How to craft successful sustainability programs

Although there is no direct return on investment to Bristol-Myers Squibb, the program gives the drugmaker the industrywide backing to get suppliers on board to help hit long-term sustainability goals, said Victoria Emerick, global head of corporate sustainability strategy and operations at Bristol-Myers Squibb. It is very difficult to get smaller suppliers to address the environment without help from their customers, she said.

“It’s a rising tide lifts all boats," Ms. Emerick said. “We are all working together to achieve a common goal that benefits everyone."

Innovate the old

Centuries ago, traders sent cargo on sail boats. Now, Scandinavian shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen ASA is looking to develop a new type of wind-powered ship.

“We could be coming full circle here," said Roger Strevens, vice president of global sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen.

The vessel, designed for carrying cars and other vehicles, can cut emissions by up to 90% compared with a fossil-fuel powered ship, the company said. Wallenius Wilhelmsen secured roughly €9 million, equivalent to around $9.8 million, from the European Union to aid with design and testing. Mr. Strevens said the company is working through engineering, with testing expected this year and next, and determining if the ship makes economic sense. If the design works and the business case adds up, they aim to have a ship on the water in 2027.

“In shipping, the fastest way to become a millionaire is to start as a billionaire and make the wrong decisions in decarbonization," he said. Shipping companies will soon be paying for their emissions under the EU Emissions Trading System.

Learn from diverse employees

Financial-services firm Northern Trust Corp. has looked beyond diversity metrics with a so-called reverse mentoring program where executives learn from their employees about issues facing women and people of color in the workplace. It wasn’t difficult to get the program approved by executives and they were willing to spend the time, said Kimberly Evans, head of corporate sustainability, inclusion and social impact at Northern Trust.

“What we typically think about in terms of mentoring is the senior executive mentoring the next level employee," Ms. Evans said. “In this case, we turned it around and those next level employees were mentoring our executives."

Although the program doesn’t feed into a typical sustainability metric, she said the program “profoundly impacted" one female executive who realized she had been conditioned in her decision making. The unnamed executive said she would include lessons from the mentoring program in her future meetings, Ms. Evans said.

“That’s not something we were ticking and tying from a metrics perspective," she said, “but if you have a senior executive who is impacting thousands of employees and her behavior changed because of this reverse mentoring program that is the kind of impact we were only hoping for."

Get curious about new fields

Data ethics and artificial intelligence might not be a top sustainability concern for many companies yet, but they already are for advertising firms. Communication and advertising company WPP PLC recently finalized policies on the topics that they have put into practice.

But the fields are relatively new to businesses and tricky to understand. There is even a debate among sustainability professionals if they have the know-how to manage the wide issues they cover, WPP Chief Sustainability Officer Hannah Harrison said.

To get WPP’s staff up to speed, the company launched an AI ethics hub with tools. Separately, it has an academy aimed at demystifying AI that has had more than 10,000 course enrollments.

“It’s not enough to have policies on paper," Ms. Harrison said. “You have to think about how those translate into practice."