SOStainability Success Stories
SOStainability Success Story is an integral component of the Communication pillar of our SPARC service delivery framework. SOStainability deploys bespoke SOStainability services focusing on Strategy, Policy, Action plans, Reporting, and Communication. This helps propel our mission to help stakeholders embrace SOStainability intrinsically and achieve the intricate balance between nature, humanity, and society.
What It Means...
SOStainability Success Story is a communications solution designed to recognise and benchmark progressive SOStainability efforts that advance the reputation and brand quotient of organisations. It is a green and ethical corporate marketing initiative to recognise both incremental and exponential gains in SOStainability.
Why It Matters...
The environmental consciousness and credentials of organisations have become integral in reputation management and brand marketing. Given growing consumer demands for environmentally conscious products and services, and increasing employee preference for SOStainability-inclined employers, organisations have become intentional in seeking validation and certifications. While this trend may drive some organisations to greenwash, it can also prevent those with decent credentials from telling their success stories.
Benchmarking SOStainability progress on certifications and awards can be constraining for some businesses, especially MSMEs that lack the appetite and/or resources to pursue validation. Because every little step matters, the SOStainability success story solution caters to all types of entities, products, and services, whether for-profit or non-profit.
The Context and Scope
SOStainability Success Story is designed to recognise progress across multiple layers of organisational operations and/or product life cycle:
- Organisational business model: Recognising success stories through the lens of businesses that model SOStainability into the core of their being, products, and operations
- Product value chain: Product value chain: Recognising success stories at the product level - from extraction to disposal
- Business supply chain: Recognising success stories through the lens of stakeholder impact (employees, suppliers, vendors, communities, etc)
- Circularity: Focusing on the circularity of products in terms of carbon emission reduction
- Net zero and decarbonisation targets: Recognising success stories from the perspective of measurable progsress on net zero
The Methodology and Agency of Storytelling...
As a communications product, SOStainability Success Story activates the agency of storytelling as a powerful tool to advance SOStainability adoption and progression. The methodology is to spotlight and celebrate organisations that are making small, steady, and big steps in their SOStainability journey. This model is undergirded by Mike Rosenberg's work on Strategy and SOStainability, which lays out a practical framework and guide for discussing progress in the SOStainability maturity journey of companies. Accordingly, the SOStainability Success Story solution will be implemented along the following signature recognition categories:
- BEGINNER - Recognises organisations just becoming aware of and consciously seeking SOStainability adoption into business practices and minimum regulatory compliance.
- EARLY ADOPTER - Recognising incipient stages of SOStainability practice
- STEADY AND READY - Recognising organisations that meet industry standards on SOStainability
- EFFICIENCY - Recognises organisations that meet internal and external stakeholder expectations on SOStainability to create clear SOStainability pathways and plans endorsed and monitored by senior leadership. SOStainability integrated into operations to drive efficiency (e.g, circularity, etc).
- LEADERSHIP - Recognising organisations whose corporate philosophy goes beyond economic motivations, embracing the triple bottom line (profit, people, and planet), signposting innovation, and not shy to communicate successes.
- ENABLER - Recognising organisations that provide platforms, products, and services that spur others in adopting and progressing on their SOStainability practices
Media Amplification and Partnerships
To drive impact and increased value, SOStainability deploys its periodic podcast to spotlight organisations that have been recognised as SOStainability success stories. It also partners with top-rate PR agencies and media organisations at the local, regional, national, and international levels to amplify recognised success stories. Beneficiaries will therefore benefit from public relations and media reportage, including interviews and special spotlights arranged with media partners on print, broadcast, and digital channels. This is intended to boost the brand reputation of recognised organisations.
