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73% of Americans are likely to stop purchasing from a company that doesn’t have sustainable business practices or doesn’t care about climate change. Similarly, 64% of North Americans, 84% of Europeans, and 89% of other respondents believe sustainability should be a part of an organisation’s core business activities.
Keeping these statistics in view, it’s quite evident that days of deciding whether a business should be green or not are long gone. Now’s the time to take action and responsibility in reducing emissions to limit global warming and pull Earth away from the verge of a climate disaster.
Most businesses have already started understanding their environmental impact and are striving to become eco-friendly. If your business isn’t one of them or is just starting on its sustainability journey, then have a look at our 10 tips to make your business sustainable. Here’s what we’ll cover:
What is a Green Business Model?
The Green Business Model is a business model that provides value to its customers without compromising on the environment and promotes sustainability in business practices, for instance, reduced fossil fuels usage and green production.
In simpler terms, green business models turn conventional businesses and business ideas sustainable by minimising their environmental impact.
Generally, green business models involve the following elements:
- Recycling of products and packaging
- Substitution of toxic substances and practices within the organisation and the supply chain
- Incorporating circular economy
10 Business Sustainability Strategies
Following are a few ways in which you can reduce the carbon footprint of your company and ensure a more sustainable future:
1. Conduct a Life Cycle Assessment of Your Products and Services
Life Cycle Assessment or LCA is one of the most essential sustainable business practices as it provides you with an in-depth environmental analysis of your product or service.
If you aren’t familiar with Life Cycle Assessment or LCA, then the first thought that would’ve crossed your mind is what’s LCA or Life Cycle Assessment?
Life Cycle Assessment or LCA is a technique to quantify the environmental impacts of a product or service at its various life stages, which might involve, raw materials’ extraction and processing, manufacture, distribution, use, recycling, reuse, and disposal.
LCA could be cradle-to-cradle, i.e., from production to reuse or recycling, or cradle-to-grave, which means from production to the end of life.
Implementing LCA in your business has a range of benefits, which can be divided into business performance improvements, supply chain benefits, and external profits. Here’s how:
Business Performance Improvements
Implementing LCA to improve business sustainability results in the following business performance improvements:
- LCA identifies the areas of inefficiency, leading to a reduction in materials and energy usage, resulting in decreased costs
- LCA provides exposure to new clientele which brings business
- It establishes a benchmark, which can be used in the future for further improvements
- LCA improves internal cohesion between departments by providing them with a common goal
Supply Chain Benefits
You can reap the following supply chain benefits by making your business environmentally sustainable through LCA:
- LCA assists in risk management by identifying risks and reducing their occurrence
- It determines the ‘hotspot’ areas, which are the supply chain elements that have the most significant environmental impact
- LCA helps in improving supply chain management by facilitating discussions within the organisation and with the stakeholders
External Benefits
A few of the external benefits associated with LCA include:
- LCA assists companies in becoming compliant with multiple regulations
- LCA improves brand reputation by demonstrating corporate responsibility and commitment to sustainable business practices and future
- External parties will start identifying your brand among sustainable brands, bringing future business
- You can combine LCA with other sustainable business practices to create an Environmental Product Declaration
2. Become Certified
Getting certified is the best way to show that you are conscious of your company’s carbon footprint, its production practices, and employee rights. There are numerous certification programs and labels, but the main ones are the following:
Certified B Corporation
Another name: B Corp
What it certifies: Companies
Certified B Corporation or B corp believes in making businesses a force for good. Currently, 4,852 companies and 153 industries in 78 countries are B Corp certified.
In order to become B Corp certified, companies need to go through a ‘rigorous assessment’ of their environment, workers, community, and customers to achieve a minimum score on the organization’s B Impact Assessment.
Cradle to Cradle Certified
Another name: C2C Certified
What it certifies: Products, materials, and systems in multiple sectors, including apparel, shoes and accessories, auto and tires, building materials, electronics, interior design and furniture, fashion and textile, health and beauty, packaging and paper, sports and hobby, toys, and home and office supply.
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute is dedicated to powering the circular economy through products and systems that have a positive impact on people and the planet. Through the Cradle to Cradle Certified® Products Program, the Institute sets the global standard for products that are safe, circular, and responsibly made.
