5.3.4. Tools, Processes and Systems

The "tools, processes and systems" node had one of the lowest incidences (n = 18) of relevant statements coded from the 40 participants (using the NVivo software). This suggests that senior executives and CEOs have less interest in, or place lower value on, specific tools or methodologies, which might indicate why this is an underinvested area. In terms of key word usage, this thematic was also one of the least frequently used, shown at Table 5, with "processes" being cited twice as frequently as "tools" and "systems". In total, they were used only 177 times across the 40 interviews, which equates to once every 300 words.

The survey [14] that preceded these interviews had identified a common reference to the lack of tools, systems and methodologies. This was not proven in the interviews, although a number of the heads of sustainability (3, 9, 15, 20 and 29) were more likely to mention this as a factor. On the ability of the sector to galvanise and align with a consistent approach, participant 18 highlighted that there were bigger issues to deal with prior to designing a tool: "I think it is essential. I have very little confidence in our ability to do it now. Even if you had a decent methodology now, I suspect very few people would use it and you probably have a number of competing methodologies, which is typical in this sector."

However, others, such as participant 20, said: "for me the tools and processes underpin the delivery because, without them, you cannot possibly know where you are or where you need to go". But a key element of the design of a tool was to get the balance right between being too complex and being at the other end of the scale—being too high level and therefore superficial—as noted by participant 10: "I think, in most cases, a consistent framework or reporting approach would be helpful; that gets the balance right between having something that is consistent but watered down to such a high level that it loses meaning, versus having too much detail that is too granular, loses the users in

too much complexity and is difficult to fit with your business model and the way you report things into that".


**Table 5.** Text analysis (NVivo) on key words' frequency: tool, processes and systems.

Finding #7: the use of tools, systems and processes to measure SDGs is not a priority for CEOs and board members but it is for senior executives and heads of sustainability. These tools need to be simple enough to understand but robust enough to capture detailed evidence that leads to improved performance.
