How Can A Small Business Become More Sustainable?
The consumer landscape is changing. People are growing more conscious of the impact modern life is having on our planet and the demographic supporting sustainable businesses is increasing.
According to a survey conducted by Tandberg, more than 50% of global consumers stated that they would prefer to purchase from a company with strong environmental values and reputation. So as the sustainability world progresses, how does a small business stay ahead of the curve?
It begins with understanding your environmental impact. Although this seems like an overwhelming task, it can be better understood by carrying out a self guided environmental audit. Start by measuring your business’ carbon footprint, then begin to look at manufacturing, packaging, communications and partnership choices one by one. Over time, you will build a clearer vision of your impact on the planet and how to best improve it.
Measure Your Carbon Footprint
In order to calculate your business emissions, you must first track your carbon footprint. This can be undertaken online using specific carbon footprint estimation sites. I recommend Carbon Footprint as a starting point.
Your calculations will be broken down into categories and can be inputted on a monthly or annual basis (we recommend monthly). By tracking your footprint and recording the results, managing your emissions will become a lot easier.
The emissions you will need to track are: How you heat and light your buildings and the equipment within those buildings. This measure will ask for your monthly electricity usage (if you use renewable energy providers this can lead to your emissions being zero for these calculations). If your energy comes from the grid and is not renewable, you can look into switching to a lower energy tariff or implementing renewable energy sources on your building such as solar power.
You will then need to measure the emissions generated through business travel. Initially, look at miles driven which is calculated by mileage, vehicle type, efficiency and fuel type (petrol or diesel). Next, input all flights including origin and destination and which class you travelled in. Finally, you can input your public transport mileage by again stating vehicle type (train, bus or ferry) as well as miles travelled.
If your business manufactures products, you will need to measure production emissions and shipping in the same format as described above.
Carbon Emission Platforms will give you an overview of your carbon footprint and some even tell you how you are performing against your competitors! By measuring your emissions you will be able to create a footprint baseline which you can then report from. You can understand where your highest emissions come from and then implement ways to reduce your footprint over time. An emissions baseline allows you to measure improvements and actually see whether or not your latest emissions reduction plan has worked and where it can be refined.
Carbon Reduction Strategy
Once you understand your emissions, the next step is to create a carbon reduction strategy and management plan. This guiding document should include long term aims and key goals with end dates. Many businesses are now aiming to become net zero which involves reducing all carbon emissions before a set date (for example 2030). Setting long and short term net zero targets can be difficult, but Science Based Targets give good tips on their website to help you reach the right emissions levels to keep global temperature change less than 2oC depending on your sector.
Some simple ways to reduce your carbon is to continue measuring and auditing your energy usage, publicly report your emissions and communicate your carbon ambitions and protocol clearly with your staff, customers and competitors to set the standard you want others to follow.
The main rule with emissions is to avoid where you can, mitigate as much as possible and offset as a final solution. Choosing an offsetting company can be difficult, but it is best to work with a company or charity within your geographical business area which supports an offsetting culture you believe in.
Emissions are split into three scopes which are described here. In this article we only discuss Scope 1 & 2 as they are the easiest to manage as a business. However Scope 3 is the largest source of emissions for most businesses accounting for 80% of their total emissions. It is worth beginning with Scope 1 & 2 emissions and moving onto Scope 3 over time.
After committing to reducing your emissions, you may want to consider the journey to becoming a B-Corp certified company. By reaching the B-Corp standard, you will prove you are a business who cares about the environmental and social wellbeing of your employees, community and planet. Resulting in a positive impact on the industry, driving positive change and positive impacts to not only people’s lives but also the environment.
Eco-conscious Business Improvements
Alongside your carbon footprint, there are other ways to improve the sustainability of your business:
If you package items, can you use packaging materials that can be recycled?
If you manufacture items, can they be recycled or reused?
Who do you partner with? Do they have environmental credentials?
Do you have a platform to share your sustainability improvements?
Is there environmental education at work?
Are you recycling at work?
Are you using recycled paper?
Are you only printing when absolutely necessary?
Can you use smart meters at work?
Can you use low flow adapters on taps and toilets to save water?
Are you avoiding single use plastics?
Are your appliances Hydrofluorocarbon free (fridges/ac units)?
If you implement these efforts to protect the natural environment, you will also benefit as a business, as being more sustainable is attracting a fast growing group of consumers. As the world changes, it is important to adapt with it and continue to offer your customers what they want.
We wish you luck with your first step into the sustainable reporting world and hope you find value in the work you do to make our planet a better place for everyone.
