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How to embed sustainability in your business
If you’re interested in advancing your company’s sustainability, you might be uncertain how to begin. When you take that step, you’ll need to embed the practices throughout your business. This effort requires planning and determination.
To begin, you’ll want to take stock of where your company is currently.
You may have already taken steps to improve your carbon footprint or begun working on the social and economic impact of your business. Or your business may be lagging behind the sustainability movement. That doesn’t mean you can’t correct your situation.
No matter where you are in terms of the environment, social impact, or even basic compliance, you can turn things around in the coming months and years.
The sustainability stages of a business
Experts like Bob Willard have identified common sustainability stages. Before implementing your company’s strategy, you can start by understanding your current status. These stages include:
Pre-compliance
Pre-compliance is a dangerous stage where a company puts profits before safety and sometimes legality. Its leadership works to cut costs at the expense of everything else and may sometimes cross the line into illegal activity. This behaviour can result in hefty fines and legal action. Business leaders work to keep this stage at a minimum to avoid fines but also, one hopes, to improve the ethical makeup of the company.
Compliance and beyond compliance
Reaching compliance with government regulations is the least a company can do to reduce negative consequences. However, even if your company is just at the compliant stage, you can quickly begin work on sustainability. If your company embraces change, you can begin by reducing your carbon footprint and enhancing employee safety precautions. These steps allow you to go beyond compliance. From there, you can proactively improve the sustainability of your company month by month.
Sustainability parts one and two
Typically, companies that move beyond basic sustainability measures have one of two motives. The first is to do what’s best for the company. Over time, leaders have realised that compliance enhances profitability by improving the company’s reputation, attracting top talent, winning more clients, and saving money on energy and other expenses.
Second, the most positive-thinking companies work for sustainability because they know it’s best for the world. Their top concern is to be a good citizen, improve conditions for everyone, and, of course, remain profitable. Companies at this stage have already embedded sustainability into everything they do.
Steps to embed sustainability in your business
If your company is at the compliance stage or has just begun its sustainability journey, you can incorporate best practices by taking a few basic steps.
Educate leadership about sustainability
Company leaders and managers may have only a vague idea about the meaning of sustainability. Educate them about the three pillars of ESG: environment, social responsibility, and economic impact. Explain that a sustainable business takes care of the bottom line while working to protect the environment. It also takes care of employees, customers, and members of the community.
In the past, some companies believed it was profits vs. the environment and protection of workers. Sustainable companies believe everyone benefits from eco-friendly practices, a safe and well-compensated workforce, and ethical profits. ESG is simply good business.
Encourage employee input
Embedding sustainability across the company requires the cooperation of your workforce. Encourage employee buy-in through ongoing training sessions. Solicit their ideas for environmentally sound changes, such as greater energy efficiency. Let them weigh in on health and safety issues.
Create a sustainability plan
The board and other leadership members need to incorporate their ideas into a workable implementation plan. It should be specific about what actions will be implemented at what time and who will be responsible for making these changes work. Establish reasonable but firm deadlines for these measures.
Establish compliance metrics
You need a plan for measuring your sustainability progress. You will need to compare factors such as energy usage, emissions reductions, workplace accidents, etc. Then, create a schedule for measuring these items, such as once every six or twelve months. The metrics are an invaluable part of reaching true sustainability as a company.
Sustainability means working with the community
The sustainability movement is here to stay, and your company’s success depends on your commitment to people, the planet, and profits.
The public and corporations now realise the importance of protecting natural resources and creating healthy workplace environments.
Local economies depend on the measures companies take to be ethical business stewards.
As a company leader, you can embed sustainability practices into your company through education, employee input, thoughtful planning, and routine measurement.
When companies choose sustainability, they end the us vs. them mentality that has ruled the actions of companies for too long.
Making these changes is essential to positive corporate evolution.
Sustainability means working with the community for the betterment of all, a worthy goal for any business.
Embrace sustainability with a globally recognised, university-approved Diploma in ESG.