Drivers, barriers, and strategies to implementing a sustainability balanced scorecard within a municipal-owned entity

Abstract

Municipal-owned entities play an important role in global climate protection and sustainability. Local governments and municipal-owned entities in many countries have the greater political will to address sustainability and sustainable development concerns than higher levels of government. As a result, it is critical to improve how local governments and municipal-owned entities manage and carry out their sustainability and climate-related projects and initiatives. The sustainability balanced scorecard is considered a tool that may help organisations to identify, analyse, and visualise the causal relationships between environmental and social indicators and financial success. The research aims to determine the main drivers, barriers and strategies to implementing a sustainability balanced scorecard in municipal-owned entities using the Orchestrating Change for Corporate Sustainability framework. Qualitative and exploratory research methods were used as they aided the researcher in developing new insights based on the themes generated. Nine semi-structured, in-depth interviews with senior decision-makers who work in municipal-owned entities in the City of Johannesburg were used to gather data. The research has determined that sustainability plays a pivotal role in municipal-owned entities as they are tasked with providing essential services to residents and businesses, and they also play a significant role in the socio-economic dynamics of the local government. Municipalowned entities have yet to fully comprehend what sustainability means for them and how to fully merge the concepts into their organisational culture. The research has also determined that four main drivers influence the adoption and implementation of sustainability in municipalowned entities. These are legislation, innovation, the business risk associated with not considering sustainability, and leadership. The research has determined that four main barriers to change influence the adoption of sustainability in municipal-owned entities: red tape, political change, lack of resources and an inflexible organisational culture. The research also determined that change management, resource allocation and innovation are the major strategies for reducing or overcoming the stated barriers. Finally, the research determined that incorporating sustainability aspects into the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard is the ideal approach when creating a sustainability balanced scorecard for municipal-owned entities. Current municipal-owned entity policies and reports do touch on sustainability as a construct; however, there are no measures in place to assess whether sustainability impacts or influences the organisational strategy and goals.