Strategies for Sustainability Management

(ENVR E-105)

Supplemental Reading
Organization and Its Context Preprint

Reference
Pojasek, R.B. (2013). Organizations and Their Contexts: Where Risk Management Meets
Sustainability Performance. Environ. Quality Management, 23 (3), Preprint.

Warning
This reprint is copyright protected by John Wiley & Sons and Robert B. Pojasek. No part of this
reprint may be reproduced in any form or by any means, except as permitted under Section 107
or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either prior written permission of the
author, publisher or authorization through the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive,
Danvers, MA 01932, USA (+1 978-750-8400). Permission has been provided for this reprint to
be used in this course for your personal use.

1
©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
 PREPRINT

Environmental Quality Management

(Vol 23 (3) 2013)

Organizations and Their Contexts: Where Risk Management Meets

Sustainability Performance
Customizing the practice of sustainability

Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D.

A sustainability strategy should help an organization manage risk and become more sustainable
over time. To be effective, however, the strategy must reflect the individual organization and
the context within which it operates.

This paper offers some ideas that can help any organization move toward implementing a
sustainability strategy keyed to its particular strengths and challenges. The discussion begins
with some information on a new development that should make it easier for organizations to
integrate multiple management systems.

A Generic Framework for ISO Management Systems

For years, I have provided consulting assistance to companies that make sustainability part of
what every employee does every day. These companies use international management system
standards to incorporate sustainability into their work instructions and operational controls.

Now there are some substantial changes in store with respect to the international management
system standards issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva,
Switzerland. These changes are set out in an ISO Supplement, Annex SL, 1 which creates a
“generic” framework for ISO management systems (see Exhibit 1). This framework is intended
to harmonize the structure, text, and terms/definitions used in all management standards, making
it easier to integrate standards with one another.

Eventually, all ISO standards will be revised to conform to Annex SL — with the aim being to
ensure that they all have the same “look” and organization. For users of the ISO standards, the
biggest changes involve requirements to:

• Describe the “organization” and its internal and external contexts,

• Identify the processes needed for the management system, and

• Recognize the need to understand risk as a means of effecting change.

ISO 9001:2008 (quality management) and ISO 14001:2004 (environmental management) are
currently being revised to conform to the requirements of Annex SL. In addition, ISO
22301:2012 2 (business continuity management) and ISO 20121:2012 (event sustainability
management) have already been converted to this new format. We can get some insight into the
changes underway by looking at some sections in these documents.

Exhibit 1 New Framework for ISO Management Systems

Introduction
1. Scope
2. Normative References
3. Terms and Definitions
4. Organization and Its Context
4.1. Understanding the Organization and Its Context
4.2. Understanding the Needs and Expectations of Stakeholders
4.3. Determining the Scope of the Management System
4.4. Description of the Management System
5. Leadership
5.1. Leadership and Commitment
5.2. Policy
5.3. Organizational Roles, Responsibilities, and Authorities
6. Planning
6.1. Actions to Address Risks and Opportunities
6.2. Goals and Targets, Along with the Planning to Achieve Them
7. Support
7.1. Resources
7.2. Competence
7.3. Awareness
7.4. Communication
7.5. Documented Information
7.5.1. General
7.5.2. Creating and Updating
7.5.3. Control of Documented Information
8. Operation
8.1. Operational Planning and Control
9. Performance Evaluation
9.1. Monitoring, Measurement, Analysis, and Evaluation
9.2. Internal Audit
9.3. Management Review
10. Improvement
10.1. Nonconformity and Corrective Actions
10.2. Continual Improvement

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

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Understanding the Organization

ISO 22301:2012 defines an organization as “a person or group of people that has its own
functions with responsibilities, authorities and relationships to achieve its goals.” According to
this definition, organizations can include “a sole proprietor, a company, a firm, a corporation, an
enterprise, an authority, partnership, an institution or a charity, parts of these organizations,
whether incorporated or not, public or private, that has its own functions and administration.”

The online Business Dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/organization) defines an

organization this way:

A social unit of people, systematically structured and managed to meet a need or

to pursue collective goals on a continuing basis. All organizations have a
management structure that determines relationships between functions and
positions and subdivides and delegates roles, responsibilities, and authority to
carry out defined tasks. Organizations are open systems in that they affect and are
affected by the environment beyond their boundaries.

Exhibit 2 shows a functional model of an organization as it operates at the community level.

