Jelle van Wezep: Building Sustainability From the Ground Up
Building sustainability from the ground up is a significant challenge faced by many sustainability managers today. Jelle van Wezep, a sustainability officer, shared his experiences and insights on navigating these challenges during an interview. He highlighted the necessity of starting with a strong foundation: "Your current challenge is essentially building up sustainability from the ground up. Not having a large team or extensive infrastructure means focusing on setting the foundation. This involves overcoming initial challenges, such as identifying key areas of impact, creating actionable plans, and aligning these with organizational goals. It’s a common challenge for many sustainability managers starting out, as they often work without a clear roadmap but need to implement significant, meaningful changes."
Building Sustainability From the Ground Up: Insights from Jelle van Wezep
Jelle emphasized the importance of creating a holistic understanding of what’s already in place and what is needed to move forward. "For sustainability managers entering an organization, the first steps include understanding existing data, processes, and structures. This means identifying what’s already in place, such as past carbon footprint data, and determining what is needed to move forward. Visiting different locations and engaging with teams early on can help overcome delays and provide a clearer picture of organizational challenges and opportunities."
Materiality assessments are increasingly relevant, with frameworks like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) introduced by the European Commission in 2022, which requires organizations to disclose their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts (European Commission, 2022). Intelligent sustainability software can assist in gathering and analyzing data for these assessments, enabling organizations to identify and focus on their most material issues effectively.
The Role of Collaboration and Materiality Analysis
One of Jelle’s standout insights is his emphasis on collaboration across departments. He stated: "Sustainability is such a broad topic that it cannot be achieved by one person or department alone. To create a comprehensive strategy, it’s essential to work closely with teams across the organization, including finance, management, IT, and even factory staff. Understanding their roles and expertise allows for gathering the necessary information to establish a full overview. Early engagement with these stakeholders is critical to avoid delays and ensure alignment with sustainability goals."
Jelle also pointed out that "A key challenge is raising awareness about the importance of sustainability among all employees. As more people understand the regulatory and environmental needs, they are more willing to collaborate and provide their expertise. Building this awareness fosters a culture of sustainability, where every department contributes to the goals. This shared responsibility is essential for achieving meaningful progress."
Jelle’s experience with materiality analysis further underscores the importance of collaboration: "The materiality analysis is a crucial step in identifying what sustainability topics are most important to the organization and its stakeholders. This involves discussions with employees, management, suppliers, and customers to prioritize areas such as climate impact and waste. For example, while water use may not be significant in some industries, climate and waste issues might take precedence. A structured materiality assessment helps in setting realistic targets and aligning sustainability efforts."
Driving Long-Term Impact and Overcoming Challenges
Jelle’s reflections also touch on balancing immediate and long-term goals. "Sustainability managers often need to juggle immediate actions, such as preparing sustainability reports, with the longer-term goal of embedding sustainability into the organizational culture. This includes building a roadmap for achieving targets, collaborating with teams across the organization, and engaging suppliers and customers to align their practices with sustainability goals. It’s a balance of planning and execution that requires strategic vision."
This dual focus is crucial, as highlighted by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its 2022 report. The report emphasizes that achieving net-zero goals requires both immediate reductions in carbon emissions and systemic, long-term changes (International Energy Agency, 2022). Automated sustainability reporting tools can help organizations maintain transparency while freeing up resources to focus on strategic planning.
Finally, Jelle noted the importance of persistence and motivation in the face of challenges: "For sustainability managers, raising awareness is key. Building trust and showing empathy towards the challenges faced by different teams creates a collaborative environment where everyone is motivated to contribute to shared goals. Sustainability management is a unique role that requires acting as a facilitator and strategist, bridging gaps between departments to drive initiatives forward. By building trust and showing empathy towards the challenges faced by different teams, sustainability managers can create a collaborative environment where everyone is motivated to contribute to shared goals."
Jelle’s insights provide invaluable lessons for sustainability managers navigating the complexities of environmental management. His emphasis on collaboration, strategic planning, and persistence underscores the multifaceted nature of the role and highlights the potential for impactful change through intelligent sustainability practices. For organizations looking to adopt decarbonization software or other corporate sustainability software solutions, Jelle’s experiences serve as a practical guide to achieving both immediate and long-term objectives.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any company.
