I’m a sustainability consultant, mostly for small/medium businesses. I’m also a small business owner, running 5 separate hospitality venues including cafe’s & a bakery.
I regularly find myself advising clients whilst not taking heed of my own advice. But on the flip side, I understand the pain points; running a small business is hard, and finding a few more hours in the day to reduce your environmental impact? Well there often aren’t any.
One thing I can say with a degree of certainty, is that we all overthink the process. We paralyse ourselves, viewing sustainability as this huge undertaking; yet with just a small level of dedication each day, by the end of the year we could make huge progress. We’ve all heard ‘the 1% rule’.
SO, it’s my mission to get you over the line, and at least beginning to view your company as one that can benefit the planet as opposed to only taking from it.
Below is a framework. Not attached to any particular industry or business model, but I’d say is applicable to most. To create the skeleton of your plan, it should take you no more than 5 minutes; and I like to think this will be enough to give you the clarity needed to take the next step.
This plan will be an ever evolving tool; starting with the bare bones, and becoming an expanding network of everything that makes up your business.
So let’s start with the broad categories…
Energy
The boring one; but one that can bring huge savings for your carbon footprint and bottom line. It’s a win win to delve deep into. We can go deeper later, but to begin with, start considering your appliances and exactly what is pulling energy.
Waste
This one’s another winner for saving costs. In the food/drink industry, we’re guilty of wasting so much food, often through poor systems and organisation. We then pay waste management companies to come and pick up that waste; a further unnecessary expense. Both a win win for the environment and for our cash flow.
Water
Waste can be a little less subtle than Energy & Water. With utilities, we mostly just hope they’ll work seamlessly without the need for a plumber or electrician. However, those water bills can rack up, especially through undetected leaks. The aim should be to have just as much of a grasp on our water consumption as we have with gas & electricity. That way, you can work towards using more efficient appliances, and to improve your building’s infrastructure.
Sustainable Sourcing
Depending on the type of business; some will have a more expansive supply chain than others. The kind of companies you support with your money, speaks to the values that you hold. Just as we’re told “you are what you eat”, the same goes for “you are what you pay for”. Make sure your materials for production are held to the same sustainable values that you’re looking to weave through the fabric of your brand.
Community Engagement
A more indirect approach; but one that can have an unbelievable impact on your brand for years to come. Get your community involved. This could be collaborating with local business/projects, opening a conversation with customers, rewarding those customers for supporting your efforts.
Staff Training
Your workforce are an under utilised reservoir of great ideas, and an invaluable insight into customer wants/needs. You’re IN the business; whether you like it or not, your employees will most likely never care about it as much as you do.
But that’s a strength! You want your team to have the door open enough to peak out of every now and again.
Let them bring ideas, and collaborate to build something special. Those team members who are some of the best in their field will stick around if they feel fulfilled and heard.
Monitoring and Reporting
Arguably the most important of all of them. Tracking progress like you do with your P&Ls. You simply won’t be able to achieve your sustainability goals unless you know where you currently are, where you want to be, and each small step required to get there.
One really simple place to start is tracking energy and water consumption. You’ll have an online account, with monthly statements for you to see exactly where your consumption currently stands.
There should be someone to hold the company accountable with regular and consistent sustainability audits. This could be an engaged employee, or you could outsource to a consultant like myself to be your very own sustainability ‘personal trainer’. With annual targets, and a process of accountability to stay on track, your company will be a powerhouse for the planet in no time.
Oh and here’s a huge opportunity on the side……Bring your customers along on the ride with you. The reports you’re collecting can be repurposed into marketing material, reminding your customers of why they spend their hard earned money with you.
Implementation Timeline
Here’s the first point of accountability, and it’s important to be super realistic. Maybe avoid promising Net Zero in 6 months, when you’re already struggling to maintain a consistent presence on social media. The key is to start small, and to throw in some exciting, marketable projects along the way; such as collaborations with other brands.
Months 1–3
The first period you’ll look at is month 1–3. This should be mostly around the quick wins, gaining momentum and building the foundations for your company ethos.
Start planting the seeds amongst your organisation. The more you focus on the foundations, and stay committed to incremental improvements, the more customer loyalty you’ll be building along the way.
In this first phase, go for the lowest hanging fruit. For example, developing a really simple recycling program, and gaining an understanding of how much of your packaging waste is actually recyclable.
Months 4–6
Now you’ve developed some clarity on where you stand, you can begin to explore new options. For example, if you’re a café, and you’ve been using a large wholesaler for your ingredients, explore more local suppliers who have greater transparency in how they operate. If they’re more expensive, plan for how you’d like to communicate price increases to your customer base, taking them on the journey with you.
Another example may be switching your accounts to a bank that supports renewable energy projects. These months are all about taking actionable steps forward; small or large, it doesn’t matter.
Months 7–12
Now onto the third and final phase of year 1. By this point, I’d imagine you’ll have built up a significant amount of feedback from customers and you may have a new vision of where you’d like to take this journey. It’s important to take stock here and build a clear idea of what you want for your brand; the kind of non-financial goals you’d like to achieve.
You may want to identify with a specific area of sustainable development. One of the exercises I use with clients is to look through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) coined by the United Nations in 2015. It’s now widely used as one of the standout frameworks for forming sustainability strategy; in governments and the corporate world. Small businesses can use them too. Simply choose which SDG’s are most relevant to your brand and begin to explore how to integrate those goals into your core business practices.
THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development
One example is SDG #10 — Reduced inequality. Within and among countries.
Now reading about this goal on the website may lead you to thinking, this is too large scale for us; but these worldwide issues apply at all scales.
Maybe you feel strongly about reducing cases of homelessness in your neighbourhood; providing a pathway to work. You may want to ensure that all employees within your company are looked after and supported enough to handle economic uncertainty. Use this as an opportunity to think outside the box. Get creative with it.
So when does the financial investment begin?
Throughout the early stages, you’ve been addressing some of those ‘quick win’ issues within your company and might be looking ahead to scaling up that implementation. I’m sure you’ve questioned, is this the point we need to start spending money?
Splashing cash isn’t a prerequisite to building a brand that serves the planet and people. Sure it helps move us along; similar to reinvesting in other areas of business.
It’s important to view sustainability as part of the DNA. How would you approach introducing any other fixed cost into your business model?
Building a sustainability budget into the business model doesn’t have to squeeze the margins. It could start as a small investment and build over time. You also may have made some savings from improvements in systems/efficiency during the first 6 months; which would of course help with the cause.
Outcomes
So you’ve remained committed to the plan, for a whole year. It’s now time to use all of that tracking data to look at the measurable outcomes.
Have you managed to reduce your overall footprint?
The most important outcome of them all…Have you seen improvements in revenue and profits?
You should by this point be equipped to build a really clear picture of whether the changes made this year have been worthwhile. This will provide the basis on which you will create your plan for year 2; with lessons learned and hopefully a growing customer base to support further investment.
Yes, I know I started this by calling it a 5 minute plan; and I think we can all agree that what I’ve written about will take a hell of a lot longer than 5 minutes. But it’s about starting. Nurture those micro-changes, and eventually that ember will become a furnace.
Good luck with it! And as always, if you need a sounding board to discuss any thoughts/ideas, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.