How to connect with your community
Sustainability is about more than picking up rubbish
Friday, December 11 2009 || Features || BY Sarah Lang
Meanwhile, Locus Research has harnessed the power of online networks to “box a bit more clever”, in Allan’s words. You’ll find the SDG on social networking site Twitter (one sentence answers to “what are you doing?”) and professional networking site, LinkedIn. “People are already on there, so adopting our group is straightforward,” says Allan. “Membership can grow exponentially and very quickly.” Unlike often intrusive email, such ‘on-demand’ sites let you choose when and where you access information. Meanwhile, SlideShare presentations and Twitter feeds are also accessible via the LinkedIn group, and the cash-strapped group can communicate for free.
Locus Research isn’t the only entrant trying new approaches. One man used to getting strange looks for his leftfield approach is leading sustainability and not-for-profit researcher Nick Jones from Sustainable Advantage, a subsidiary company of Auckland accountancy firm Hayes Knight.
Accountants don’t immediately spring to mind when you think of community champions. But Hayes Knight turned that stereotype on its head when it hired Jones in September 2008 as Sustainable Advantage’s one-man band. “It’s a pretty big move for an accounting firm to hire a guy with no accounting experience. I’m not allowed near the chequebook at home!” Jones grins. “But that’s the power of the collaboration model.”
Tackling the fraught issue of trust in business head-on, Sustainable Advantage developed, conducted and released ‘A Matter of Trust’, pioneering research that identifies ways organisations can retain and rebuild trust by becoming more sustainable. Now, clients both old and new — from two-person not for profits (NFPs) to big multinationals — are queuing up for advice on their sustainability approach.
But you’ve got to clean up at home before you go out. Setting up an internal Sustainability Council and launching CSR-based sustainability initiatives, Hayes Knight improved its lacklustre environmental performance and stepped up its already strong community work with NFPs. It’s not about sending out the staff to pick up rubbish at Takapuna Beach. Rather, Hayes Knight directors and employees contribute their business and financial nous to organisations like the Promoting Generosity Group (which supports community participation); some sit on NFP boards. “They sit of their own volition, they’re not put,” cautions Jones.
For instance, Hayes Knight provided project management and report writing skills to help the HOPE Foundation for Research on Ageing develop a study of the over-65 market. Both backs got scratched. Hayes Knight wove research insights into its services for an ageing client base, while HOPE’s profile was elevated and its research widely welcomed.
With this mutual-benefit approach writ large, Jones facilitates conversations and relationships between the voluntary and business sectors, such as TV3 and the community partners it supports with advertising time. He’s quick to point out this isn’t a one-way street: NFPs need partnerships with business; business needs NFP knowledge to make informed decisions.
A strong category theme is that companies aren’t afraid to plug their own knowledge gaps, or to share strategies within and across sectors. The SDG is all about information sharing; Fonterra collaborates with other school-supporting charities; Hayes Knight presents free workshops on its trust research.
As Jones points out, some companies “compete like hell” work wise but collaborate on community projects. “In this area there’s a fundamental responsibility to share, help others develop, and learn from others. That collaboration model is what we’ve got to be a lot better at in New Zealand, and we’re getting there.”
Community finalists
