Why sustainability needs a producer

We don’t tend to leave important business functions to chance. Take marketing, for example. We don’t usually assign it to someone to handle “on the side.” We bring in someone who understands marketing, cares about it, follows it, develops it.

Someone who is actually responsible for it.

Sustainability, on the other hand, is still often treated differently. It becomes something that is added on top of existing roles rather than properly owned. Sometimes it lands on the newest person in the team. Sometimes it is absorbed into marketing or communications, as one part of a much larger responsibility.

At the same time, sustainability has a tendency to remain at the level of strategy. When certification is not the main goal, the work does not always need to land in everyday operations. It can stay at a distance – in frameworks and annual reports – without really shaping how things are done on a daily basis.

There is no shortage of plans, frameworks, or good intentions. But implementation is where the challenge lies.

Over time, it has become clear that planning alone is not enough.

Most teams are already operating at full capacity. Work moves fast. In culture and events, productions come with tight timelines, shifting priorities, and constant decision-making.

In a fast-paced world, responsibility often ends up with too little time and too little attention.

If marketing was treated the same way, most companies wouldn’t grow.

There is also a more human layer to this: Responsibility requires attention, curiosity, and follow-through. It is not only about being assigned a task. It is about having the interest to stay with it – to question, to adjust, to care.

The way sustainability is carried forward matters as much as the ideas behind it.

In practice, the line between strategy and execution is not as clear as we sometimes think. Strategy is not something that is neatly defined and then handed over. It evolves in conversation, in negotiation, and in real conditions. It shifts as projects move forward.

What seems to be missing, is continuity

Someone who carries the initial intentions all the way through the process – into the decisions, compromises, and realities of making something happen.

In comes the sustainability producer.

A producer is present from the beginning. In many cases, a producer is involved in shaping direction, defining priorities, and working through challenges together with others.

But where a more traditional strategy role might step back once the direction is clear, the producer continues.

The work shifts from defining what should be done to making sure it actually happens.

Decision by decision.

There is also something in the nature of production itself that matters here. It requires staying close to reality, adjusting constantly, and holding multiple priorities at once.

When responsibility becomes part of production, it doesn’t need to be managed anymore.

It simply gets done.