When the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, you can smell it throughout the village of Renkum in Gelderland. That was one of the conclusions of a recent article of the Gelderlander newspaper about the emissions from the Parenco paper factory. It was not without reason that the factory was ordered by the province of Gelderland to downsize. Nevertheless, the company, which consumes as much groundwater as a medium-sized Dutch city and is one of the largest nitrogen emitters in Gelderland, has submitted an expansion plan.
“It may well be that Parenco's expansion goes hand in hand with making the company more sustainable and reducing odour nuisance in Renkum,” begins Sjors Witjes, associate professor of sustainability and circularity in organisations. “But in presenting their plans, they show little evidence of having their finger on the pulse of society.” What would have helped Parenco? “A good sustainability manager who does have their finger on the pulse and could have advised the management.”
A sustainability manager can be seen as the person sitting at the top of a ship in the crow's nest, looking out over the waves and instructing the helmsmen on how to manoeuvre the ship through the waves. It is not without reason that Witjes and his colleagues refer to sustainability navigators rather than sustainability managers. “This person keeps track of all the challenges involved in making an organisation more sustainable and processes all that information in such a way that the management can use it in the decision-making process.”
Not a superhero
These sustainability challenges can be very visible (or, in the case of Parenco, noticeable). But there are also problems that organisations do not immediately notice. Witjes gives another example: “Take Decathlon. Research showed that the company is indirectly guilty of exploiting Uyghurs, the Muslim minority in China. As a company, you obviously don't want to contribute to exploitation, so you have to do something about it. And if you have to do something about that, you start wondering what else you need to do.” A sustainability navigator is the person who keeps track of all this. Witjes is therefore not surprised that more and more organisations are hiring people for this role.
Of course, a sustainability navigator is not a superhero who can solve all problems. The effectiveness of such a navigator is closely related to their position within the organisation, explains Witjes. He looks back on the second half of the last century when organisations first hired quality controllers, then health and safety managers and later environmental experts.
“More and more organisations set up so-called QHSE departments (Quality, Health, Safety and Environment). But what organisations did wrong, and what still doesn't always go well when appointing sustainability managers, is that these departments were not sufficiently embedded in the organisations, which meant they were hardly effective.” Witjes believes this stems more from ignorance than ill will. “Although there are certainly organisations that engage in window dressing and only hire a sustainability manager so they can say they take sustainability seriously.”
Making your own job redundant
Whether it's done with bad intentions or not, without proper embedding, a sustainability manager is of little use. “The goal of a sustainability navigator should be to make the entire organisation aware of the importance of sustainability and to act accordingly. A good sustainability manager, such as Marije Klomp at Radboud University until recently, is someone who wants to make their own job redundant.”
That is easier said than done. Because to really embed sustainability within an organisation, you need to have a range of skills, Witjes emphasises. 'Similar to a scientist, you need to be able to select and develop knowledge and methods, collect and analyse data. You then need to be able to communicate the insights you gain to people outside your department. On top of that, you need to be able to bring different parties together and know how to get sustainability issues on the agenda."
No brainer
These are the kinds of skills that Witjes teaches his students. ‘We want to train students to become transdisciplinary thinkers: people who have knowledge in multiple fields and can combine scientific knowledge with practical experience.’ It is no coincidence that he set up the Master's programme in Science for Sustainability a few years ago. It was the first interfaculty Master's programme at Radboud University, but if it were up to Witjes, it certainly won't be the last.
‘With the complex problems we face today, transdisciplinary academics are desperately needed. The university is also becoming increasingly aware of this, as evidenced by the focus on collaboration between disciplines and the emphasis on connecting with social partners in the region.’ For Witjes, it's a no-brainer. “It's now clear that we need to become more sustainable. And if the university really wants to contribute to a better society, it can do so through transdisciplinary research and education.”