British Standard BS 8904:2011 (Guidance for Community Sustainable Development) 3 proposes

a typology for classifying organizations at the local level. My adaptation of this typology would
categorize organizations as follows:

• Businesses (public and private),

• Departments of government,

• Social organizations (e.g., families, neighborhoods, houses or worship, civic groups), and

• Non-governmental organizations and not-for-profit advocacy groups.

Exhibit 3 shows how these organizations can interact at the community level.

Connections among organizations need to be taken into consideration. For example, local
government bodies rely on state governments for their governance and some of their resources.
Large organizations, such as corporations, may have many component organizations (e.g.,
business units, facilities, and sales offices).

Conceptualizing organizations this way can help us understand where the practice of

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

3
sustainability must be applied. In the past, many larger organizations simply imposed
sustainability programs on their component entities in the form of unfunded mandates. Needless
to say, this was not the most effective way to implement sustainability.

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

4
Understanding the Organization’s Context

Many of the elements listed in Exhibit 1 are common to all areas of management. However, the
context of the organization must be determined at the community level.

Independent of location and type, all organizations are different because of their internal and
external contexts. The unique nature of each organization can pose a challenge when trying to
implement sustainability throughout the organization and its value chain. International
management system standards have created a means for determining the context of each
organization in order to create a framework for managing the operational, regulatory, and
reputational risks at the local facility level.

With respect to sustainability, an organization should evaluate and understand all the factors that
are relevant to its purpose and activities. This information should then be taken into account
when establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving its sustainability program at the
local level. To establish its context, the organization should:

• Articulate its goals and targets, and how it plans to achieve these goals;

• Define the internal and external factors creating uncertainty that gives rise to risk;

• Set risk criteria, taking into account the organization’s risk appetite (the amount and type
of risk that the organization is willing to accept); and

• Define the overall purpose of the organization’s sustainability program.

External Context

An organization's external context is the set of outside influences within which the organization
seeks to achieve its sustainability goals. 4 Understanding this context is important to ensure that
the interests of external stakeholders are considered when developing the organization’s risk
criteria. The external context can include, but is not limited to:

• The social, cultural, political, legal, regulatory, financial, technological, economic,

natural, and competitive environment;

• Consumption and relationships with suppliers;

• Key drivers and trends that have an impact on the objectives and operation of the
organization; and

• Relationships with, and the perceptions and values of, external stakeholders.

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

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Internal Context

An organization’s internal context is the internal environment within which the organization
seeks to achieve its sustainability goals. The internal context may include, but is not limited to:

• Governance, organizational structure, roles, and accountabilities;

• Policies and objectives, and the strategies that are in place to achieve them;

• Capabilities, understood in terms of resources and knowledge (e.g., capital, time, people,
processes, systems, and technologies);

• Information systems, information flows, and decision-making processes (both formal and
informal);

• Relationships with, and the perceptions and values of, internal stakeholders;

• The organization's culture;

• Standards, guidelines, and models adopted by the organization; and

• The form and extent of the organization’s contractual relationships.

Internal context can also be defined as anything within the organization that may influence the
way in which the organization manages risk.

Risk and Risk Management

The risk management process should be aligned with the organization’s culture, processes,
structure, and strategy. 5 Thus, it is important to understand the organization’s internal context
because:

• Risk management takes place in the context of the sustainability goals of the organization;

• The objectives and criteria for each particular project, process, or activity should be
considered in light of the objectives of the organization as a whole; and

• Some organizations fail to recognize opportunities to achieve their strategic, project or

business goals, and this affects ongoing organizational commitment, credibility, trust, and
value.

ISO 31000:2009 6 (risk management) and ISO 22301:2012 (business continuity management)
define risk as the “effect of uncertainty on goals.” This effect, which represents a deviation from
the expected, can be positive or negative. The goals affected may be related to financial, health
©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
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and safety, environmental, or sustainability objectives. Risk is usually characterized by events
and the consequences of those events. Uncertainty is a lack of information that makes it difficult
to understand the event, its consequences, or its likelihood.

Risk Management Principles

Most sustainability professionals are not familiar with risk as addressed in ISO 31000:2009.
Thus, it is useful to describe the principles of risk management presented in that standard:

• Risk management creates and protects value. Risk management contributes to

achieving sustainability goals, as well as improving overall sustainability performance.

• Risk management is an integral part of all organizational processes. Risk

management should not be viewed as a stand-alone activity that is separate from the
efforts of those who work in the organization. It part of management’s responsibility and
is integral to all organizational processes, including strategic planning and project
management.

