There are multiple benefits to the development of a comprehensive sustainability roadmap in executing your organisation’s sustainability strategy. The roadmap provides a clear pathway to achieve each individual sustainability target, a particularly useful tool when the execution of the sustainability goals will be the responsibility of a team, such as when sustainability goals fall under the purview of multiple departments. Secondly, assigning a time-specific target to your goals will improve accountability and can help prevent deadlines from being missed by leaving the work to the last minute.

Once you have decided to create a sustainability roadmap, where should you begin? Below is a process you can follow to get started with your roadmap – the first step for your company’s journey to becoming more sustainable.

Step 1: Identify the gaps. This step is critical in establishing the base for your roadmap. Once you have identified the gaps in your sustainability performance, or the key areas you want to focus on, you will have narrowed down the spectrum of potential sustainability goals and targets into a manageable foundation for your roadmap.

Step 2: Determine your timeframe. By when do you want to achieve your results? Three-year roadmaps or five-year roadmaps are best. Any longer than that and the potential for organisational changes makes the roadmap less valuable.

Step 3: Start small. Start by identifying the “low hanging fruit” from your gap analysis. These are the targets you can focus on for “year 1” of the roadmap. This will give you some immediate achievements to boost morale and demonstrate your commitment to sustainability to your stakeholders. This will also help you establish momentum and get your team used to referring to the roadmap for tracking your goals and progress.

Step 4: Work backwards. After identifying the “easy wins”, shift your focus to the biggest challenges identified in the gap analysis. These goals can be set for achievement at the end of your roadmap (3 or 5 years). Then work backwards to determine the smaller steps required each year to enable you to complete the larger task within the required timeframe. This will break the target up into more achievable pieces, and keep you focused on your largest sustainability tasks, so that they do not fall to the wayside.

Step 5: Get approval. It is essential for your roadmap to have support and buy-in from the rest of the team. This can include obtaining official endorsement from the management team or Board of Directors. You should also “pitch” the roadmap to all relevant employees in the organisation. To truly embed a culture of sustainability within your company, you will need the support and enthusiasm of the whole team.

Step 6: Implement your roadmap. Now that you have identified your targets and broken down the necessary tasks onto a timeline, you can begin your journey! To ensure your annual targets do not become afterthoughts to be achieved at the eleventh hour , you should establish a schedule for monthly or quarterly meetings so that all team members involved in the roadmap can update their progress, flag any challenges, and keep sustainability on everyone’s mind throughout the year, not just during reporting season.