Aug 12 min read

Sustainability is Within Our Grasp: Five Stages to Increased Sustainability | Stage 5 of 5 - Track, Report and Monitor Progress

This blog post is part of five articles on organizational sustainability. Related articles are noted at the end of the post.

Stage 5: Track, Report and Monitor Progress

We’ve already alluded to the fact that any sustainability strategy and goals must be tracked, results reported and monitored. Just as this holds true for any objectives the Board sets, sustainability is important to keep an eye on. Likely you already have a tracking, reporting and monitoring process, so really, it is about finding a way to integrate your sustainability outcomes into this process. And about weaving sustainability (as noted above) into as many of your strategies and goals as possible.

Sustainability does not stand alone. By its very nature sustainability is central to the fabric of your organization. It is a thread, that when pulled, can impact everything else.

To ensure that your results are tracked, ensure that you have key performance indicators (or KPIs) that are directly related to sustainability. Ideally these address key areas of concern identified in the first two stages of the process. These might include things like: How much progress have we made to setting aside enough contingency funds to float our organization for six months? Or what steps have we made to creating a succession plan for key staff?

Where possible, use metrics that are easy to capture and that don’t require a significant amount of work by staff to report on the outcomes. Make it easy so that you get the results you need. This may require some creativity by the Board and EDs to find ways to easily measure and track the outcomes.

Once the results are being tracked, it is important that a simple and consistent reporting process is used. Maybe this is that staff report progress to their supervisors electronically, who then report it to the ED, who then brings it to the Board or it’s a live shared document where everyone can input the data related to their unique KPIs and this is shared with all others. The how, while important, is less important than ensuring that the data is collected, reviewed, and actioned as required. Where KPIs are not being met, take the time to get curious and explore what is getting in the way. Is this a personnel issue or a goal issue? What adjustments can be made? How can we improve success?

A good reporting system leads to ease of monitoring results and outcomes. It provides the Board and ED with the information that they need to confidently make informed decisions related to sustainability initiatives or to shift directions if something isn’t working. When a Board knows what it is working towards, it can proactively respond to arising situations/difficulties, and the organization will be well on its way to overall sustainability

We'd love to hear about the tracking, reporting, and monitoring systems your organization uses, how they work, and how they inform decision making. Share your thoughts and observations in the comment box below.