When it comes to creating sustainable cities and communities, there are so many key market drivers and trends in the food and agriculture space. It feels like everyone's actions are demanding attention. Even worse, sustainability means different things to each of these players from different sectors.
How do we understand and priortitise these sustainability trends?
Here is where Venessa Ng from Environmental Resources Management (ERM) comes in! Venessa is a consultant aiming to pioneer the next chapter of low-carbon future, and ESG. She specialises in Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, Corporate Sustainability and ESG, and Climate Risk Management and Low Carbon Energy Transition.
In our latest Community Knowledge Huddle, she discussed with us about the
🌱 Trends in the sustainability space
🌱 Prioritising sustainability trends
🌱 Opportunities for the Food & Agriculture space
The three key steps outlined by Venessa! (thanks for being a part of the sustainability community, Venessa!)
#1 Desktop Review
Analyse the recent trends from global initiatives, and frameworks and then start doing a peer benchmarking of your competitors and stakeholders of your organisation!
List down the sustainability material topics that you want to zone in with your stakeholders:
#2 Stakeholder Engagement
There are two types of stakeholders that you'll need to engage: internal (usually your c-suite) and external (your suppliers, investors, customers, and NGOs). Interview them or reach out to them with questionnaires to understand their priorities.
"Sustainability at the core of it is understanding what is the impact of your organization and the environment and on society" (Venessa Ng, 2021)
#3 Materiality Matrix
Start representing each material topic according to its importance to internal and external stakeholder to help visualize what you should focus on and potentially lump them into strategic groups. All of these helps you map out sustainability opportunities in the space and hopefully help you create the sustainable society of your dreams.
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We can't wait to meet you all!
A breakdown of the talk:
ERM is a leading global provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, and social consulting services. As the largest pure-play sustainability consultancy, they partner with the world’s leading organizations, creating innovative solutions to sustainability challenges and unlocking commercial opportunities that meet the needs of today while preserving opportunity for future generations.
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