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Sustainability Journey for Public Sector

How can a public sector organisation successfully advance a Sustainability agenda?

Public institutions have a special role to play in helping to drive global Sustainability efforts and the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda. It is the public sector which often sets the standard for societal behaviours and serves as a role model for citizens—and unlike private entities, public institutions are the ones expected to lead by example in the transformation to environmentally sustainable operations and to more inclusive and transparent processes. Even without explicit regulatory obligations.


What is the Sustainability Journey ?

How can the Public Sector benefit from implementing Sustainability into its own operations?

Improving environmental and social performance can offer considerable benefits to a public organisation:

Although the transformation toward Sustainability may involve considerable costs, it should be regarded as an investment that increases the ability to adapt to current and future environmental and social challenges.

A commitment to Sustainability involves clear communication of environmental and social impacts—and doing so regularly can improve trust in public institutions and help avoid greenwashing accusations.

By addressing Sustainability public institutions can respond to the needs of various stakeholders, such as the society’s expectation to contribute to the shared global goals or investors’ and development organisations’ agendas to expand their portfolios aligned with the ESG criteria.

Implementing a Sustainability agenda can encourage compliance with ESG standards and requirements as well as indicate strong support for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

As shapers of legislation and standards for sustainable development, public institutions should lead by example, encouraging the private sector to take action on ESG regulation.

What we do: Sustainability Journey by Deloitte

Sustainability Journey by Deloitte provides clarity and structure to public sector organisations as they work to improve their internal sustainability efforts. We collaborate with public institutions to help build strategies that can enhance social, environmental and economic value while addressing ESG risks and opportunities and meeting stakeholder expectations.


The Journey comprises a framework of modules that build on one another, allowing exploration of one specific need or immersion in the full Sustainability Journey.


Our thinking

Government Trends 2024

Governments are strategically combining multiple tools and techniques to achieve 10x improvement across operations, service delivery, customer experience and mission outcomes.

Government's Future Frontiers

Tackling the problems and opportunities inherent in big societal concerns will take concerted effort from across the spectrum—public agencies and private companies, non-profits and academics, multinational foundations and community groups. But no matter what teams are assembled, government will play a key role in constructing the scaffolding on which solutions are built.

Get in touch

Michael Flynn

Global Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Government Leader

Anna Kowalewska

EU Institutions Sustainability Leader