Champion-Dependent Logic in Sustainability Implementation: Organizational Implications for Capacity and Transformation

Abstract

While sustainability has become a strategic priority for many organizations, research shows that translating ambitions into sustained organizational action remains challenging. The literature often emphasizes the role of sustainability champions as drivers of change. Less attention has been paid, however, to how responsibility for sustainability initiatives becomes embedded in organizational practices and structures. This article examines the roles assumed by sustainability professionals and explores the organizational implications of these roles for sustainability implementation. Drawing on a qualitative study of sustainability professionals in Danish public and private organizations, the study identifies a recurring organizing pattern in which sustainability initiatives become concentrated around a small group of highly committed actors operating with limited formal authority and structural support. We conceptualize this pattern as “champion-dependent logic”, referring to an organizing arrangement in which sustainability initiatives rely on the informal authority and persistence of specific actors rather than being embedded in formal organizational structures and distributed responsibility. The findings shift analytical attention from the competencies of individual champions to the organizational structuring of sustainability responsibility. They highlight the importance of institutionalizing sustainability work through formal roles, governance structures, and collective capacity to support sustained organizational transformation.