People Strategy, Culture & Values

Defining your strategy, the culture you want to promote and the values your company and your staff embody are critical for a start. This will have a determining impact on how your company is perceived and how much your employees feel connected to it. Sustainable strategies and practices will be the foundation of your actions.

This makes it a powerful cultural differentiator to attract and retain talents.

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Develop Communication & Engagement tools
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Once your strategy, culture and values are defined, communicate them regularly and find ways to engage your staff and wider ecosystem. Think regularity, think simplicity!

INTERNAL COMMS:

  • Develop simple Employee Engagement survey (EE survey) to measure your employees satisfaction and expectation, and then measure your progresses with your employee engagement plan.
  • Encourage your employees to speak up & brainstorm so you get honest feedback and maximise the number of ideas.
  • Communicate during monthly meetings to your leadership team & your staff.
  • Make some leaders/ employees accountable for reporting progresses. Graphic display of progresses (in the offices, or on your internal communication website, etc...) helps as a reminder.
  • Set up a couple of internal initiatives, driven by motivated employees. One of them can be the set up of a Green Team (See our article on Quick Guide to start and develop a Green Team).

EXTERNAL COMMS:

  • Define what are the internal initiatives you can communicate to the market (this will attract candidates who are like minded) and to your clients (more and more big clients are sensitive to the sustainable practices, when they do not already have questionnaires in place to measure their partners/ suppliers engagements in that matter).
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Include sustainability in Code of Conduct
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Incorporate your values in your handbook & code of conduct so it conveys the message that these are important for your company:  

Promote inclusion, equity and respectful values, sustainable focus...

Encourage policies that would protect rights and wellbeing of more fragile workforce such as migrant workers, aged workers, handicapped workers, etc...

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Define Sustainable HR Analytics
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If you don't measure it, you can't manage it.

How to do it simply:

  • Select a few metrics (too many will dilute your focus and impact negatively your results). Ensure they fully align with your strategy for greater impact.
  • Your metrics should be easy to gather, measurable and understandable. If too complex or time consuming, it won't last (if they can be automated, even better!).
  • Decide who is responsible for gathering the information & the cadence.
  • Ensure your leadership / management team is accountable for progresses and results.
  • Define baseline (starting point), targets and a timeline to achieve them.
  • Decide which metrics you would like to communicate to the entire company versus managers only and which you would like to publish outside (in your CSR or sustainability report).
  • Develop fun, simple, powerful and catchy metrics to encourage participation and engagement from everyone.

A few metrics you can start with (some would be confidential in the list below):

  • quarterly employee satisfaction
  • recruitment / turnover
  • pay equity
  • overtime
  • hours of volunteering
  • training hours
  • gender diversity
  • age repartition
  • action from the Green team
  • mobility carbon footprint
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Build a Sustainable team - BASIC
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Green Team, CSR Task Force, Sustainability Team…They have many names, yet the same goal and the fantastic power to accelerate and amplify all actions taken toward sustainability. Choose the set up most adapted for your organisation.

Think transversal. Identify a leader, according to your scope / priorities / objectives... It can be one person from each department. Identify the sponsor or mentor at Executive or Board level responsible to advocate the actions of the Sustainability Team.

Here is a quick guide to start one and develop it.

Officially allocate time for it on your employees worksheets and objectives. Remember that if you give it on top of another job responsibility, it should still be performed as part of the employee's job description.

If your team can not manage extra tasks, engage an external consultant that could act as a part-time sustainability manager.

When you are ready, or when the sustainability tasks demands it, fight for a full time Sustainability Manager and ensure a budget for a Sustainability team.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”

(African proverb)

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Buddies - Experience sharing

The « sustainability journey » may feel overwhelming sometimes, but you are not alone.

Our Buddies have tried, succeeded, failed to implement change in their companies. They share their experience so you can learn, take shortcuts, get inspired and ask questions.

Everybody can become a Buddy and give back to the community; if you are keen, get in touch with us.

