Exploring implementation of organizational change toward environmental sustainability

Organizational change can be an overwhelming task for a business leader championing the change, especially changing the organization's business strategy to place the environment and society as high priorities. This study employed qualitative methodology to explore the phenomenon of how leaders in business implemented change to an environmentally sustainable business model rather than a traditional economic business model. Through in-depth interviews with leaders from ISO 14001 certified and member organizations of Michigan's Department of Natural Resources Clean Corporate Citizens (C3) program, the researcher discovered how the organizations incurred change, established internal performance measures, and modified the organization's structure as needed to become more environmentally sustainable.;The study found leaders acted as the steward of environmental sustainability and embraced transformational leadership; as a result, they were able to lead and motivate change in the organization. The leaders built and valued trust within the organization and communicated to employees the reasons why the change was occurring. The study found that successful leaders offered training, recognition, and celebrated small wins as an organization during and after the change process to become more environmentally sustainable. The results of this study provide best practices for those leaders considering or currently in the evolutionary process of incorporating environmental sustainability within their business model.