The Sustainability University researches and provides insight into the specific roles and competences of sustainability professionals that are needed to successfully implement and acceleratie sustainability within companies. For our research, we work together with other knowledge institutes and competences experts. Below you find the latest results of our research.
OUR RESEARCH
Research on successful circular interventions in transition companies
Companies that want to make the transition to a circular economy faster and more effectively benefit from practically applicable knowledge about successful interventions in the various phases of this transition. Recently started research by Sustainability University and Nyenrode University analyzes and describes 50 current cases of Dutch companies, with an in-depth study of the most successful interventions. The research aims to help sustainability professionals at companies in their daily work.
Whitepaper Circular economy: a different way of working and new behavior (Dec, 2020)
The Sustainability University Foundation started a project to study specific competencies among sustainability professionals, who successfully realize the circular economy within their companies. As a result of this research and with the aim of accelerating CE within companies, the Sustainability University published a whitepaper that offers concrete tools for the development of these competencies.
State of the Sustainability Profession Survey Results 2021
For this fourth edition, the Sustainability University conducted a survey under Dutch sustainability and CSR professionals the map the state of the profession in the Netherlands. The input of several sustainability professionals exhibit a general image of the current sustainability workforce landscape. The main conclusion of this year’s survey is that no progress has been made on embedding sustainability within the business processes of companies.
State of the Sustainability Profession Survey
Each year, the Sustainability University launches “The State of the Sustainability Profession Survey”. This annually distributed survey provides insights into the developments of the profession of sustainability managers and clearly reflects on their experiences of implementing and working on sustainability within organizations in the Netherlands. We value your input and encourage you to participate in our survey.
The State of the Sustainability Profession:
Survey Results 2019
The Sustainability University foundation conducted their second survey on Dutch sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) professionals to map the state of this profession in the Netherlands. In this exploratory research, 112 sustainability professionals responded to the survey. Although the need to embed sustainability in business is bigger than ever, when compared with last year’s results, the embedding of sustainability or CSR hardly improved.
The State of the Sustainability Profession:
Survey Results 2018
For the first edition of the State of the Sustainability Professional, a survey was conducted amongst Dutch sustainability and CSR professionals in the Netherlands. As more of an exploratory research, 86 sustainability professionals responded to the survey. The results exhibit a general image of the current sustainability workforce landscape.
Circular Economy Matching sessions 2020
Implementing circular economy (CE) in your company can be difficult. By sharing experiences and issues with your peers they can help you to accelerate. It can be about “what” you can do differently but also “how” you can do it differently. For this reason we organize CE matching sessions. During a CE matching session, sustainability professionals with specific questions arising from their own work visit another company that effectively implements CE to learn from each other.
7 Roles of a Sustainability Professional
As a sustainability professional, you are responsible for several roles during your career. In some cases, it is also possible that you are responsible for multiple roles simultaneously. Based on scientific and field research – in line with the book ‘MVO doe je Zo’ – we distinguish 7 different roles. Every role has its own unique aspects, competencies and practicalities, which are discussed independently.
The 8 Competencies in Detail
The Competencies of the CSR and sustainability professional – identified by scientific and field research – explain what is expected of the successful professional in terms of attitude, behavior and character. Therefore, competences help CSR professionals by characterizing and categorizing what the qualities are of a successful CSR professional. By recognizing these competencies CSR professionals are able to reflect on their strengths, identify their weaknesses, and improve their effectiveness in their business. Some competencies are more general, others are considered to be CSR specific, such as systems thinking.
Job Classifications
Job classifications differ from job descriptions, your role and competencies. Job classifications are the criteria by which you as an employee are graded to determine what value you have for the company in your position. We have created 4 levels of job classifications for CSR / Sustainability Managers in hope of standardizing the criteria necessary for each level of CSR / Sustainability professional.
7 Roles to Create Sustainable Success
In 2020, Carola Wijdoogen published the international edition of her book “MVO doe je ZO”. The book is a practical guide for sustainability and CSR professionals. Different from the Dutch Original published in 2016, the international edition uses the latest best practices and learnings from sustainability managers and experts from international companies operating in different parts of the world.
MVO doe je ZO
In the book ‘MVO doe je ZO’ (2016), Carola Wijdoogen bundles knowledge and experience – from herself and from various colleagues at other organizations – into a source of information that offers guidance and inspiration for current and future managers who act in a socially responsible manner and want to stimulate and embed CSR in organizations.