Carolyn Seagar is back and continuing her informative blog on sustainable businesses. If you haven’t read part one yet, click here to read.
So, how can you set clear and attainable sustainability goals and formulate a strategy to achieve them? Don’t panic. Sustainable business strategies are unique to every organisation. There is no set blueprint so you can work with an agency to devise yours to suit your brand and align with your vision.
This could mean:
- Using sustainable materials within the manufacturing process.
- Optimising sustainable supply chains and introducing circularity into your product lifecycle to reduce CO2 emissions.
- Relying on renewable energy sources to power facilities – most energy companies have a renewable energy option.
- Sponsoring education funds to a local community project or donating time or material funds to local charities and groups.
- Recycling or repurposing products which can be easily done if you work with a recycling partner such as, Grundon Waste Management.
- Tracking carbon emissions with a carbon calculator, for instance carbonfootprint.com and offsetting them by being a part of a climate project such as those run by Ecologi.
Set up a team meeting to assess the problem and clearly define objectives. Once your top challenges and opportunities have been identified, prioritise actions and measure your outcomes against your goals.
Establishing an effective mission statement outlining your company’s focus is also a great way of ensuring staff and stakeholders are all on the same page – teamwork is the key to making any strategy work. Then ask yourselves, what are the areas of your business where your mission can have the quickest and greatest impact. This is where you should focus your attention first.
Don’t be afraid to reach out for support too. Partnering with an organisation that has a similar vision to your own or working alongside a trade body or industry working group is a great move. By working together you’ll help drive progress, and enhance credibility.
One company that has successfully achieved this ‘green’ transformation is Insite Graphics, a leading supplier of event graphics, signage and Confex exhibitor booths for over twenty years. Back in 2019, they began to weave sustainability into their company DNA, achieving the globally recognised sustainability accreditation, ISO14001 and subsequently becoming the first company to be awarded the Event Supplier and Services Association (ESSA) Tier 5 Sustainability Accreditation – the highest possible accolade for sustainability in the events industry. Insite now have “green thinking” embedded into their core and are a great example of how a small business can successfully balance key differentiators with environmental and market demands.
For more information on Carolyn, please visit https://www.carolynseager.co.uk/
