Sustainable Trading has launched its new Member Progress Framework, offering an effective way to engage directly with the firm and sustainability practices in the trading industry.
The framework offers a practical, step-by-step approach for firms to make measurable progress, earn recognition and contribute to higher industry standards, the firm said.
“One of the things that’s important with frameworks of this type is to have a publicly accessible structure that clearly shows how someone can progress through it,” Duncan Higgins, chief executive at Sustainable Trading, tells The TRADE.
“The primary goal is to give members a really clear approach to advancing their sustainability efforts across three key areas – one is their engagement with us, the second is around the change that they make happen within their organisation and then the third is around advocacy for broader change.”
Members progress through the framework via five incremental levels: participating, contributing, adopting, integrating, and delivering, with each level building on top of the previous element.
This progression involves active engagement in Sustainable Trading’s work programme and meetings; incorporating practical change within one’s trading business; and engagement on sustainability.
Sustainable Trading added that the Member Progress Framework was developed in response to member demand for an actionable way to track and communicate sustainability efforts.
“We spoke to a large number of our members when we designed, built and refined the approach of the framework. The solid set of input from all the firms involved helped to create strong foundations for the approach,” adds Higgins.
“Now that it’s finalised, we have been reviewing with each and every member to help them identify where they sit within the framework. Importantly, also what additional actions they can take in order to achieve a higher level of progress and recognition.”
The framework also aims to offer an approach to sustainability in operations of trading businesses which reflects where the industry stands today, while complementing broader corporate initiatives.
The offering seeks to provide organisations at any stage with a clear starting point, allowing them to progress at a pace that is suitable to their resources and priorities.
At each level attained through the framework, members earn recognition of progress and are able to share their attainment level with stakeholders, clients and industry peers to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability.
Sustainable Trading added that as more firms advance through the framework, the aim is to elevate sustainability standards industry-wide, fostering long-term, holistic change.
Higgins explains: “We had an incredible amount of energy, enthusiasm, time and effort from all of our members in creating our initial work output, which was a really extensive set of best practices around environmental, social and governance topics, and a way of being able to measure the implementation of those practices.
“This framework builds on that by giving members very clear direction on how they should utilise those resources, implement those practices, incorporate measurement and integrate these tools into their annual planning process. It helps them assess their position understand the progress they’re making in the industry and, importantly, demonstrate this progress to stakeholders, clients and the people in their firm.”