A Guide to Sustainable Business Initiatives

Sustainability is more important to consumers today than ever before. About 63% of all consumers say they take climate change “very seriously” and 53% have already made meaningful lifestyle changes to counteract the onset of climate change. 

As a business owner, you can tap into this sentiment by investing in sustainable business initiatives. Sustainable initiatives take an eco-friendly approach to supply chain management and routinely embrace recycling. 

These changes can reduce your operating costs, minimize waste, and boost your profits, too. This is crucial today, as many companies will need to adopt a more lean approach to survive. 

Setting Goals

Most public-facing businesses say that they care about climate change. Even big brands like Walmart and Nike have made pledges to reduce their carbon emissions and switch to more sustainable operations. 

However, if you want to pitch yourself as eco-friendly, you’ll need to set meaningful goals. These goals will keep you accountable and will show consumers that you have made real commitments to combating climate change. Examples of effective eco-friendly goals include: 

• Reduce your carbon footprint
• Conserve water
• Minimize waste
• Safeguard your stakeholders

These goals should be measurable and will demand you make changes to the way you operate your firm. 

Achieving eco-friendly targets will be that much easier if you embrace an ethos of process improvement. Process improvement is an approach to business management that requires you to constantly revise your strategy to improve your operations. Routine analysis and trend identification can help you discover carbon sources and supply chain bottlenecks. Process improvement helps you stay up to date with climate-conscious compliance regulations by mapping out your pathway to potential improvements. 

Alternatives to Carbon Credits

Carbon offsets have made headlines in recent years due to skepticism about their effectiveness. Some experts even suggest that 90% of all carbon offsets do not work due to a disparity between credits claimed and real emissions reduced. This can put a real dent in your plans if you were planning to use carbon credits to reduce your net emissions. 

Rather than relying on carbon credits, consider pursuing alternative forms of carbon reduction, including: 

• Supply Chains: Assess your current suppliers and gather data related to their carbon emissions. If you feel your suppliers are dropping the ball, look for alternatives that can reduce your upstream waste and cut down your carbon use. 
• Energy: Try to purchase more of your energy from renewable suppliers. This can drive down costs, protect you against rising energy fees, and minimize your reliance on non-renewable energy. 
• Circular Economy: Tapping into the circular economy can reinvigorate your existing recycling policies. It forces you to plan for future waste and end-of-life product management. It also encourages your business to utilize more long-lasting raw materials. 

These changes can significantly reduce your emissions and ensure that you take responsibility for your own operations. Unlike credits, these changes are proactive, too, meaning you don’t have to wait for a third party to tell you that your carbon emissions have been reduced. 

Sustainability On Site

If you run your business from a physical location, you could probably make changes to reduce your carbon footprint and minimize waste. Even small changes, like providing additional recycling bins, can make a profound difference to your sustainability goals. 

Start by bringing in an auditor to assess your current site. They’ll be able to identify any shortcomings related to heating, insulation, lighting, and resource management. If you can’t afford to bring in an auditor, consider surveying your staff instead. They’ll likely have a good understanding of your business’s inefficiencies and may be able to recommend some changes. 

Embrace the feedback you receive by investing in innovative ways to improve sustainability in the office. For example, if you notice that you’re going through a lot of pens and paper, consider switching out your current supply and using recycled products and biodegradable pencils instead. This will make a dent in your overall waste and help bring visibility to your sustainability cause. 

Maximizing Your Investment

Once you’ve identified some areas for improvement, you’ll want to make the most of your investment by effectively communicating with customers. This ensures your target audience is aware of the changes you’ve made and will bolster brand loyalty. 

Get started by featuring your initiatives on your website and social channels. This foregrounds your initiatives and gives you a platform to discuss your plan in depth. Posting to social media encourages a two-way conversation, too, which will bolster engagement and slowly improve the visibility of your content. 

Consider reaching out to your local community to improve your brand reputation in the area. Folks who live locally will be happy to join in with community clean-ups and will improve your business’s standing via word-of-mouth advertising. Engaging with the people who live nearby can be a real boon if you’re new to the area and want to bolster your reputation quickly. 

Conclusion 

Making sustainable changes to your operations will improve your brand identity and help you acquire more climate-conscious customers. Running a more eco-friendly business is the right thing to do, too. As a business leader, you can meaningfully reduce your impact on the world by setting meaningful goals and exploring alternatives to climate credits that will make a difference today.