Green Leadership
Introduction and Purpose
Green Leadership involves guiding and implementing sustainable corporate practices that reduce environmental impact, such as developing strategies, engaging employees, monitoring policy, managing resources, overseeing public relations, and preparing reports. This leadership style may draw on aspects of servant leadership, characterised by empathy and prioritising employee needs, and transformational leadership, which is visionary and geared toward organisational change through inspiring enhanced performance (Ofori, 2024). Green Leadership can combine elements of both approaches. Research underpins this: for example, Faraz et al. (2021) demonstrate the influence of green servant leadership on pro-environmental behaviour through intrinsic motivation. Cai et al. (2020) explore leaders’ voluntary green behaviours and their impact on team green innovation via efficacy belief. Meaning effective green leaders build team confidence in acting sustainably and believing their actions matter.
Green Leaders need both a strong foundation of knowledge and a proactive approach to applying it. Leaders should understand environmental governance, biodiversity principles, and corporate responsibility, and be able to translate these into action that engages others and delivers measurable impact.
Examples of Green Leadership within industry include:
- Frangipani Hotel in Langkawi, Malaysia (Ahmed et al., 2021), which become a recognised champion of greening the hospitality industry in Malaysia. The hotel has established a governance structure with Green Leadership at its centre to implement a zero-waste approach throughout its operations.
- IKEA, established its sustainability strategy in 2018, focusing on climate change, nature loss, unsustainable consumption, and rising inequality. It employs a Chief Sustainability Officer for the IKEA group, and sustainability managers across Retail Concept, Range and Supply.
- Kering, is a luxury fashion group which employs Sustainability Leads across its governing body, who are responsible for creating and implementing the group’s sustainability strategy to reduce the environmental footprint of its operations and the fashion industry more generally.
Key Features
Timeframe:
- Green Leadership initiatives can take one month to one year, depending on governance structures and biodiversity commitments. This includes recruitment, training, and embedding green leaders within organisational processes and review cycles.
Materials Required:
- Training materials that build understanding of Green Leadership, biodiversity principles, and effective strategies for reducing environmental impact.
- Funding to support leadership roles, continuing professional development opportunities (such as a CPD/MSc training courses), and staff incentive programmes.
- Guidelines and frameworks outlining the organisation’s biodiversity vision, goals, and strategy, supported by reference to national and European regulations, best-practice guidance, and relevant case studies.
- Access to research data and funding opportunities to inform evidence-based biodiversity initiatives and partnerships.
- Assessment tools to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of biodiversity strategies, measuring progress and impact over time. The use of these tools should follow ethical standards, ensuring transparency, informed consent where relevant, and the responsible handling of any personal or sensitive data collected.
- Internal communication resources, such as intranet platforms or forums, to share biodiversity information, updates, and feedback across teams.
- External communication materials, including brochures, posters, newsletters, and digital media, to promote biodiversity achievements and demonstrate the company’s commitment.
- Access to networking events and collaboration opportunities with external partners, NGOs, and other sustainability professionals to exchange knowledge and strengthen partnerships.
Skills Required:
- Leadership to communicate vision, influence others, and inspire meaningful action.
- Example setting to demonstrate commitment to biodiversity and model responsible behaviours.
- Innovation and adaptability to respond creatively to evolving environmental and business contexts.
- Supportive and inclusive leadership to encourage participation and ownership among employees.
- Coaching and mentoring to guide others with trust, empathy, and accountability.
- Transparency and accountability to ensure actions and outcomes are responsible and measurable.
- Collaboration to build strong internal and external relationships that advance biodiversity goals.
Potential Impact:
- Greater alignment between individual, organisational, and environmental values.
- Positive transformation in employee attitudes and behaviours towards biodiversity.
- Strengthened protection and restoration of biodiversity through targeted organisational action.
- Enhanced corporate reputation as a sustainability and biodiversity leader.
- Increased awareness among staff and the wider community of biodiversity challenges and how to address them.
- Improved employee morale, job satisfaction, and retention through participation in meaningful initiatives.
- Contribution to scientific research and policy through data collection, monitoring, and mitigation activities.
- Expanded networking and collaboration with partners, fostering shared innovation and learning.
- Development of new skills and ideas among employees, enhancing organisational capacity for biodiversity-focused innovation and long-term sustainability.
Case Study
Instructions
To act as a Green Leadership within an organisation, use the following steps as a guide:
- Stay informed about national and international environmental and regulatory frameworks.
- Understand the organisation’s current and potential impacts on biodiversity.
- Develop and communicate a clear biodiversity vision, with achievable goals and measurable outcomes.
- Deliver staff training and awareness sessions that connect biodiversity to everyday work practices.
- Integrate biodiversity considerations into procurement, business planning, and supply chain management.
- Introduce workplace initiatives such as recycling schemes, energy-saving measures, or on-site biodiversity projects.
- Encourage innovation by inviting employees to co-design new ideas for environmental improvement.
- Build partnerships with NGOs, academic institutions, and community organisations to extend impact.
- Recognise and celebrate biodiversity achievements to sustain engagement and motivation.
- Measure, report, and communicate progress to ensure accountability and continuous improvement.
- Model sustainable behaviour and lead by example, demonstrating how individual action contributes to collective environmental responsibility.
Rationale
Green leadership promotes organisational transformation by positioning biodiversity and sustainability at the centre of strategy and practice. It recognises that leadership is not limited to senior management but can be distributed across the organisation through example, influence, and shared responsibility. Green leaders model values and behaviours that inspire others to act, embedding environmental ethics into everyday operations and decision-making.
Benefits:
- Drives sustainability initiatives by inspiring employees to recognise and address the organisation’s impacts on biodiversity, guiding actions that reduce harm and create opportunities for positive environmental contribution.
- Enhances corporate reputation by demonstrating a genuine commitment to biodiversity both within and beyond the organisation, strengthening public trust and attracting environmentally conscious partners and investors.
- Fosters innovation by encouraging creativity and collaboration that lead to sustainable products, services, and practices, enhancing competitiveness and resilience.
- Motivates and engages employees by aligning personal and organisational values, creating greater job satisfaction and a sense of shared purpose.
- Cultivates a sustainable culture by keeping environmental considerations central to decision-making, shaping long-term attitudes and behaviours.
- Supports adaptation to regulatory change by ensuring the organisation remains responsive and compliant with evolving environmental legislation.
- Responds effectively to changing markets by anticipating biodiversity-related risks and opportunities, enabling proactive adaptation to consumer and resource shifts.
- Strengthens community and stakeholder engagement through collaboration and partnerships that generate shared environmental and social value.
Links to Resources
Workplace Hero offers training advice, and examples on leadership style and skills
Sustainability Leadership Institute has freely available resources and training on Green Leadership, as well as case-studies