Cradle to Cradle Certified® is the world’s most advanced, science-based standard for designing and making products today that enable a healthy, equitable, and sustainable tomorrow.
Cradle to Cradle Certified® is an independent product certification awarded by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.
Version 4.0 of Cradle to Cradle Certified was released in March 2021 and builds on the legacy of previous versions of the standard, representing the result of extensive collaboration, partnership, and engagement with stakeholders.
The new standard was developed through a multi-stakeholder process led by the Institute’s Standards Steering Committee, an independent standard-setting body composed of technical subject matter experts, leading manufacturers, independent assessors, and other market representatives.
The C2C certification is a ‘measure of safer, more sustainable products made for the circular economy’. Cradle to Cradle Certified is a holistic standard that verifies a product’s performance across five critical areas of sustainability:
- Material Health
- Product Circularity
- Clean Air and Climate Protection
- Water & Soil Stewardship
- Social Fairness
Then, they are assigned any of the 4 levels under C2C Certified, ranging from Bronze to Platinum.
Green America’s Green Business Certification
What it certifies: Businesses
Green America’s Green Business Certification is company-policy-focused. It certifies businesses that incorporate “principles, policies, and practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, employees, communities, and the planet.”
If we say Green America’s Green Business Certification looks at any business as a complete package then we won’t be wrong. The following companies may qualify for this certification:
- Businesses that use their product or service as a tool for positive social change
- Source, market, and manufacture environmentally-sustainable products
- Implement practices that benefit workers, the environment, and the community
- Businesses that are transparent
- Committed to socially equitability
In order to qualify for this certification, the company has to fulfil numerous requirements depending on what product or service it offers.
1% for the Planet
Who can participate: businesses
The 1% for the Planet was started by the founder of Patagonia and Blue Ribbon Flies, Yvon Chouinard and Craig Matthews, respectively.
The main purpose of this organisation is to connect environmental organisations with companies that have promised to give 1% of their gross sales to environmental charities, which could be either in monetary form or in promotional support.
After donations, the 1% for the Planet provides a seal or logo to the organisation, which they can use on their products to showcase their support for a better environment.
So far, over $250 million have been donated through 1% for the Planet. They have further increased their positive impact by introducing an individual program through which individuals can give 1% of their salaries towards improving the environment and fighting climate change.
Participating with 1% for the Planet doesn’t necessarily mean that a company’s products are sustainable or eco-friendly, it merely means they are incorporating sustainable business practices by donating for the betterment of the environment.
Fair Trade Certified
Another name: Fair Trade USA
What it certifies: Clothing, food, beverages
A product with a Fair Trade Certified seal means the product is certified by either Fair Trade USA or Fairtrade International standards. It is a global brand of Fair Trade USA, which has an agreement with Fairtrade International.
Fair Trade USA has the following certifications:
- Entire product
- An ingredient in the product
- The facility where the product was made
In order to get certified for Fair Trade, a business has to follow these standards:
Income sustainability, community and individual well-being, empowerment, and environmental stewardship.
Fair Trade is continuously updated for standards around workers’ rights, fair labour, and sustainable land management.
3. Rethink Your Supply Chain
If your business produces and sells products, then the best way to introduce environmental sustainability within it is by rethinking the supply chain. Here’s what you can do:
Sourcing Material Responsibly
The first question that you need is where do the raw materials or individual components of your products come from? Do those manufacturers and vendors follow sustainable business practices?
In addition to this, you need to ensure that they don’t exploit child labour laws and are compensating their employees with a fair wage.
If your product’s raw material manufacturers are not following environmental or fair trade practices, then it might not only harm the environment but could also have a lasting impact on your organisation’s environmental and social standing.
Reducing Natural Resources’ Consumption
The next thing you need to look for in order to make your company environmentally and socially responsible is how many natural resources are you using throughout your product’s supply chain?
It might not seem obvious at first, but, usually, there are multiple ways in which you can reduce your business’ natural resources’ consumption.
