Don’t be rushed or pressured into making a commitment before fully understanding the issue and potential impacts on your current priorities, your customers, your supply chain and other stakeholders. Just as determining your sustainability strategy was a strategic decision-making process, additional commitments or changes should undergo similar scrutiny. It is important to understand the potential ramifications up and down the value chain and on other attributes of sustainability. Consider where change would have to occur and how much is within your control vs. actions others must take, etc.
It’s OK to maintain one position publicly while you evaluate the issue internally and consider a potential change. During the evaluation process, you may have a public position that supports and explains your current strategy, while concurrently having conversations with others and researching an issue. A posture of transparency and openness to differing points of view builds trust with stakeholders.
If you answered no, research the issue to be sure the company fully understands the current state of the issue, implications and tradeoffs.