The request
I’m the sustainability manager at a building materials company in Riyadh. […] Two years ago the board approved a target to cut CO2 per tonne of cement 25% by 2030 and honestly nothing is moving. Plant managers say it’s not in their KPIs, and the alternative fuels project has been “under study” in engineering for 18 months. […] Now my CEO wants a “sustainability strategy refresh” by the end of the month. Where do I start?
Skill added: Team diagnostic, A1
Start with who owns the target, not with the document.1
You already have a board-approved target. What is missing is an owner who controls the kilns, the fuel and the product mix. A refreshed strategy document will not supply one, and you should know that before the month goes into writing it.
Binding gap: Decision, because the 2030 target is not in the objectives of anyone who runs a plant, and the one lever you named has been “under study” for 18 months.
| Gap | State | Fact behind it | Basis2 |
| Decision | Open | Board approved the target two years ago. It is not in plant managers’ KPIs. | Assumed: your account |
| Data | Unknown | Does CO2 per tonne of cement reach you by plant, monthly, without chasing? | Missing: your analyst |
| Delivery | Open | You named no approved, funded, owned action toward the 25%. Alternative fuels is still a study. | Assumed: your account |
| Capacity | Open | Two people. One annual report takes about 4 months. | Assumed: your account |
Three moves in the next 30 days
- Target-to-plan table and ownership map, one page, by 15 October. Owner: you, with your analyst and the process engineer. […]
- A decision date for alternative fuels, by 22 October. Owner: COO, who asks the head of engineering and finance to prepare it. […]
- The “refresh” as a decision paper of 3 to 4 pages, by the end of October. Owner: you draft, COO sponsors, CEO decides. […]
Not now. A new vision or pillars, a fresh materiality assessment, new targets, peer benchmarking, or reworking the GRI process. None changes who owns the target, and each takes weeks the paper needs.
Status: Working draft. Not approved.Yours to judge: whether your COO will sponsor this paper, and how plainly to tell the CEO that a new strategy document is not what is missing.3