How to Create a Sustainability Policy

8 Items to include in your sustainability policy:

1. Vision: A vision is an aspirational statement of how your team envisions the future of your business, organization, or community. Think big! Here are some inspiring examples, along with our team’s vision statement:

• Vibrant, healthy oceans and communities supported and inspired by the sport of sailing.

2. Mission: The mission should describe how your organization will go about achieving your vision. 

• Example: 11th Hour Racing Team’s mission is to win The Ocean Race 2021- 22 with sustainability at the core of all team operations, inspiring positive action among sailing and coastal communities, and global sports fans to create long-lasting change for ocean health. We will accelerate change through sporting excellence in sailing, ocean advocacy, and sustainable innovation. 

3. Definition of Sustainability: Sustainability is a broad term, covering a wide range of topics. You’ll want to define what sustainability means in the context of your organization. 

• Example: 11th Hour Racing Team defines sustainability as the intrinsic balance between the social, economic and environmental aspects of our everyday actions, which respects the world’s oceans, natural resources and the needs of current and future generations. We believe that sustainability requires intergenerational empathy: our collective actions today will ensure healthy communities, prosperous economies and a thriving planet for future generations.

4. Scope: Include a brief description of the purpose of the sustainability policy. Clearly state what activities your sustainability program applies to within your organization and state this in your policy. Does it apply to just one part of your operations or all of the activities of your organization?

• Example: The 11th Hour Racing Team is an offshore sailing team competing in the 2021-2022 edition of the The Ocean Race. This policy is relevant to all our activities relating to the preparation and participation in the 14th edition of the race. Here we describe our team’s vision and mission, our definition of sustainability and core values, how the sustainability strategy identifies areas of focus for the team, and outline our commitment to transparent reporting and continual improvement. The sustainability plan will detail our goals, objectives and strategies for implementation.

5. Organization Objectives & Targets: Your organization should identify key objectives and targets for reaching each objective. It’s important that targets are clearly defined, and allow you to measure and quantify your progress.

To help organize goals and targets, our team identified four guiding principles around our team operations and campaign objectives: Innovation, Leadership, Legacy, and Collaboration. Not only will these principles help establish our goals and objectives, but they provide a platform to communicate our sustainability initiatives.

Our policy defines these principles with high level goals, while the sustainability plan will expand on each of these areas in more detail with associated targets. 

6. Strategy for Implementation + Monitoring:  This section of your policy allows you to describe your implementation strategy for your larger program. You’ll want to make sure you can continuously measure and report on your objectives to make sure you are on track to meet your targets. 

• Example: If you have a target to offset your team’s carbon footprint from travel by 100%, you’ll need to have a system in place to track your footprint, make all available efforts to minimize it, and create a plan to offset the remaining footprint.

7. Reporting: Your organization should commit to periodic reporting to allow you to make adjustments to your operations for continuous improvement. This is a good opportunity to align your organization with any governing bodies or sustainability standards. 

• Example: 11th Hour Racing Team’s sustainability plan will conform with ISO 20121 Sustainable Event Management Systems, and aligns with industry and sport-relevant sustainability standards to ensure credibility and transparency through robust monitoring and reporting. These include the Global Reporting Initiative, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the World Sailing Sustainability Agenda 2030.

8. Commitment from Leadership: Include a section for your organization’s leaders to sign-off, committing to the policy and demonstrating a culture of support and accountability from the top down.