Leading Sustainability: What Directors Need to Know and Do

This Course is Now Booked Out

Please note this course is now booked out. However, a cancellation list is now in operation.If you wish to be put on the cancellation list, please contact the IoD Training Team on training@iodireland.ie or phone +353 1 411 0010.

Overview

We are pleased to launch our new online course titled, ‘Leading Sustainability: What Directors Need to Know and Do’, which will include four in-depth half day sessions. This new online course will be led by Professor Simon Haslam, Chartered Director, and John Henry Looney, Sustainability Management Consultant.

This course will include four sessions designed to equip directors with the knowledge and skills to strengthen their organisations’ orientation towards sustainability.  

It will provide a practical approach to this critically important issue, with a focus on immediate takeaways, and it will include an opportunity to apply learnings to the participant’s own organisation.  

Sustainability does not require us to sacrifice profit but asks us to broaden our assessment of capital and its value while exploring how to optimise our people and other assets for a global future benefit.  

This course will start you on a journey to change the way you operate and live to be part of the solution, to deliver prosperity that includes everyone, and to grasp the opportunity we have right now to lead sustainable organisations.

What Will I Gain from Attending this Online Course?

• An understanding of what sustainability means for your organisation and the duties of a director.
• An insight into the circular economy and the key issues and solutions regarding environmental challenges.
• An understanding of social responsibilities and how the way you motivate your people and engage stakeholders is a key duty of directors.
• A means of assessing the unique opportunities that the ESG agenda presents for your organisation and sector.

Please note booking for this course is paid for as a whole and it is not possible to book individual sessions. Please see the Booking and CPD tab for more info.
 

The four sessions in the online course will take place on four different dates between 09:00-12:30. The session topics, and dates are:

• Tuesday, 5th October 2021: Session One - Why Sustainability is Increasingly Important for Boards 
• Monday, 18th October 2021: Session Two - The Environment Agenda: The Board’s Role 
• Monday, 8th November 2021: Session Three - The Social Agenda: The Board’s Role 
• Thursday, 25th November 2021: Session Four - The Bottom-Line Agenda: Director/Board Actions. 

Session One - Why Sustainability is Increasingly Important for Boards

The first session explores the growing importance of sustainability in the context of directors’ duties and the board’s role.  It provides insight into 17 elements of the sustainability agenda and how these provide the foundation for a viable strategy. This will include:

• What we mean by sustainability.
• Why sustainability is important.
• Frameworks for sustainability.
• Directors’ duties; leadership; reporting; and change.

Session Two - The Environment Agenda: The Board’s Role

The second session focuses on the environmental perspective for boards.  It looks at the circular economy and the implication of concepts such as materiality and scope in terms of making a positive impact. This will include: 

• The range of the environmental agenda (Sustainable Development Goals).
• The circular economy.
• Assessing your business’s impact: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), materiality, and significance. 
• Increasing global engagement with the environmental agenda and how this affects you.
• Actions that leaders can take.

Session Three - The Social Agenda: The Board’s Role

The third session looks at the board’s role as it relates to the social agenda.  It covers stakeholder ramifications and how to generate buy-in.  This will include:

• Sustainability defined from a people perspective.
• The range of the Social Agenda (Sustainable Development Goals).
• Assessing your business’s impact: stakeholder mapping.
• Increasing global engagement with the Social Agenda and how this affects you.
• Actions that leaders can take.

Session Four - The Bottom-Line Agenda: Director/Board Actions
The final session enables directors to consider a plan for change using assessment and reporting as a catalyst on the journey towards more sustainable business.

Throughout the course, directors work on their own organisations’ sustainability journey, seeking to frame the changes that sustainability is driving, as opportunities for growth. This will include:

• Assessment (methods/latency).
• Reporting (Global Sustainability Standards Board, Global Reporting Initiative/International Financial Reporting Standards).
• Advocacy/promotion.
• Risk management, opportunity and training.
• Leading change.

