The Coordinator and Initiator
An important task of the CSR manager is to support the organization and its different departments by initiating and integrating sustainability into the business. This is the coordinating and initiating role. You are aware of the changes sparked by the sustainability strategy. You organize, manage, coordinate and facilitate people, processes, change and projects to deliver on the strategy. The true responsibility for implementation and achievement of the sustainability goals, however, is with those department and people themselves. In the coordinating role, the CSR manager supports and coaches when the performance and the anchoring of the sustainability strategy lag behind.
In the coordinating and initiating role the CSR manager needs a deep understanding of how the company is organized, so you can anchor sustainability in the structure and systems. It is important to visualize, understand and analyze how the company works. Only with insight into the company’s core processes and the cohesion across them, you can optimally translate and adjust the CSR strategy for the organization. In addition, you need to be aware of systems inside and outside of the organization, such as the supply chain. And you need to be aware what needs to happen to change the systems.
Translating the vision and mission to a plan or strategic framework is one way to initiate more sustainable business practices. This plan or framework supports relevant departments to develop their own plans to achieve the CSR goals. One of the core activities in this role is to craft a CSR plan and to anchor this within the organization.
The chapter in the book about the coordinator and initiator role highlights the tasks related to translating the vision and mission into a CSR plan or a strategic framework to integrate sustainability into the organization. In addition, it covers how to structure the sustainability efforts to best support the company in this process and it provides examples of initiatives undertaken to achieve sustainable change in a company’s systems.