Claire Kolly
HR Consulting & Executive Coaching - EDLT.global

Claire has spent more than 20 years in the HR field working in global environments, accompanying businesses in their -always complex!- development and transformations. Working across teams and cultural boundaries, she became passionate about helping teams and leaders navigate through changes and make sustainable decisions for themselves and their teams, balancing the short-term and long-term impacts in organisations.

Back in 2016, she added a coaching hat to her HR experience, got trained and certified (PCC-ICF) with the idea that most of the time what employees and leaders are missing is a space to reconnect with what is really important for them, what makes them successful, or on the contrary slows them down.

In 2021, Claire launched her own business, combining her Executive HR and Professional Coaching expertise. She is since then, helping organizations and individuals who want to do the “right thing” to develop the "S" in ESG through sustainable, human-centred HR Practices, development programs and coaching. To really be the change they want to see!

She is able to strategize, coach, train and advise in order to improve both long term executive and organizational performance, as well as ensuring that personal growth and well-being are taken care of in a sustainable and authentic manner. She is Hogan, Gallup Clifton Strengths, Individual and Team Coaching Certified.

In 2024, she also trained to become a Climate Change Coach, guiding organizations, leaders, and individuals to align business goals with social and environmental responsibility for maximum impact on their climate journey.

Vincent Desclaux
Europe Regional Managing Director - Palo IT

I worked in Asia for 12 years (Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore) within the digital and technology space. I'm now the Europe Regional Managing Director at Palo IT.

I have founded and run several companies in different sectors such as IT Consulting, Education, and the F&B business.

I am passionate about how to use technology as a force for good.

Mimi Nguyen
General Manager - Handprint -- Founding Member - The Matcha Initiative

I was born in Vietnam and grew up in France in Paris’ low income suburbs. My parents used to bring us to the park to have some outdoor activities and that’s where my father taught my siblings and I to observe, love and respect nature. He gave us perspective on our place in a much bigger ecosystem. 

At that time, we didn’t describe our family as “sustainable”. It was very pragmatic, we didn’t waste anything, we mended everything, saved and reused, because we just couldn’t afford not to :)

In 2018 in Singapore, after what felt like a long, unfulfilling professional tunnel on autopilot, I was forced to make a pause and took the opportunity to consider what I really wanted to do with my life (I know this resonates with many!)

Then I really realised how passionate I was about sustainability and for the first time, I considered making it my job. Nothing is easy when you don’t hold the right degrees or the right amount of money, so I co-created The Matcha Initiative to jump into action instead of procrastinating. That’s how you start an amazing experience with amazing people :)

Cherry on the cake: TMI helped me land my current job at Handprint, where we help businesses embrace the next step - Regeneration.

Ivona Balint-Kowalczyk
Sustainability consultant, Founder - Sustainao

With a background in sustainability consulting and audit, Ivona supports businesses in their sustainability journey by building an impactful strategy, embedding sustainable practices across operations, and reporting performance to stakeholders.

She is the founder of Sustainao, a Singapore-based company specialized in sustainability consulting. Previously, Ivona worked as a sustainability auditor at KPMG France. She holds an MBA in CSR & Sustainability and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management.

Benoit Barraque
Responsable de Projets Transverses - Crédit Agricole Group Infrastructure Platform

With 20 years of experience in IT across different sectors and industries, Benoit had managed teams focusing on project management and production and now is responsible for IT projects accross departments. Benoit is a strong sustainability advocate: in 2017, he was one of the founders and, later on, leader of Credit Agricole CIB's first green team in Singapore. In 2024, Benoit was an ECODESIGN Coach within Credit Agricole Assurances (CAA) where he contribute to create and deploy a framework for all IT projects to add a sustainability dimension to reduce their environmental footprint. This will help managers and management to understand both financial and carbon impacts and take decisions with wide insights.

Loretta Teo & Eliza Boecker
Asia CSR Team - Azqore

A lawyer by training, Eliza has been in Private banking since 1996, with roles ranging from Relationship Management to Head of Strategy for PWM Latin America at Deutsche Bank New York, and a member of the Management Committee. Eliza was also the Business Manager and Head of Business Compliance for the International markets at Bank of Singapore, before joining Azqore as COO for Asia. Eliza has worked in Kuala Lumpur, Frankfurt, New York and Singapore and in addition lived in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, an experience that has shaped her outlook and made her very much a global citizen.