A few major examples of reducing natural resources’ consumption in your product’s manufacturing include:
- Reducing energy consumption
- Switching conventional energy with renewable sources
- Rethinking packaging
- Streamlining the manufacturing process for plastic waste reduction
Reducing Carbon Emissions
Reduce your company’s carbon footprint by ensuring that your manufacturing, packaging, and distribution facilities and networks are eco-friendly. Here’s how you can do that:
- Install smart sensors within your organisation to improve energy efficiency by making sure HVAC systems and other machinery are optimised and automatically shut off when their operation isn’t necessary
- Avoid single use plastics
- Move your products’ production closer to the end customers to reduce transportation emissions
- Establish on-site solar panels or wind-power installations to become more energy efficient
4. Business Process Automation
Smart technology has paved numerous paths for all types of businesses to reduce their carbon footprint and have a positive impact on the environment.
Before we talk about ways to make a business more sustainable through business process automation, let’s have a look at what it means:
Business process automation is the process of utilising technology to perform repetitive mundane tasks and replace manual efforts. Its main benefits include cost minimisation, increased efficiency, and process streamlining.
A few examples of business process automation include digital document management, automated order entry, automated claims management, and automated event log monitoring.
Through business process automation, you can make your organisation environmentally friendly in the following ways:
- Business process automation implementation results in a dramatic decrease in paper usage as most of the documentation and communication becomes electronic
- Improved productivity and efficiency with minimal errors lead to less energy consumption (imagine the energy difference between manual order entries and automated ones)
- Reduction in material waste due to streamlined processes (specifically if they involve robots)
- Usage of technologically advanced machinery for process automation results in improved current flows and efficiency adjustments, which might result in 30% to 40% savings in power usage
5. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
If you want your organisation to be considered investment-worthy in the business world, then you need to implement an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy.
The question is, what’s ESG?
The Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria is a set of standards that showcases how socially and environmentally conscious a company is. It is an important criterion used by potential investors to gauge the organisation’s future performance in terms of finances.
Each criterion of ESG covers the following areas:
- Environmental criteria incorporate how eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable an organisation is.
- Social criteria highlight its relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, and the communities.
- Lastly, governance criteria looks at an organisation’s performance in terms of its leadership, executive pay, audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights.
6. Involve Your Employees
If you want to start your business’ sustainability journey, then you need to engage your employees for maximum results.
This can be done by reducing the gap between personal and corporate values in all three personal compacts, i.e., formal (job description and responsibilities, employment contracts, and performance evaluation criteria), psychological (expectations, commitment, recognition, and rewards and awards), and social (culture, values, and perception).
Sustainability transformation within a business should be started by company executives to lead by example. If we say that leaders’ actions speak louder than words, then we won’t be wrong, as it showcases that an organisation and its leaders are serious about incorporating sustainable business practices.
Following are eight different ways in which you can engage your employees in supporting your company’s sustainable practices:
7. Make Your Workplace Sustainable
Whether you are a small business or a large organisation, you can introduce eco-friendly practices in your day to day activities by turning your office green. This will not only give your office a fresh look but it’ll also improve its indoor air quality.
You can start by incorporating biophilic design within your office aesthetics.
Biophilic design is the practice of incorporating plants and other direct and indirect nature within a building to improve occupant connectivity to the natural environment.
Other ways in which your office can go green are:
- Start a green team in your office to implement and enforce eco-friendly practices within the premises.
- Ensure that your office has a recycling bin and you have recycling programs in place
- Provide your employees with eco-friendly products.
- Save energy by using energy efficient lighting and energy efficient appliances. This will not only reduce energy usage, but it’ll also save money by reducing utility bills.
- Utilise natural light as much as you can.
- Encourage employees to use public transit or carpooling services rather than personal transport.
- Try to purchase office equipment from local suppliers.
- Incorporate recycled plastic and recycled paper in your daily practices.
- Use smart thermostats to reduce electricity usage and energy costs from air conditioning and heating appliances.
- Instil an eco-friendly company culture to gain maximum business sustainability.
8. Become Circular
One of the best sustainable business practices is becoming circular, i.e., incorporating Circular Economy.
The circular economy is a production and consumption model in which a product is used such that it doesn’t land in a landfill. This is done through sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling products and their materials as long as possible.
Material management, i.e., production and disposal of materials, is responsible for approximately 67% of greenhouse gas emissions. This clearly enunciates that materials during production are one of the biggest culprits of negative environmental impact. Introducing circularity in the production cycle will not only reduce the impact on the environment but it’ll also reduce production costs.