• Risk management is part of decision making. Risk management helps leaders make
informed choices, prioritize actions, and distinguish among alternative courses of action.

• Risk management explicitly addresses uncertainty. Risk management explicitly takes

account of uncertainty and considers how it needs to be addressed.

• Risk management should be systematic, structured, and timely. A systematic,

structured, and timely approach to risk management contributes to efficiency and to
consistent, comparable, and reliable sustainability results.

• Risk management needs to be based on the best available information. Inputs to the
process of managing risk must be based on information sources that include historical
data, experience, stakeholder feedback, observation, forecasts, and expert judgment.
However, the organization also must exercise critical thinking when using these inputs.

• Risk management should be tailored. Risk management should be aligned with the
organization's external and internal contexts and its risk profile.

• Risk management takes human and cultural factors into account. Risk management
recognizes the capabilities, perceptions, and intentions of people external and internal to
the organization who can either facilitate or hinder achievement of the organization’s
objectives.

• Risk management is transparent and inclusive. Appropriate and timely engagement of

stakeholders and decision makers within the organization helps ensure that risk
management remains relevant and up to date.
©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
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 • Risk management is dynamic, iterative, and responsive to change. Risk management
must continually sense and respond to change. As external and internal events occur, the
context of the organization and its knowledge also must change. When the organization
monitors and reviews risks, new risks may emerge. Some risks change and others
disappear.

• Risk management facilitates continual improvement of the organization.

Organizations should develop and implement sustainability strategies to improve their
risk management, along with improving other aspects of organizational operation.

Establishing the Context of the Risk Management Process

The context of the risk management process will vary according to the needs of the
organization. 7 In every case, however, the organization needs to establish its goals and strategies, as
well as the scope and parameters of its activities. It is also important to specify the resources
required, responsibilities and authorities, and the records to be kept.

Establishing the context of the risk management process can involve, but is not limited to:

• Defining the goals of risk management activities;

• Defining responsibilities for and within the risk management process;

• Defining the scope, as well as the depth and breadth, of the risk management activities
to be carried out;

• Defining the activity, process, function, project, product, service, or asset in terms of time
and location;

• Defining the relationships between the particular project, process, or activity and other
projects, processes, or activities of the organization;

• Defining risk assessment methodologies;

• Defining the way performance and effectiveness are evaluated in the management of risk;

• Identifying and specifying the decisions that have to be made; and

• Identifying, scoping, or framing the studies needed, their extent and goals, and the
resources required for such studies.

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

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Attention to these and other relevant factors can help ensure that the risk management
approach adopted is appropriate to the circumstances, to the organization, and to the risks
that affect achievement of its sustainability goals.

Creating an Organizational Profile

For more than 25 years, organizations that use the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework
have learned to prepare what is referred to as an “organizational profile.” 8 This document
addresses the organization’s operating environment, its key relationships, its competitive
environments and strategic context, and its approach to continual improvement. In other words,
an organizational profile provides a framework for understanding the organization and
determining what is important to it (i.e., its context).

Organizations of all kinds have used the Baldrige organizational profile. Exhibit 4 (at end of
paper) shows an organizational profile form that I have adapted from the publicly available
Baldrige form.

An organizational profile provides the organization with critical insights into the key internal and
external factors that influence how it operates. These factors include its vision, mission, core
values, core competencies, competitive environment, and strategic challenges.

Certain contexts create risk. Understanding these factors and capturing the information in
writing can help the organization’s leadership make better decisions and improve operations over
the long term.

Thus, an organizational profile can help the organization better understand the context in which
it operates, the key requirements for current and future success and organizational sustainability,
and the needs, opportunities, and risks that must be addressed through sustainability
performance.

The information in the organizational profile is critical to the success of the sustainability
program for a number of reasons:

• It is an appropriate starting point for organizational self-assessment and for preparation of

an internal sustainability program based on the three responsibilities: environmental
stewardship, social well-being, and economic prosperity. 9

• It helps identify potential gaps in key information and focuses on key performance
requirements and sustainability results.

• It can be used to help others in the community understand your organization and what
you consider important.

• It can help determine the role that your organization plays in the overall community

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

9
 sustainability program.

My adaptation of the organizational profile includes two main segments: the organizational
description and the organizational sustainability situation. In the following paragraphs, I discuss
each of these segments, along with their subsections (the section numbers are keyed to the
organizational profile shown in Exhibit 4).

