverpool FC with the manager Juergen Klopp have the chance to win another Champions League title after beating Chelsea to win the FA Cup 2022.
How to use the proven tool that helps firms across industries to systematically pursue sustainability innovations.
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