Sustainable Organizational Change

Trying to implement sustainability within your organization? Feeling overwhelmed? Georgia Tech’s Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure is working to develop the tools and theory you need to survive as a change agent in your organization. Based on inputs from people implementing sustainability around the country, SFI has identified the top ten barriers to sustainability implementation along with best practices being used to overcome them in the public and private sectors. This information is captured in a Barrier-Barrier Breaker matrix tool that is based on an understanding of sustainability from the standpoint of organizational change and includes tips and tools for increasing the rate of adoption of sustainable concepts. The content of the tool is based on data collected during nearly twenty training events of public sector organizations around the United States. During training, participants are introduced to fundamental concepts and strategies of built environment sustainability, and training exercises are used to allow discussion, reflection, and time for implementation planning. Specific facilitated exercises within the training focus on helping participants identify potential barriers to implementation and design both personal and organizational strategies for overcoming them. The outcome of these training events has been a framework for breaking barriers to sustainability implementation that is used to structure resources, case studies, best practices, and examples to help practitioners surmount obstacles to sustainability implementation. The framework is under development as a web tool that will be available online to guide people through the process of developing a sustainability action plan for their organization.

Resources:

Vanegas, Jorge A. and Pearce, Annie R. (2000). “Drivers for Change: An Organizational Perspective on Sustainable Construction.” Proceedings, Construction Congress VI, February 20-22, Orlando, FL. – This paper describes the drivers for sustainable organizational change in the Architecture/Engineering/Construction Industry (slides)

Pearce, Annie R. (2002). “Beyond Compliance (or how to be a company hero and increase job security).” Managing Environmental Compliance Short Course, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, March 7. – This presentation includes highlights of arguments that are used to persuade people to adopt sustainability in the workplace (to be uploaded)

Pearce, Annie R. (2001). "Sustainability Strategy 101," Joint Services Pollution Prevention and Hazardous Waste Management Conference, August 20-23, San Antonio, TX. – This four hour presentation describes the overall theory and findings behind sustainable organizational change (module slides and handout)

Pearce, Annie R., Fischer, C.L.J., and Bosch, S.J. (2001). “Implementing Sustainability: An Organizational Perspective.” EnvironDesign5, Atlanta, GA, April 27. – this presentation and resource list covers the mechanics of sustainability adoption in organizations, including a framework for developing a sustainability implementation plan and examples from industry.

Pearce, A.R. and Powell-Jones, R. (accepted for publication). “The Human Dimension of Sustainability,” in Messenger, M. and Webster, R., eds. Sustainability State of the Art: Who’s Who and What They’re Saying. Publisher to be determined. – This book chapter describes issues associated with implementing sustainability from a human perspective, including the psychology of innovation and change and what makes individuals and organizations respond to change the way they do. (to be uploaded)

For more information, contact Dr. Annie R. Pearce at annie.pearce@gtri.gatech.edu.