Finding new ways to procure materials and produce products fosters creativity, which builds your company’s reputation as an innovative organisation. In addition to this, circular economy increases and stabilises your supply chain’s price.
Introducing circularity to your organisation will save you, your suppliers, and your customers, significant sums of money. In addition to this, it will allow you to capture more value from your materials and resources.
9. Buy Carbon Offsets
The best way to counter environmental issues is to reduce the carbon emissions of your organisation as much as you can. For whatever part that’s left, you can purchase carbon offsets to achieve carbon neutrality.
Carbon offsetting is the process of financially contributing to environmental projects equivalent to your or your company’s carbon emissions.
There are numerous carbon marketplaces where you can calculate your carbon footprint and offset it. Before choosing a carbon offset organisation, analyse the investments that they’ve made and whether they have a third-party certification or not.
A few carbon offset programs you can collaborate with to achieve carbon neutrality are:
Carbon Easy
Carbon Easy is the carbon offsetting initiative by Paying Green, a community with its origins in Australia, Spain, and Sweden. It has a not for profit environmental charitable foundation in Stockholm Sweden, and multiple partnerships with other environmental organisations and NGOs.
The aim of Carbon Easy is to ‘turn everyday heroes into climate heroes’. It has a not-for-profit sourcing structure, which means more carbon offsetting per $ raised, without any carbon registry or certification costspo. It works under trusted frameworks such as the United Nations Framework Convention For Climate Change (UN FCCC).
All you have to do is signup as a Carbon Easy member by clicking here. Once this process is done, you’ll receive a carbon offset certificate under your business name without any carbon registry account (a specific amount of carbon offsetting will be required).
You can have a look at the projects supported by Carbon Easy on this link.
Native Energy
Native Energy is a public benefit organisation that offers carbon offsetting for both businesses and individuals. It offers you carbon calculation services for your home, travel, business, and events.
Once you are done with calculating your carbon emissions you can purchase offsets either once or on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.
They tell you exactly which businesses you’ll be supporting with your money, and most of them are related to emissions reduction and reforestation. Each of their projects is certified by any of the following third-party certifications:
- Gold Standard
- Verified Carbon Standard
- Climate Action Reserve
- American Carbon Registry
- Plan Vivo
- Climate
- Community & Biodiversity Alliance
3Degrees
3Degrees is suitable for companies looking for large offsets. It’s a Certified B Corporation that offers business sustainability services and carbon offsets’ sale and purchase.
Unlike other carbon offsetting companies, you can’t purchase carbon offsets directly from 3Degrees. You’ll have to request a detailed quote based on your goals and budget requirements.
The main focus of 3Degrees is carbon reduction, and they support a variety of different projects in this regard, ranging from livestock manure management to industrial processes. Their projects are third-party certified by:
- Climate Action Reserve
- American Carbon Registry
- Gold Standard
- Verified Carbon Standard
10. Partner With Nonprofit Organizations
Many organisations that are looking to make a positive environmental change stop short of their aims because they are new in this niche and the learning curve is quite steep to make any concrete initiatives.
The best way to go around this hurdle is by collaborating with nonprofit organisations. They can either partner with them on specific projects aimed at improving the environment or they can contribute financially.
Following are a few ways in which you can collaborate with a nonprofit organisation to support sustainability practices:
- You can improve your sustainability impact by providing financial support to organisations working for wildlife protection, for instance, WWF and National Conservancy.
- Collaborate with conservation and reforestation NGOs. Examples include 1% for the Planet and Conservation International.
- Strive for social and environmental justice by partnering with organisations working to provide justice to and protect indigenous people, labour rights, and children, such as Cultural Survival and Natural Resources Defense Council.
- Protect the sustainable future of oceans by joining hands with ocean conservation NGOs, such as Only One and Oceana.
- Fight for climate justice by supporting organisations working on protecting developing and under-developed countries from facing the consequences of carbon dioxide emissions caused by the developed countries. Examples include Greenpeace and 350.org.
If you are in the construction industry, then you should check out our post on Green Building Innovations | Ideas for a Better Built Environment.
These are the top sustainable business practices to reduce the negative impact of your organisation on the environment. Let us know in the comments below that which one do you incorporate into your company to make it eco-friendly, environmentally sustainable, and socially conscious. Remember, we only have this planet and it’s better to input our energies into saving it rather than inhabiting another one!
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