How Can Businesses Be More Sustainable? A Practical Guide
Sustainability is now viewed as a key performance indicator (KPI) and that's down to an increase in awareness and pressure from consumers. Add regulatory changes and the long-term cost benefits of sustainability, and it's clear, businesses must get on board.
In a business context, sustainability takes several forms. In addition to the environmental side of things, it's also about balancing your long-term financial viability, adopting fair labour practices to ensure social sustainability, and thinking beyond profit. Many people choose to use the phrase people, planet, profit as a way to describe business sustainability.
Understanding the Importance of Sustainability
Sustainability matters on every business front. First and foremost, establishing sustainable practices around the social and economic side of your business while also making strides on the environmental front. By having a strong environmental policy, you create stronger loyalty in consumers and this has a benefit on the other areas of your business.
Consumers are more discerning than ever and they research where they shop and what they buy to ensure they choose sustainable products and services. By highlighting your sustainable practices, you are letting consumers know you're a safe place to buy.
Additionally, there is a growing set of regulations around sustainability, depending on your industry. While it's important to get to know the bare minimum, taking it an extra step can be good for your brand.
How can businesses be more sustainable?
Key Areas for Sustainable Business Practices
Energy efficiency is one of the quickest ways to make an impact. By reducing your energy consumption, you’re also lowering your contribution to climate change. Start with an energy audit to get a clear picture of where improvements can be made — and document your findings as part of your sustainability reporting.
Water conservation is another big win, whether using rainwater tanks or figuring out other ways to reduce water usage.
Waste reduction and recycling is another quick win. Put controls in place to minimise waste and maximise your recycling efforts, this is something everyone in the business can get on board with. Whether you sell a product or a service, you should be sustainably sourcing your goods from suppliers you know have strong environmental practices.
Look at your carbon footprint and consider how you can reduce it by measuring your emissions and finding ways to minimise them.
Practical Steps for Businesses
If you want to make your business more sustainable, start with an audit. Go through your current practices and the building to identify areas for improvement. You want to assess resource management, waste management, environmental compliance, and your carbon footprint. Look at the impact of the business's policies on the business, employees, stakeholders, and the wider community. Examine the economic performance, including supply chain sustainability, value creation, and financial impact. An audit isn't just a good way to shed light on the truth, it also verifies what steps you're taking to meet your commitments.
Once your audit is complete, you can set sustainability goals using the SMART model. Every sustainability goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. With your SMART plan in place, you can start implementing sustainability practices immediately, whether in product design, behind the scenes in your operational processes, or in supply chains.
When you put sustainability practices in place or make changes to your plan, be sure to communicate openly with your stakeholders. Transparency is key.
Examples of Sustainable Business Initiatives
So, how can businesses be more sustainable?
Look at how much packaging waste your business creates, whether the products you use within the business or the packaging you create for the products you sell. Take stock of the design and consider how you can streamline your packaging to reduce waste. Renewable energy sources are another great place to start and while not every business has this option, you can explore different ways to reduce energy consumption. Consider how you can adopt the four Rs of the circular economy – refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Finally, always support fair trade practices!
Overcoming Challenges to Sustainability
Small businesses face bigger challenges to corporate sustainability because there could be large upfront costs and a lack of resources. While that's understandable, there are plenty of quick wins to make yourself a sustainable business. By embracing environmental sustainability, you make yourself an ethical business. Sustainable sourcing is a good place to start, but recycling is another quick win. Likewise, putting eco-friendly practices in place everywhere you can is a powerful move.
Larger businesses typically struggle with resistance to change, with many employees slow to come around to a change in processes and business best practices. The key to managing this type of situation is communicating the plan and why it's important to showcase your green business credentials.
The Role of Employees and Stakeholders
The key to success in making an environmental impact is clear communication with your employees and stakeholders to buy into the project and embrace your plans. You can start by engaging them as part of the audit stage. Ask them for ideas on streamlining processes and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Final Thoughts
If you have big sustainability plans, get the ball rolling with a detailed audit of your business and create an action plan to achieve your sustainability goals. The key to success is communicating the goals and the steps you plan to take to achieve them and ensuring your team is adequately trained to deliver.
Embracing sustainable practices now benefits your business in the long run and benefits the planet, it's a win-win. If you want to learn more about corporate social responsibility, and the importance of sustainability, enrol in a sustainability course to understand what you can do to make your business sustainable.