Sustainability is a challenge that everyone must face. From governments to individuals, sustainable use and ethical consumption are key concepts.
Sustainability isn't easy for businesses to achieve, but it's definitely worth it. Aside from the fact that sustainable business practices help protect the planet, sustainability also benefits efficiency and employee happiness, which often outweighs the costs.
Even in a post-pandemic context, sustainability remains important to consumers: a recent Deloitte survey found that 32% of consumers are very interested in living a more sustainable lifestyle.
The same survey revealed that 28% of consumers have stopped purchasing a product due to ethical concerns, so if your business wants to develop a customer-centric strategy, sustainability needs to play a key role.
What does sustainability actually mean?
When you think of sustainability, you might think of recycling initiatives or zero-paper policies. While those are certainly important, sustainability actually goes much deeper. Environmental issues are important, but sustainability can also refer to diverse hiring policies.
Sustainability comes in many forms, from the carbon impact of your supply chain to ethical sourcing of raw materials. Some sustainable business leaders recommend following frameworks like the United Nations Global Goals to guide your efforts.
Agreed among world leaders in 2015, the framework is a roadmap for improving well-being around the world by 2030. It focuses on areas such as education, climate change and ethical sourcing.
Aligning a company’s sustainability strategy with these goals will aid in efforts to drive effective change.
Why sustainability is more important than ever
Gen Z is growing as a consumer and a growing presence in the workplace. This generation is more interested in sustainability than ever before.
In a Deloitte survey, 50% of Gen Z respondents said they would reduce or stop purchasing products due to sustainability concerns.
This means that sustainability is more important than ever for businesses: sustainability and ethical considerations will be key factors in attracting both customers and employees.
However, there are many other reasons to adopt a sustainable business strategy. By increasing efficiency and reducing waste, green policies can save your business money. They can reduce both operational costs and major overhead costs such as energy expenditure.
Having clear policies around diversity, inclusion and social change can have a positive impact on morale. When it comes to sustainability, people want to work for a company they can be proud of.
9 steps to building a sustainable business
Building a sustainable business model doesn't happen overnight. Implementing consistent policies requires reviewing every part of your business operations. Here are some simple steps you can take to get started in the right direction:
Step 1: Create a sustainability strategy
The first step to building a sustainable business is creating a sustainability strategy. Having clarity about where your organization wants to go helps all parts of your business work together.
Consider industry-specific impacts. Even service industries like call centers have impacts to consider. In this case, employee well-being and energy consumption are bigger concerns than pollution. Learn more about what a contact center or call center is to better understand the potential environmental impacts.
It's also important to know what your customer base considers important. At this stage you should research the main environmental and ethical concerns of your customer base. If your business can reflect these values in its policies, ethical consumers will take notice.
This strategy needs to be considered from every level of the business and a good sustainability strategy should address the following:
- Raw materials sourcing (ethical and environmental)
- Impact of logistics
- Technology (efficiency and usage)
- Employment (Diversity and Wellbeing)
- Education (Training and Development)
- Community (local and social)
- Product (waste and impact)
Once you've outlined your strategy, make sure you can communicate it to both your employees and external stakeholders.
Step 2: Review the environment policies
When talking about sustainability, most people think of environmental issues. Although environmental issues are not the only factor, they are an important one. The next step towards sustainability is to review environmental policies at all levels of your business.
For example, the raw materials that you source. What environmental impacts does the acquisition or production of those raw materials have? If these raw materials are farmed or mined, do they have a lasting impact on the environment?
Consider the technology you use, from customer service AI to factory loading equipment. Any areas where you can improve efficiency by switching to cleaner or less energy-intensive technology can result in long-term savings.
Don't forget to consider how your products and services impact the environment. What happens to what you produce after it's sold? Does it end up in a landfill or can it be recycled?
Let's say you operate in an office, like a contact center. What are the energy usage statistics? How does call waiting service impact the environment? What does call waiting mean? It's a way of managing incoming calls, but even the smallest things can have a cascading impact on the environment.
People are enthusiastic about environmentally friendly policies, but still want companies to lead the way: 64% of users who took part in the survey said they would like companies to reduce packaging, and 50% said they would like more information about recycled products.
Step 3: Invest in education and development
Giving your staff the opportunity to learn and grow will help strengthen your strategy. We often hear complaints about employee skills gaps. Investing in the development of your existing staff to close these gaps is a great path to sustainability.
This allows your business to continue to grow and fill gaps in demand. This makes hiring easier in two ways: Firstly, it lowers the barrier to entry and hiring costs as you can hire less experienced staff as a baseline.
As these staff continue to grow and succeed within your business, you will be able to attract more highly qualified applicants – and as your reputation for developing your staff grows, so will your attractiveness as an employer.
Step 4: Create a culture of sustainability
To run a truly sustainable business, you need to foster a culture of sustainability – that means sustainability should be at the heart of your values. New staff should be trained in your sustainability policies in the same way they learn your procedures.
This is something everyone in your organization should be thinking about, so you can achieve continuous improvement and stay ahead of changing conditions. Build sustainable processes into your task management and learn more about what task management is to help you along the way.
Publish your sustainability goals and policies in external partner materials, such as a brand ambassador agreement template. Getting internal and external partners on the same page will help you achieve your long-term goals.
There's no better way to show your customer base that you care than by investing in community projects. Get involved in issues that matter to your community. Making a visible impact on change in your community is a great way to highlight your company's commitment to sustainability.
This is important even if your company has multiple physical locations. Consider the impact your industry has on the local area and how you can improve this.
For example, fast food restaurants often produce large amounts of waste, and helping with local trash cleanups can have a positive impact on their reputation in the community.
Step 6: Work towards systemic change
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” This is a commonly used phrase, but it still applies today. Sustainability is not just about the here and now. We also need to think about the long-term positive changes we want to make in society.
You can align this mindset with your business’ sustainability goals: Clean energy and transportation can help you achieve your sustainability goals.
Your organization needs a culture and a voice. Collectively define your values as a company. Live by these principles and act as a voice for change when necessary.
Step 7: Embrace diversity
Diversity is not just a buzzword. It is not about hiring people based on their profile. Diversity is about inclusion. The more inclusive your hiring and promotion policies are, the more diverse perspectives you have access to.
At a decision-making level, this is crucial: having talent from diverse backgrounds and genders means the opinions you get are more representative overall, which helps shape the right culture for the whole organisation.
Step 8: Set long-term goals
In addition to short-term changes, set long-term goals for sustainability – the Net Zero Pledge is a good example, where a company reduces its carbon emissions and invests in offsets to bring its carbon emissions to net-zero levels.
These are just a few examples. Perhaps you want to eliminate paper use in your business or reduce your plastic use. These are strategies that are difficult to implement immediately. Setting long-term goals and taking small transition steps may be a better option.
Step 9: Continually review and refine your strategy
Once you have implemented your sustainability strategies, don’t stop there. Review the success of your efforts. Provide feedback to your team to create a positive reinforcing loop. Continually look for areas where you can work further.
Technology often evolves rapidly, so be sure to regularly review your options. Outdated technology and methods create unnecessary waste.
Conclusion
Creating a sustainable business is not easy. Making an existing business sustainable is even harder. But sustainability is the way all businesses can continue to grow and adapt to changing times.
