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2nd March 2023 17:06 - Business Support

Three in 10 organisations have no dedicated sustainability resource: A survey of UK businesses has revealed that 29% of organisations have no dedicated sustainability resource, with 88% of businesses with 50 or fewer staff reporting not having a dedicated person or team to manage sustainability at all. Indeed, smaller companies, overall were found to be less likely to have sustainability resource.

The survey by recruitment group, Hays, polled professionals at more than 3,200 organisations. This included large businesses with more than 1,000 employees to micro companies with fewer than 10.

Around one in five respondents said that sustainability was managed by just one person at their organisation, which was as true for larger companies as it was smaller ones. It was also typical for the person who managed sustainability to have support from people from other departments, although they were the only 'official' dedicated person. Just 7% of respondents said they had a large sustainability team, with just over a quarter (26%) saying they have a small and dedicated team.

Also revealed by the study was that very large organisations were nearly twice as likely to have a small, focused sustainability team than small companies, with 17% of respondents polled saying they were unsure about who was responsible for managing sustainability at their workplace. This was found to be more prevalent at larger organisations.

Sustainability was overseen by a board director at 27% of the organisations polled, whose sole responsibility was in this area, while one in 10 said there is board representation through a person or team, with HR as their core responsibility. The research found that other common functions which oversee sustainability include compliance, health and safety (8%); estates and property (7%), operations (7%) and finance (4%).

Hays’ director Paul Gosling said: “It’s really promising to see sustainability going up on the business agenda in recent times, with more and more organisations building dedicated sustainability teams.

"Today, it’s about recognising the value of people with specialist expertise who can advise organisations and drive the right activity, in order to meet their sustainability goals. Ultimately, having a dedicated team is the way forward.”

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