A banking operations professional, Loretta has had experience across various firms, like UBS and Nomura, before joining Credit Agricole 5 years ago.  Currently Azqore’s Head of Asia Operations, she has worked in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and even had a short stint in India.  These experiences have opened her eyes to various cultures and cuisines.  

Both Eliza and Loretta kicked off the Azqore Asia CSR initiative in 2020 and have never looked back since.

Géraldine Pelissier
Agrivoltaics - Business Development Manager

Most of my professional career was in Sales and Marketing for emissions-intensive sectors (automotive, telecom, oil and gas industries) to say the least…. But I always knew I had to look for a greater purpose. Covid19 slowed down my professional activities and helped me to follow my passion. I decided to open a new chapter and follow a new career path, but to do so, I had to study sustainability.

I particularly like innovation and tech, so I wish to pursue my career with a tech for good angle.

Carolin Barr
Founder - SusGain

Carolin is a passionate and driven entrepreneur and sustainability advocate. She is involved in many projects and initiatives that contribute to reducing our environmental impact.

In 2020, Carolin founded the social enterprise susGain. susGain is a rewards-based engagement app that focuses on driving behavioural change within communities (corporates, schools, NGOs etc.) whilst measuring ESG reportable data on the impact created. By better connecting the environmentally and socially conscious stakeholders, susGain hopes to accelerate the change towards more sustainable communities.

Prior to susGain, Carolin worked as Account & Project Manager in an HR consulting and change management firm, where she was responsible for business development and end-to-end project management of training and consulting projects across APAC.

Elly Both
Founder - Bright Green

I run a business called Bright Green where I work with corporates to engage employees in impact projects in the areas of environmental and social impact. I also facilitate sustainability learning programs to educate employees on developing an eco-friendly mindset and high impact actions they can take in their homes and daily lives.

Before founding Bright Green in 2020, I have been working in Project Management, Change Management and Continuous Improvement roles within Human Resources and Recruitment. I love that I get to work with organisations that are making commitments to net-zero and inspire employees to make an impact!

Sarah Grigsby
Executive Coach & Founder - Cultivating Wholeness

Founder of Cultivating Wholeness, a network-based global coaching and advisory firm, Sarah is a PCC ICF certified Executive Coach and acts as a catalyst for personal, cultural and organizational transformation.

She supports leaders of purpose-led start-ups or organisations to bring forth a profound shift in their strategy through regenerative principles and empower them to role model the behaviors driven by their values and purpose. Enabling their business to be a life-affirming positive force in stewarding our planet on a regenerative path.

To do so, she leverages more than 10 years of experience coaching senior leaders in MNCs through their cultural transformations across Asia, Europe, and North America combined by her rich personal development through adversity.

Ju Hu Soh
Strategist - Humankind Design

I am a Strategist at Humankind Design, where we champion important causes and missions that enhance our lives and our planet. Our collaboration with organizations and brand owners helps distill their purposes into compelling narratives, rallying their talents and audiences.

My expertise spans design sustainability and technology, transforming insights into strategic actions.

Barney Swan
CEO - ClimateForce

I'm passionate about walking the talk, breaking the silos within sustainability and making pathways relevant for all walks of life (especially heavy industry) to diversify their current standard operating procedures.

Zofia Chlapowski
Stakeholder Engagement

I have more than 20 years experience leading change and transformation in Europe, Africa and Asia. I have had the privilege of managing and contributing to diverse industries, organisation (Humanitarian and corporate) to secure engagement and impact. In my last role I worked in a large MNC supply chain environment engaging external partners to increase our impact in sustainability.

Patchareeboon Mam Sakulpitakphon
Sustainability and Impact Lead - PALO IT Thailand

Patchareeboon Mam has more than 16 years of experience on international development and sustainability projects, especially relating to business and human rights and corporate sustainability

Natalie Seisser
Creative Director & Climate Educator - A New Kind Studio

Creative director, Designer, Educator.

