Developing A Sustainability Strategy with…
“Sustainability-wise, TBL has helped us become more organised in what we do and how we do it. They’ve helped us pull everything together in a very structured way.”
Like so many of our customers, Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) was already doing lots of environmental and social good when it was introduced to TBL. What the airport lacked was a unifying strategy. As Robin Tudor, Head of PR & Communications at LJLA put it (appropriately enough for an airport), much of the good the organisation was doing was flying under the radar.
“We weren't very good at shouting about what we were doing,” he says. “It was all quite disparate and siloed, with different departments doing different things. Pulling everything together in one strategy and one report was a really big improvement for us.”
A need to keep pace
A combination of factors was increasing the urgency of action for LJLA. The need to share positive stories was part of it. There was a growing awareness of what other airports were doing in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) space, and a need to keep pace. Shareholders were asking for it.
So when majority shareholder Peel Group introduced LJLA to TBL, there was a clear understanding of the need to do something, but the specifics were less clear.
Starting the change
“We were very keen to make sure that the business had a quality document that highlighted all the good things we were doing, and – because we know there’s always room for improvement – which also highlighted the things that we wanted to do going forward,” says Robin. “But we weren’t exactly sure what that would look like – a CSR report, an ESG report or similar – and we weren’t clear how best to frame our ESG work.”
“At our first workshop, TBL introduced us to the UN Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs]. They helped us prioritise the goals that aligned with what we were trying to achieve.
“What was so good about that first session is that staff from across the business were involved in it. We got buy-in from day one. Almost immediately, I think we saw more of a focus on ESG across the business. That meant that when we set targets there was a common understanding of what they were for, and what they would help us achieve.
“That was the start of the change. We’ve needed ongoing communication to ensure all employees understand what we’re trying to do, what we’ve achieved and where we’re trying to go next. The annual ESG report has helped with that. The CEO has used it to cascade information to managers so they can keep their departments informed and engaged.”
Building ESG understanding
Since that first workshop, TBL’s work with LJLA has expanded to include competitive benchmarking, materiality, strategy development, and writing of an annual ESG report that is, at time of writing, on its third edition. What’s the biggest change Robin has seen in that time in terms of sustainability at the airport?
“It’s the buy-in from different departments across the business and the understanding that we’ve all got a role to play,” he says. “Whether you work in operations, PR, marketing, or the fire service, there’s a greater understanding of the role we all have in this.
“More broadly, I think our work with TBL, and the material we’ve produced as a result of it, has enabled us to show our stakeholders, the local community, and the wider city region that we take our environmental, social and governance responsibilities very seriously.
“When we’ve held meetings with local residents, for example, we’ve used the ESG report to help explain and illustrate the things we’re doing, like building our solar plant to minimise our environmental impact, or launching our community forum. So it’s actively helping us to improve dialogue with the local community, challenging a few preconceptions, and showcasing the really positive things we are doing to benefit everyone.”
TBL did this…
“Sustainability-wise, TBL has helped us become more organised in what we do and how we do it,” says Robin. “They’ve helped us pull everything together in a very structured way.
“Aligning our strategy with the UN SDGs was really useful, because we didn’t initially understand this world and the SDGs gave us an easily understandable entry point. TBL’s guidance on setting targets and priorities and how we should align with the SDGs has also given a lot of credibility to our reports, to the work we’ve done and continue to do.”