Organizational Description (Part I)

The “organizational description” part of the profile addresses the key characteristics and
relationships that shape the organization’s operational environment, including its governance
system. These elements are important for understanding the context of the organization and how
this context influences its sustainability program, as well as the organization’s contribution to the
sustainability of the community as a whole.

 Operating Environment: Product/Service Offerings (Section I.a.1)

Every organization provides important services and/or products to people within the organization
and to the community where the organization is located. Nonprofit organizations might refer to
their product offerings as programs, projects, or services.

 Operating Environment: Vision, Mission, Core Values, Purpose, and Core Competencies
(Section I.a.2)

Definitions for these terms may vary from organization to organization. Some organizations
might not even use many of these terms, or may not be able to define them in writing.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the organization, why it exists, and
where its leaders want to take the organization in the future. What are the distinctive
characteristics of the organizational culture? Understanding these key elements enables the
organization to implement strategic decisions that affect its future.

Core competencies refer to the organization’s areas of greatest “expertise.” Identifying and
understanding an organization’s core competencies is essential to achieving sustainability over
the long term. Core competencies are those strategically important capabilities that are central to
fulfilling the organization’s mission or providing an advantage in stakeholder engagement
efforts.

Core competencies often are challenging for competitors to imitate, so they can help
preserve the organization’s competitive advantage. It is important to keep the organization’s
core competencies aligned with its strategic direction in order to create a path to sustainability.

 Operating Environment: Staff/Volunteer/Member Profile (Section I.a.3)

It is important to understand how people participate in the workings of the organization. In other
©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
10
words, what is the “people” profile of the organization? What are the groupings and segments of
people within the organization? What are the key elements that engage them in accomplishing
the organization’s vision and mission? This information helps establish much of the
organization’s internal context.

Many nonprofit organizations rely heavily on volunteers to accomplish their work. These
organizations should include volunteers in this section of their profile.

 Operating Environment: Assets (Section I.a.4)

What are the facilities, technologies, and equipment used by the organization? Are these leased
or owned? Is there some aspect of this category that gives the organization a competitive
advantage?

 Operating Environment: Regulatory Requirements (Section I.a.5)

All organizations operate within a regulatory environment that places requirements on the
organization and impacts how it must be operated. Dealing effectively with regulatory
requirements involves making effective operational and strategic decisions. Leading
organizations distinguish themselves by operating beyond the minimum requirements.

For nonprofit organizations (such as charitable organizations, professional or civic associations

and societies, religious organizations, or government departments), the elements described in this
section might include codes of conduct and policy guidance.

Depending on where the organization operates, regulations regarding environmental, human

resources, and financial issues may vary considerably. In some cases, the organization’s own
internal requirements must also be treated as “regulations.”

 Organizational Relationships: Structure and Governance (Section I.b.1)

Effective organizations have well-defined governance systems with clear reporting relationships.
It is important to identify how the organization is structured around its governance system. For
some nonprofit organizations, governance and reporting relationships might include formal ties
to a larger agency, foundation, or other organizations that serve as funding sources.

 Organizational Relationships: Stakeholders (Section I.b.2)

Organizations may have a range of stakeholder groups (including customers) that receive
benefits from the organization’s projects, services, and products. Customers include both current
and potential users of the organization’s services and products. Customer groups might be based
on common expectations, behaviors, preferences, or other profiles.

In the case of nonprofit organizations, customers might be referred to as constituencies. These

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
11
constituencies may include members, taxpayers, citizens, recipients, clients, and beneficiaries. It
is important to understand what these stakeholders expect and require from the organization. For
some nonprofit groups, stakeholder requirements may include administrative cost reductions, at-
home services, and rapid response to emergencies.

 Organizational Relationships: Suppliers and Partners (Section I.b.3)

Suppliers are responsible for providing what is consumed by the organization — materials,
water, and energy. To improve their purchasing power, many organizations form partnerships
with one another or with suppliers.

What role, if any, do these suppliers and/or partners play in helping the organization be more
innovative or more responsive to its constituencies? What are your organization’s mechanisms
for communicating with suppliers, partners, and collaborators? (Many feel that communication
mechanisms should be a two-way engagement.) What are your key supply-chain requirements?

Organizational Sustainability Situation (Part II)

The “sustainability situation” portion of the organizational profile addresses the sustainability
environment within which the organization operates, including its strategic challenges and
advantages. It also addresses the organization’s approach to performance improvement,
including organizational learning and innovation processes.