Professor Simon Haslam, Chartered Director

Professor Simon Haslam CDir is the Director and co-owner of a strategy research and consulting firm, FMR Research Ltd, and of the Consulting Mastered online platform. 
Simon Haslam is a Chartered Director (CDir) and the course leader on the strategy aspect of the Chartered Director Programme for IoD Ireland. Simon is also the Programme Lead for Strategy at the Institute of Directors UK.  In addition, he is the Non-executive Chairman of a transport business. Simon has worked in the consulting sector in Ireland for twenty years. His firm has clients across the private, public and third sectors from SMEs to global brands.

Simon has an MBA from Durham University Business School and a PhD from Strathclyde Business School. He is a visiting Professor at Durham where he leads the Strategic Management module of its Global MBA programme. His book, Strategic Decision Making: A Discovery-Led Approach to Critical Choices in Turbulent Times, co-written with Dr Ben Shenoy, was published by Kogan Page in 2018.

Dr John Henry Looney, Sustainability Management Consultant

Dr John Henry Looney has been a Sustainability Management Consultant for over 38 years (financial, environmental and social metrics) focused on helping organisations to improve performance.  John’s strength is a very strong combined technical, business and project management background to deliver improvements through engineering solutions and by motivating behaviour change.  He has owner and large multinational director level experience, in consultancies and contracting organisations, providing practical consulting expertise to small companies, multinational corporations, government bodies and agencies.  

John Henry has delivered extensive and detailed technical and project management of environmental engineering projects and environmental management consultancy in over 30 countries.This includes the role of Client Advisor/Bank’s Engineer on large EPC contracts in Europe. He sees sustainability as the working out of the long-term success strategies for companies and organisations, motivating people to be their best and using resources in a circular joined-up economy.

John has experience as a Managing Director, Operations Director, EAMES Regional Manager, and Technical Director. He also has board experience as a Non-Executive Director for the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) for six years, as Chair of the F&GP Committee, Remuneration Committee, and Vice-Chair of IEMA; and as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of Redcliffe College, University of Gloucestershire. John Henry currently sits on several other boards as a non-executive director.

Online Course Cost
This online course is booked as a whole, and the individual sessions cannot be booked separately. The below costs cover the participation of attending the four sessions in the series.

• IoD members -  €1,500 ex VAT
• Non-members - €1,950 ex VAT

Cancellation and Refund Policy
Places can only be confirmed on receipt of full payment. Cancellations and a full refund will be accepted if received in writing to training@iodireland.ie by Wednesday, 29th September 2021. After Wednesday, 29th September, no refund will be possible, and all fees will be forfeited in the event of a cancellation or non-attendance.  Please note this is a virtual but live and interactive series requiring attendance online at each session. Recordings will not be available as part of post-session materials.

Group Bookings
If you would like to make a group booking, please contact the IoD Training Team on training@iodireland.ie or phone +353 1 411 0010.

CPD
This IoD online course may be eligible for CPD, including Chartered Director CPD. Please check with your relevant professional body.

How to Join this Online Course tab

• Please note you will need an active microphone and camera to be able to interact in the sessions.
• To attend this online course, please book and pay via the ‘Book Now’ button.

Accessing the Link to Join the Online Course

• When you register to attend, you will receive a confirmation email to confirm your booking. 
• All registered attendees will receive a joining instruction email closer to the date of each session in the online course. This email will contain your registration link to access the session. Please click on the link in this email and confirm your details, you will then receive the direct link to join the session.  

Workshop Platform Information: Zoom

• This Workshop will take place via the online platform Zoom. Please download Zoom to your system before the workshop to ensure you can view the webinar.
• We would ask all registered attendees to do a test of the Zoom platform in advance to ensure it works for them. To do this, please click on the following Zoom Test page. If you need any further support, please visit the Zoom support page for more information.
• Please note, before you join the workshop Zoom will prompt you for your email address before you can join, this is a required feature of the Zoom platform. For more information on this, please view: Zoom Video Communications GDPR Compliance.

Contact Information
For all queries relating to the IoD Training Programme, please contact training@iodireland.ie or phone +353 1 411 0010.