I’m the founder and creative director at anewkind.studio, a purpose-driven, Life-centric design & strategy studio.

Passionate about mentoring and teaching, I lecture on interdisciplinary Design Studios, emphasising experiential learning to equip students for global challenges. My specialties are Creative Direction, Branding & Identity, Packaging, Responsible Communication, Greenwashing, Regenerative Design Principles, Circularity, as well as Visual Storytelling.

I’m currently working on a book publication called: reload.earth - alongside publishing house Slanted. We are featuring creatives, philosophers, entrepreneurs, activists and designers who are sparking new narratives around the climate movement. My research interests lie at the intersection of Art & Design and the Climate crisis, built on the belief that creativity can alter culture, and culture is key to building a better future on the planet! 

I also facilitate the Biodiversity Collage in Singapore and lead Climate Designers Singapore, a community igniting climate conversations through creative work.

Maya Madhusoodan
Managing Director - Space Doctors

I am a seasoned consultant, brand strategist and user research specialist. I've run strategic consultancies in Singapore that focus on designing for futures, and ensuring that cultural insights and emerging planetary and human needs input into product, communication and brand decisions. Partnering with bluechip companies like Unilever, P&G, Ford, Microsoft to help innovate, design, communicate the brand, my experience spans diverse categories.

I can run projects about user research, design research, cultural strategy, and off late applying all these skills towards regenerative practices.

I have an academic background in Psychology, English Literature and have recently done courses on Circular Economy and Regenerative Economics.

Benjamin Casteillo
Founder & CEO - New World Together

I am an expert in Global Sustainability. I have quit a successful corporate career to dedicate my life to addressing our era's increasingly pressing sustainability challenges. Using a systemic and transdisciplinary approach, I have notably unearthed breakthrough insights that directly tackle the issue's root causes.

With New World Together, I'm committed to sharing my understanding through conferences, workshops, and training programs. My aim is to empower people and organizations to contribute meaningfully to shaping the way toward a future that is desirable and sustainable.

Droston Tang
Senior Advisor, Market Development Southeast Asia - ESGTree

I'm an experienced business professional with 17 years of commercial experience across various industries in developed and developing Asian markets. I have held senior positions in multinational corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and startups, with a strong focus on GTM, B2B sales and expertise in venture building.

In one of my recent circular economy startup roles, I helped Nextevo launch the world's first pineapple leaf fiber denim jacket and jeans with Bershka (Inditex Group) in October 2022 and developed successful partnerships/showcases with the Singapore Design Council and the Singapore Fashion Council. Earlier in my career, I was part of the pioneer team in Singapore at one of the world's largest vertically integrated solar manufacturers, REC ASA, and separately at EPURON, where I supported the management team to launch the first Renewable Energy Trust in Asia with GE Energy Financial Services in 2008.

On the side, I am actively engaged in mentoring startup founders and young changemakers in Asia, participating in programs such as Bridge For Billions, the Singapore International Foundation's Young Social Entrepreneurs, and the National Youth Council Singapore’s Youth Action Challenge.

I leverage my entrepreneurial knowledge and extensive network to empower the next generation of impact-driven entrepreneurs in the region.

Dominica Drazal
Communications & Partnerships for Start-Ups in Emerging Markets

Raised in the Middle East by Eastern European parents, I was surrounded by layers of diversity. Extensive traveling throughout my childhood stimulated a fascination for cultures, languages and geopolitics, and I continued living a pseudo-nomadic life as an adult. While I began my career on the trading floor in NYC, I later worked in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America in diverse roles (investments, micro-finance, communications, and business development). Fluent in five languages, I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and later completed a Masters in International Affairs from Fletcher (Tufts), and have a number of Sustainability related certificates.

Stéfan Le Dû
Founder & General Manager - Ichigo Bloom

I'm a French sustainability changemaker based in Tokyo. After 15 years in public policy for the French government, I moved to Japan in 2016. Initially at the French Embassy, I then joined the private sector to accelerate corporate sustainability mindsets.

In 2024, I launched Ichigo Bloom, a collective of freelance facilitators offering sustainability education in Japan.