The aim of delineating the sustainability situation is to understand the key challenges faced by
the organization and the system that is in place for establishing and preserving the organization’s
sustainability program. For many organizations, this is the most difficult part of the form to
complete.

 Sustainability Environment: Competitive Position (Section II.a.1)

The competitive position should include the organization’s relative size and growth in its sector
or markets served. For a business, the competitive environment is generally easy to describe.
But nonprofit organizations also often face a highly competitive environment. They must
compete with other organizations to secure financial and volunteer resources, membership,
visibility in appropriate communities, and media attention.

Knowledge of an organization’s strengths, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for improvement

and growth is essential to the success and sustainability of the organization. With this
knowledge, the organization can identify those projects/products/services, processes,
competencies, and performance attributes that are unique to the organization — those that set it
apart from other organizations, those that help it to preserve its competitive advantage, and those
that it must develop to sustain itself into the future.

Understanding competitors and their key characteristics is essential for determining what an
©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
12
organization’s competitive advantage may be.

 Sustainability Environment: Competitive Changes (Section II.a.2)

It is important to understand any key changes taking place that may affect the organization’s
competitive situation, including opportunities for innovation and collaboration. Leading
organizations have an in-depth understanding of their current competitive environment,
including relevant changes that are underway.

 Sustainability Environment: Comparative Data (Section II.a.3)

What sources of comparative and competitive data are available for your organization’s
sustainability effort? What limitations, if any, affect your organization’s ability to obtain this
information for purposes of benchmarking its sustainability position? Sources for data might
include publications, benchmarking activities, annual reports, conferences, local networks, and
associations.

Has local government convened any committees on sustainability or made any information
and/or incentives available for organizations to further develop their sustainability programs?
What is your organization hearing about sustainability from its customers and neighbors?

 Strategic Context (Section II.b)

Now for the more difficult items! Your organization may face strategic challenges that can
affect its ability to become more sustainable and maintain its competitive position among other
organizations. Operating in today’s highly competitive environment can mean fighting for
markets, attention, and/or funding.

What are your organization’s key sustainability challenges and advantages? Sustainability
challenges represent the ability to meet the organization’s responsibilities with respect to
environmental stewardship, social well-being, and the economic prosperity of the organization
and the community as a whole. These challenges might relate to technology, products/services,
operations, customer support, leadership, design or innovation capability, geographic proximity,
accessibility, and warranty of the product/service options.

For some nonprofit organizations, differentiators might include their relative influence with
decision makers, ratio of administrative costs to programmatic contributions, reputation for
program or service delivery, and wait times for service.

Strategic challenges can affect the organization’s ability to sustain performance and maintain its
competitive position. These challenges might include operational costs, expanding or
contracting markets, mergers or acquisitions of the organization or its competitors, economic
conditions, cyclical factors affecting the sector, the introduction of new or substitute
services/products, rapid technological changes, or new competitors entering the market.
©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
13
In addition, the organization may face challenges related to recruiting, hiring, and retaining
qualified workers, volunteers, or members. What challenges do you face with respect to people
that are part of the organization (i.e., human resource strategic challenges and advantages)?

One particularly significant challenge for many organizations is failure to prepare for disruptive
technology innovations that can threaten the organization’s competitive position — or even the
market itself. In the recent past, notable technology changes have included cell phones (which
replaced many landlines and pay phones), along with email and social media (which challenge
other means of communication). Organizations need to be scanning the environment inside and
outside their immediate industry to detect such challenges at the earliest possible point in time.

 Sustainability Program (Section II.c)

The final section of the organizational profile examines the key elements of the organization’s
sustainability program. Is the organization “walking the walk” in this area?

This section seeks to establish an overall context for the organization’s approach to
sustainability. What could be done better and what is necessary for the sustainability program
to be successful?

Approaches to sustainability may be tied to other programs, such as employee/member

engagement and involvement, stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, attention to
learning, improving processes to be less wasteful or to use fewer resources, or employing the
Systems Approach to Process Improvement with team tools or other sustainability methods. 10

How is the organization helping other organizations (e.g., suppliers) with their sustainability
programs? Have any individuals associated with the organization been able to help other
organizations to which they belong?

Concluding Thoughts

An organizational profile helps define the context of the organization and shows where risk
management can link to a sustainability program. Using the profile it has created, each
organization can customize the practice of sustainability to develop a program that will help the
organization prosper over the long term.

