When it comes to sustainability or any big cultural change within an organization, there are always people who were already doing the work before the organization decided it's a priority. These people know a shit load and they know how to make the changes with your organization. So yes, you can learn a lot from them.

But it's also smart to make sure everyone else within your organization knows who these people are. So that not just you learn from them but that also others can learn from them and get inspired by them.

When an organization rewards these change-makers and makes them visible, it motivates everyone else to step up.

Action question

In your organization, how can you reward those already making positive changes? What are ways to shine a light on these people who did the hard work before it was a priority?

The inspiration behind this principle

This principle is based on a conversation I had with Michel Sterckx, a project manager working on a big sustainability project for the Salvation Army in Switzerland. The conversation was in French:

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

• Written with AI help: This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen. I then reviewed and improved the text by hand.