This toolkit looks in particular at seven impact areas, each of which corresponds with one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG´s). The SDGs are a set of 17 global goals adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015. The primary aim of these goals is peace and prosperity for people and the planet. The impact areas in this toolkit that connect to the SDGs are: Energy; Travel & Transport; Materials & Waste; Food & Beverage; Water; Nature & Biodiversity; and Governance & Communications.
Making a switch to more sustainable practices can seem a daunting task, and requires energy, commitment and resources. For this reason, it is important for individuals and freelancers– especially when just starting out – to pick an area that is relevant, where you can make actionable, impactful changes.
For representatives of larger organisations, it is hugely important to engage the entire team from the outset. Sustainability is everyone’s responsibility. Co-creating a sustainability strategy is often the first step as a team. This allows the workload to be shared and means that specific actions can be delegated to the people or team with the most knowledge in that area E.g. Production manager has conversations with suppliers to understand their sustainability practices and materials being used. Appointing a sustainability officer or manager to hold all the threads and co-ordinate efforts across different teams is an important next step to ensure long-term organisational commitment. It is equally important that sustainability is included in all job descriptions and that everyone takes some responsibility and plays their part.
Sustainability encourages us to look for the interdependencies between key impact areas and how they can both positively and negatively affect each other.
In response to slowing climate change, every job needs to include climate action.
