In a time of increasing tensions and trade-offs, we have developed a simple sustainable decision-making framework to help organisations and individuals weigh up the costs and benefits of their sustainability-driven choices to try and capture the less-discussed yet equally important factors that can complicate or obstruct decision-making processes.
The climate catastrophe is a global crisis, yet its impacts are being distributed entirely unfairly. While certain choices (eating less meat, reducing air travel, using less plastic) can seem simple to make, every decision has an impact, and unexpected consequences or considerations to account for. Trying to conceptualise the balance between these different elements can be difficult - especially when certain factors (such as affordability, accessibility or liberty) are dealbreakers for some parties, while inconsequential for others.
This tool, the 5 Cs framework, emerged as we were travelling to the World Circular Economy Forum in Helsinki from North West England. The journey reduced our carbon footprint, while taking more time and costing more money. Yet it also connected us to dozens of stakeholders, created a buzz around our attendance, delivered us directly into city centres, and enabled us to enjoy a significant swathe of Europe we hadn’t visited before. With the support of our carbon footprinting partners, Innovative Energy Consultants, we will release a post about this journey using the 5Cs framework in the coming weeks, following their application of the framework to one of their recent business trips to the States. But first, what do the 5Cs stand for?
The 5Cs Framework
This framework is neither restrictive or exhaustive, but a tool to consider the different axes you can use to assess the impact of your decisions. The relative importance of each C can vary depending on its application, but for most instances, we see this as the go-to use case.
Climate
This is the physical impact of action: the CO2e of a journey or product, the environmental impact of resource usage or waste, and other physical impacts that are often top of mind in sustainability decisions.
Cost
This is the financial impact - second to climate as it generally plays the greatest role in determining corporate decision-making.
Convenience
Convenience is the ease with which the decision can be executed. This includes the time taken to make the decision (how much time needs to be spent researching alternatives) as well as the time taken to execute. It includes the comfort or ease of execution, as well as accessibility: both of the outcome, but also of the decision-making process to the decision-maker.
Community
This takes into account the impacts on the broader fabric of the community. The economic, environmental, and social impacts on stakeholders, on the decision-maker and their immediate community (such as their family, or colleagues), and the impacts on the local environment.
Context
This is the biggest picture element: the enabling environments in which decisions are being made. This includes official policies of both a global, national or organisational level, but also the norms and social structures that determine how we experience the world as individuals.
Putting frameworks to work
So that’s a nice theory to think about things. Now what?
Over the coming weeks, both Sustainable Change Studio & Innovative Energy Consultants will publish case studies of using the 5Cs to assess recent business trips we respectively made. We are then going to spend the summer applying this framework to our clients’ key business decisions to facilitate balanced sustainable decision-making.
If you’re interested in learning more about how this framework could inform your sustainability strategy - we would love to hear from you. We are especially interested in hearing from organisations looking to make more sustainable business travel decisions, that account for the multidimensional aspects we have quantified. Drop us a note at hannah@sustainablechange.studio and let’s get into it.
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