{"id":1657,"date":"2014-08-09T09:47:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-09T13:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=1657"},"modified":"2014-08-09T09:47:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-09T13:47:33","slug":"towards-a-board-mindset-for-corporate-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=1657","title":{"rendered":"Towards a Board Mindset for Corporate Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Late last year\u00a0Trust Across America-Trust Around the World\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0published the first in a planned\u00a0series of award-winning books.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0TRUST INC., Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>brings together the wisdom of 32 experts. Six months later we released our second book,\u00a0Trust Inc. A Guide for Boards & C-Suites<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>In this book,<\/em>\u00a0sixty\u00a0experts have joined forces to offer 100 strategies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout the month of\u00a0August, we will be featuring 31 essays from our second book. Each stands alone\u00a0as an excellent resource in guiding Boards and C-Suites on driving a trust agenda at the highest level in the organization, and provides tools for those who choose to implement trust-building programs in their organization.<\/p>\n

This ninth essay in our series brings advice\u00a0from Professor David Grayson CBE, Director the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield School of Management, UK. Professor Grayson was named a 2014 Top Thought Leader in Trustworthy Business.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Towards a Board Mindset for Corporate Sustainability<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To restore trust, boards must discharge their responsibility for the company\u2019s Social, Environmental and Economic Impacts (Corporate Responsibility). For many companies and boards, however, there is still a critical mind-set shift that\u00a0<\/em>has to occur. Specifically, the shift from the idea of boards as mentors or monitors, stewards or auditors, to mentors and monitors, stewards and auditors. And a second shift from the idea of corporate responsibility as being about risk mitigation to the recognition that to be truly embedded, it has to become both risk mitigation and opportunity maximization: not minimizing negative Social, Environmental and Economic Impacts, but also maximizing the positive impacts.<\/em><\/p>\n

The board sustainability mindset, therefore, can be defined as:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A collectively held view that long-term value-creation requires the company to embrace the risks and opportunities of sustainable development; and that the board are simultaneously mentors and monitors, stewards and auditors of the management in their commitment to corporate responsibility and sustainability.<\/em><\/p>\n

Corporate responsibility and sustainability leadership and stewardship currently tends to come from the chairman or CEO or another board member, rather than yet being a collective mind-set of the board as a whole. Boards need to assess whether they have a Sustainability Mindset and, if not, identify how to create one perhaps through board away-days, scenarios presentations, creating a board sustainability advisory panel, and board recruitment, training and Continuous Professional Development, and appraisals. (<\/em>Taken from Towards a Board Mindset for Corporate Sustainability<\/a>, Jan 2013.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0I hope you have enjoyed this next sneak peak into our second book.\u00a0If this brief look behind the door has been helpful,\u00a0follow\u00a0this link<\/a>\u00a0to order both of our books online.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And for those who want to catch up on the series, a quick reference on what’s been covered so far this month:<\/strong><\/div>\n

August 1:\u00a0There’s a Reason Why We Call Them Trustees<\/a>\u00a0explains why\u00a0being an “absentee landlord” doesn’t work.<\/p>\n

August 2:\u00a0Kill the Evening Before Dinner<\/a>\u00a0and take a small group of front line employees to dinner instead.<\/p>\n

August 3:\u00a0In Head of Business- Hope for the World<\/a>\u00a0we introduce the Winston “V” Model.<\/p>\n

August 4:\u00a0Reputation vs. Trust<\/a>\u00a0and why leaders should care more about the latter.<\/p>\n

August 5:\u00a0C-Suite Must Speak With a V.O.I.C.E. of Trust<\/a>, a new communications model.<\/p>\n

August 6:\u00a0It Ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way You Do It)<\/a>\u00a0discusses an organization’s core values and traits.<\/p>\n

August 7:\u00a0Superficial CEOs and Their Boards<\/a>\u00a0talks about the fiduciary responsibility of board members.<\/p>\n

August 8: Headline: Be the Leaders Others Will Follow<\/a> we learn about consistency between actions and words.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Barbara Brooks Kimmel<\/strong>\u00a0is the Executive Director of\u00a0Trust Across America-Trust Around the World<\/a>\u00a0whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning\u00a0TRUST INC.<\/a>\u00a0book series. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.<\/p>\n

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Should you wish\u00a0to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at\u00a0Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2014, Next Decade, Inc.<\/p>\n

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