To make sustainability operational, the organization must have processes that drive
sustainability forward (performance frameworks 11 are a good mechanism for process
improvement). The organization must also implement management systems that help make
sustainability part of what every employee does every day. Fortunately, performance
frameworks and management systems are already being adapted in ways that improve their
application, helping to define and secure the path to sustainability for each organization that
adopts them.

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

14
Every organization must select its sustainability strategy based on its organizational profile and
the risk management program that it uses to improve that profile over time. The aim of a
sustainability strategy is to align the organization with its internal and external contexts in order
to reduce the overall risks that might be experienced if these contexts were not clearly defined.

An integrated management system (based on the plan-do-check-act framework) can help the
organization identify and evaluate risks, set goals and objectives, and create action plans to
achieve those goals, thus helping reduce the risks associated with each context. 12

As the organization’s contexts change, its sustainability approach also needs to change. All of
its operational programs should work together to help the organization become more
sustainable over time.

___________
Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D., leads the sustainability consulting efforts at Exponent, Inc. in
Maynard, Massachusetts. Exponent offers advisory services to corporations on improving their
sustainability efforts and extending the program to their facilities and across the supply chain.
Dr. Pojasek is currently serving as the Chair of the Executive Board of the Corporate
Responsibility Officers Association and teaches a distance learning sustainability course at
Harvard University, where he was awarded the Petra T. Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award.
You can reach Dr. Pojasek by telephone at 978-461-4626 and by email at
rpojasek@exponent.com.

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

15
Notes
1
See British Standards (2011, December). ISO Guide 83: High level
structure, identical core text and common terms and core definitions for use
in management systems standards. Available at:
http://www.hrqualitystandards.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Mgt-
standards-MSEG_12_0002_ISO_JTCG_N_316_.pdf.

See also International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) (2012). ISO/IEC

Directives Supplement. Procedures specific to IEC. Available at
http://www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs/iec/isoiecdir-
iecsup%7Bed7.0%7Den.pdf
2
Available at
http://www.techstreet.com/standards/iso/22301_2012?product_id=1834206
3
Available at
http://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030262156
4
For more information on internal and external context, see ISO
31000:2009, available at
http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=43170
5
For more on risk management, see: Pojasek, R.B. (2008, spring). Quality
toolbox: Risk management 101. Environmental Quality Management,
17(3), 95-101.

Pojasek, R.B. (2011, winter). Quality toolbox: Linking sustainability to risk

management. Environmental Quality Management, 21(2), 85-96.
6
Available at http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=43170
7
For more on establishing the context of the risk management process, see
ISO 31000:2009, available at
http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=43170
8
Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence Framework (including the
organizational profile form) available at
http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/publications/business_nonprofit_criteria.cfm

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

16
9
See Pojasek, R. B. (2010, Spring). Quality toolbox: Sustainability: The
three responsibilities. Environmental Quality Management, 19(3), 87-94.
10
For more on the Systems Approach, see Pojasek, R.B. (2003, Summer).
Quality toolbox: Selecting your own approach to P2. Environmental Quality
Management, 12(4), 85-94.
11
See Pojasek, R. B., & Hollist, J. T. (2011, Summer). Quality toolbox:
Improving sustainability results with performance frameworks.
Environmental Quality Management, 20(4), 81-96.
12
For more on management systems and the plan-do-check-act
methodology, see:

Pojasek, R. B. (2012, Summer). Quality toolbox: Planning a sustainability

thrust for organizational governance. Environmental Quality Management,
21(4), 77-85.

Pojasek, R. B. (2012, Autumn). Quality toolbox: Implementing a

sustainability management system. Environmental Quality Management,
22(1), 83-90.

Pojasek, R. B. (2012, Winter). Quality toolbox: Checking and reviewing

sustainability progress. Environmental Quality Management, 22(2), 83-91.

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

17
Exhibit 4
Organizational Profile

I. ORGANIZATIONAL DESCRIPTION

a. Organizational Operating
Environment
1) Product/Service Offerings

2) Vision/Mission/Core
Values/Purpose/Core
Competencies

3) Staff/Volunteer/Member
Profile

4) Assets – Facilities, property,

equipment, technology

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

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 5) Regulatory Requirements

b. Organizational Relationships
1) Organizational
Structure/Governance

2) Stakeholders (including
customers)

3) Suppliers and Partners

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

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 II. ORGANIZATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY SITUATION

a. Sustainability Environment

1) Competitive Position

2) Competitiveness Changes

3) Comparative Data

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

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b. Strategic Context

c. Sustainability Program

©2013 Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

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