ABSTRACT
On our maturity model of sustainability, the full integration model requires total (or, more realistically, near total) buy-in from stakeholders. It is often said that stakeholders own the reputation of the business – certainly no amount of spend on PR can overcome a bad repute. Having good stakeholder relationships has many benefits:
Protecting the brand and hence market share;
Going further, it can enhance the brand and improve market share;
Developing a broader and deeper understanding of key sustainability issues that the company needs to tackle; these may not be apparent from within;
Encouraging and stimulating innovation through collaborative working and sharing of ideas;
Building goodwill that can buffer the company’s reputation from long-term damage if things do go wrong.
Trying to develop and implement a sustainability strategy without, at the very least, taking into consideration the views of stakeholders is foolhardy. In this chapter we look at how to engage stakeholders effectively.