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With Earth Day upon us, we’re thinking about the ways we talk about Sustainability at HRP.

HRP’s internal sustainability program is called HRP Forward, an attempt to consolidate all company sustainability initiatives. Launched in 2021, the program acknowledges the multifaceted nature of sustainability, encompassing not only environmental concerns but also social, supply chain, health and safety, wellness, labor rights, ethics, and compliance issues. HRP Forward represents a strategic shift towards addressing all dimensions of sustainability in our operations, both internally and externally.

“Often, when we talk about sustainability, we’re talking about the environment, we’re talking about climate change,” says HRP’s Jackie Baxley, Principal and Environmental Health, Safety, and Sustainability Practice Leader in HRP’s Greenville, South Carolina office. “People have a tendency to dig into carbon and forget about the other aspects. At HRP, we have all of the elements of sustainability spread across different departments. HRP Forward brings it all under one umbrella.” 

HRP embarked on a materiality assessment – an exercise that solicits feedback from key stakeholders both internally and externally to the organization, including clients, suppliers, community partners, employees, Board of Directors, and Leadership

“The goal of the assessment was to identify which sustainability topics are most important to the individual being queried and to HRP’s success,” says Jackie. “We had around 30 topics or so that we benchmarked, and we looked at this in the context of past requests and feedback we’ve received from clients.”

Employment development and education emerged as one of the most significant topics in the assessment. Talent development plays a multifaceted role in sustainability and HRP’s business success. At HRP, our assets are our people so investing in that asset through employee development and training only makes sense. Additionally, it has a unique opportunity to address thought leadership in sustainability, allowing our employees to not only provide the solution needed for the task at hand, but also look at the big picture on how our project may impact the client’s or community’s specific goals and objectives. 

“In a community like HRP, our people drive our success, and we have to make sure we have consultants that are prepared to respond to the needs of our clients on a day in, day out basis,” says Jackie. “Developing employees to be these holistic consultants that our clients can rely on, while also being a company that supports our employees, is ultimately what we’re after. Employee development is external, making sure we’re meeting the needs of our clients, but it is also internal.”

Another critical aspect essential for HRP's success identified by stakeholders was business ethics - intricately linked with sustainability in the sense that this dictates the moral principles guiding professional conduct towards social, environmental, and economic responsibility. Ethical business practices involve corporate responsibility, emphasizing the minimization of negative impacts and the maximization of positive contributions to all stakeholders. Transparency and accountability are central to ethical behavior, necessitating open disclosure of environmental practices, labor policies, and governance structures to build trust and ensure adherence to sustainability commitments. Ethical businesses engage stakeholders to understand their concerns and integrate their perspectives into decision-making processes, prioritizing compliance with laws, regulations, and industry standards while adopting voluntary initiatives to promote environmental protection and social equity. By adopting a long-term perspective that considers the interests of future generations and the sustainability of natural resources, ethical companies aim to create value and mitigate risks associated with environmental degradation, social unrest, and economic instability, thus contributing to the broader goals of sustainability.

The Path Forward

As HRP Forward continues to evolve, we recognize the importance of quantifiable metrics to demonstrate progress and accountability. By focusing on documenting achievements and setting measurable objectives, we aim to strengthen our sustainability practices and ensure transparency in our efforts to improve internal operations and serve as a catalyst for similar initiatives in the broader consulting industry.

“Our system is still developing, but I feel confident that HRP does a lot of great things,” says Jackie. “Our biggest opportunity for improvement is documenting what we do - putting measurable key performance indicators to our practices. It’s important to have metrics because it shows we’re not ‘greenwashing’, we’re not talking the talk; we’re presenting proof of our commitments.”