ABSTRACT
The road to sustainable banking involves organizational change. This can be achieved in an autonomous, ad hoc or structured way. The approach chosen will depend on the bank's current phase of sustainability or the stance it adopts with regard to sustainability (ie defensive, preventive, offensive or sustainable). An offensive or sustainable stance demands a completely different organizational structure than, for example, a preventive stance. An important question is whether sustainable behaviour is centrally or decentrally organized and thus where authorization and responsibilities lie. What is the role of employees and what is the role of the management or the board of directors? What should the approach be, ‘top–down’ or ‘bottom–up’? Should there be a separate environmental department or should responsibility for sustainability and the environment be integrated into various departments or parts of the organization? Such things do, of course, depend on the structure and culture of the organization and the markets in which it operates, both geographical and functional. What is more, all sorts of specific strategic questions play a role, such as should the position the organization has adopted towards sustainability be changed and if so, when is the best moment for an organizational change and how will support for this be generated?
