Turn Colleagues from Bystanders to Sustainability Champions with Arla

Forget state-of-the-art tech and lofty sustainability goals for a second. The real sustainability grind lies in aligning and engaging stakeholders behind sustainability.

Camilla Riddiford, Head of Sustainability UK & I at Arla Foods (the global dairy company behind iconic brands like Lurpak and Cravendale), knows this firsthand. Today we’ll be sharing Camilla’s 4 step approach for turning disengaged colleagues into passionate sustainability champions:

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1. Build a strong foundation

Arla's sustainability function, the ASC, operates in a hybrid model: centralised for internal alignment and decentralised for effective inter-departmental relationship building. This approach has proven crucial for creating alignment within the team while maximising support and buy-in from other departments.This function sits under the CSO, ensuring strong collaboration and consistent messaging across agriculture, sustainability, and marketing. Other organisational considerations:

• Reporting lines: Make sure the sustainability function has the authority needed to drive change.
• Cross-company relationships: Build strong relationships with other departments to leverage internal resources.
• Clear objectives: Embed sustainability goals into company-wide goals and communicate how individual roles contribute to overall success.

2. Turn bystanders into sustainability championsTo drive widespread change, targeted upskilling is a must.Camilla’s advice: "Make sustainability the core of others' day jobs. When people understand how their role contributes to the overall strategy, they are more likely to support and champion sustainability initiatives.”Prioritise upskilling these teams:

• Leadership team: Keep sessions concise and focus the agenda on your “swords” vs your “shields”:

A quick note on maximising budgets: frame sustainability initiatives in terms of business objectives. By weaving sustainability into the core of business operations, it becomes everyone's responsibility. Clear expectations, defined success metrics, and opportunities for collaboration are essential for driving widespread engagement.

• Sales and marketing teams: Give your sales and marketing teams the tools and experiences to become sustainability storytellers. Camilla recently hosted a commercial team trip to one of Arla’s farms to bring their on-farm sustainability work to life.
• Often overlooked, but don’t forget your sustainability team: Invest in your team and supercharge their skills. Camilla does this through a relentless commitment to personal development, organising internal training sessions, bringing in external experts, and quarterly reflections.

Everyone loves a grand finale, but it's the small wins along the way that keep everyone going. Celebrate progress, no matter how small. An after-work curry can be just as rewarding as a trophy!

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3. Run training sessions that resonate

Camilla believes in the power of “show, don’t tell”. She's found two winning formulas to be particularly effective:

• Smaller groups → Interactive sessions Interactive sessions can spark deeper engagement. For example, Camilla asked her leadership team to guess the average height of a five-year-old in the UK, Germany and France. This simple question sparked a lively debate about child nutrition. The revelation that UK children are on average 4cm shorter than their German peers highlighted the issue of malnutrition in a compelling and memorable way. This ignited a passionate discussion about the root causes and potential solutions.
• Larger groups → Personal storytelling Create memorable stories that can travel. Keep them simple, relevant and jargon-free. Don't be afraid to share your own sustainability story – it can be a powerful connection point. Camilla shared a personal anecdote about her New Zealand family farm after it was hit by Cyclone Gabrielle in 2022. “While my colleagues might forget the statistics, they still talk about "Camilla's parents' farm.” By sharing this deeply personal story, she connected with her sales team on an emotional level, inspiring them to see their role in supporting farmers' sustainability efforts.

It goes without saying, but take the time to understand their motivations and empower them to champion your efforts.

4. Find the perfect balance of narrative vs data

Effectively communicating sustainability requires a delicate balance between inspiring storytelling and robust data analysis. While compelling narratives can capture hearts and minds, concrete data is essential for building trust and driving action.

Arla's sustainability incentive model, FarmAhead, is a good example of this approach. By collecting carbon footprint data from farmers and analysing cost-effective reduction strategies, they created a model that rewards farmers for their efforts. This data-driven approach, combined with clear communication about the financial incentives effectively incentivised farmers to take action (speaking to the mind, the heart and the purse strings).

Listen to the full discussion here:

By Isobel Wild, Content Lead at Altruistiq