The Winmark Compass Report in association with Cyan Partners
Sustainability Department Benchmarking
“There is no doubting the importance of sustainability to every business right now as we all become more conscious of the climate emergency and the need to decarbonise and transition to a circular, sustainable economy.
The role of sustainability professionals has never been more important, as they find new ways to implement sustainability strategies within their businesses, develop sustainable business models, review issues within the supply chain, identify climate and reputational risks and explore sustainable design for products. There is also the ongoing issue of reporting and regulation, which means a close working relationship with the Legal department.
The report points to a department that is arguably not yet receiving the investment it needs to deliver its crucial work – it has the lowest running costs, headcount and costs per head of all departments. As the business world recognises that purpose and sustainability are becoming existential issues and with the growth of stakeholder capitalism, this will surely change. The research provides ample evidence that sustainability leaders are looking forward with optimism to the increased importance and continued growth of their departments.”
This report aims to help Sustainability department heads in this process by providing a benchmark of their own headcount and spend relative to their peers and other key functional departments. It also provides a benchmark of the perceived maturity of departments and the split of staff according to seniority.
Key findings
Headcount
- The average Sustainability department accounts for 0.19% of all staff within the
company – less than half the ‘all-department’ average of 0.4%. - Sustainability departments expect a 6% increase in headcount in the coming year – behind the IT (9%) and Finance (8%) departments.
- All departments expect headcount growth in the coming year, but (with the exception of Finance and Sustainability) are expecting the rate of growth to be less than the year before.
Seniority
- The Sustainability department has a relatively high proportion of staff (20%) occupying ‘Chiefs, Directors or Head’ roles – second only to Legal with 24%.
- Mid-tier Sustainability ‘Manager’ positions split roughly into two thirds who are ‘Technical Experts and Managers’ and one third who are ‘Operations, Information and Project managers’ – overall, 21% of all ‘Managers’ are ‘Operations, Information and Project managers’.
Running Costs
- The Sustainability department has the lowest running costs of all departments as a proportion of revenue at 0.19%, but this is reasonable given that the function is relatively new in most organisations.
- The Sustainability department has the lowest costs per head (excluding external spend) of all functions at £76,603.
- Sustainability departments, along with IT and Finance, expect the largest cost increases in the year ahead (+9%).
External Spend
- Sustainability departments spend 31% of their budgets externally – equal to the ‘all-department’ average.
- Finance and IT departments spend the highest proportion of their budgets externally (41% and 39% respectively).
- HR departments have significantly lower external spend than other departments – just 10%.
Maturity
- Sustainability departments are at a dynamic stage of maturity – 2/3 view themselves as either ‘Mid-transition or change process’ or ‘New and embedding’, the highest proportion of all departments.
- The most commonly reported stage of maturity amongst all departments is ‘Mid transition or mid-change process’ – approximately 30-40% of all departments.
Performance
- 28% of Sustainability departments define themselves as ‘Performing’ – similar to other departments.
- A smaller proportion of Sustainability departments (6%) define themselves as ‘Needing change’ than any other function.
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