Improving your business with sustainability and operational solutions- sounds complicated right? Well it doesn’t have to be…

Sustainability can mean lots of things to different people and it can be confusing as business leaders to:

A) understand how it is relevant to your business and B) know how to start applying it, especially where the core purpose of the business is not to solve sustainability problems.

But here’s the good news! It is possible for every business to embed sustainability into the way you deliver your product or service, and we’re here to help you demystify how.  

What is sustainability?

Before we dive in, let’s start with what we mean by sustainability.

For us, it’s about making sure we continue to have access to the resources we need to survive. But also ensuring we thrive as a human race and to protect the planet we call home. The facts are clear that this is not currently the case. It takes the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources we require, taking the Earth one year and six months to regenerate.

So, for a sustainable ecosystem to be a reality, our economy must not only do more with less but also find ways to regenerate the resources we have depleted.

Let us introduce you to a few of the ways business landscape can help:

• Carbon Neutrality vs Net Zero – Two terms often mistaken for having the same meaning. Carbon neutrality is where businesses take steps to remove the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide to what they are emitting, by investing in ‘carbon sinks’ that absorb CO2. Net Zero is similar in principle, but expanded in scale. It focuses on reducing the emissions from all greenhouse gases, across the whole supply chain. 

• The Circular Economy: Our current economy is based on a system of Take-Make-Waste. Essentially, we take materials from the Earth, make products from them, and eventually throw them away as waste. This is a linear process and problem that has increased dramatically over the past century. It’s depleting our Earth’s resources ever faster as well as polluting what remains through the ineffective disposal of waste. A circular economy is a system where we stop waste being produced in the first place by it being reused. It gives nature the opportunity to restore and regenerate. By pushing the economy up the waste hierarchy as much as possible, keeping it in circulation through either repairing or reusing, we can extract the maximum benefits from materials and generate the minimum amount of impact on our environment. Remember – your waste could be someone else’s treasure!

• Regenerative Business Models: In nature, regeneration is the process of renewal, restoration and regrowth. It makes ecosystems resilient to events that cause disturbance or damage. A regenerative business seeks to increase its socio-ecological handprint by restoring the health of individuals, communities and the planet. A “handprint” is a contribution that causes positive change in the world, including reductions to your own or somebody else’s footprint. Think helping hands or a healing touch!

What does this mean for my business?

No matter what your line of business is, we all have a part to play:

• Your business’s purpose may be completely unrelated to sustainability, but there are many ways you can reduce the environmental impact of the way you operate while enhancing the social impact.
• Your business’s sole purpose may be to solve sustainability problems, but there may still be lots of potential to also improve the effectiveness of the way you operate, or to improve your impact in other areas.

There are many frameworks out there to support you with your sustainability journey. Here are some examples to familiarise with:

• The UN Global Compact – provides 10 principles that organisations can incorporate into strategy and operations to support with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”)
• Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Mark – A certification process for organisations to demonstrate a commitment to making a positive difference to the environment, their clients, employees and communities
• Donut Economics – Principles, strategies and practices for changes in business design to support a regenerative future
• Good Business Charter – An accreditation recognising responsible business practices
• B Corporation – A movement and certification defining social, environmental and governance best practices for businesses
• Social Value Portal – Helping organisations to procure, measure, manage and report on social value based on the Themes, Outcomes and Measures (TOMS) framework
• Sustainable Marketing Compass – Strategic framework for embedding sustainability at the heart of marketing

Where to start?

As you can see, there are so many frameworks to choose from and navigate! But the main thing is making a start somewhere.

So, for starters, we recommend building sustainability into your strategy and reviewing how you can start to embed it in your operations.

For this we recommend our holistic approach to improving your operations. We believe that the four elements of People, Process, Technology and Information need to work at their optimum individually, while also working in harmony together.

Below we will provide some tips and guidance on how to embed sustainability into each of the elements in your operations

Practical Tips and Guidance for Embedding Sustainability into your Operations

People

The people element of your operations covers everything from the way your company is structured and everyone’s responsibilities, to your teams wellbeing, personal development, motivation and engagement.

There’s lots we could cover here, but here are some examples of actions you can take:

Leadership and accountability:

• Whether you are flying solo or have a fully-fledged leadership team, it’s important that leadership are held to account for decisions and the impact they will have on all of your stakeholders – the planet being one of them! Make sure you implement governance that allows for challenge, different perspectives and thorough consideration of sustainability in your decision making. For example, if you work alone, consider setting up an Advisory Board that will do just this, ensuring your decisions are made with consideration to your chosen framework.

Team:

• As a business owner, you may find yourself with very little time to focus on strategy and operational improvements. We recommend that looking to outsource anything that isn’t the best use of your time or skillset. There is probably someone out there who can do it better! Consider how you can delegate to or expand your team. Where you haven’t got a team as such, consider any contractors or suppliers that you work with on a regular basis. Are there any opportunities you can provide to young people as placement opportunities or otherwise? They are our future and we need to do everything we can to prepare them for that.

Communication & Engagement:

• Good communication and engagement is the backbone of any organisation’s culture. Look for ways to build sustainability into what you are already doing. For example, if you do newsletters, include a sustainability section with tips or recommended reading. You could engage your team in sustainability by providing carbon literacy training and covering sustainability topics in lunch and learns.

Here are some examples of companies doing great things in the people space:

• Work.Life, a flexible workspace provider believe that happy teams deliver measurable benefits for businesses. They offer their team mental health support, a £75 per month wellness budget and £25 “Team Joy” budget. In addition, they track different attributes of their workforce in order to promote more diversity and 50% of their leadership team identifies as female!
• Unilever’s ethos is ‘listen to your employee’s ideas.’ They established a process where their employees can share ideas and suggestions that are considered for implementation. One idea was to reduce the end seals of each tea bag by 3mm. Implementing this suggestion has saved €47,500 and 9.3 tonnes of paper since 2015!

Process

For this element of a business to work at its optimum, processes need to be documented and accessible for all the team to be able to understand and clearly follow. Ensuring your processes are documented is a good starting point for being able to spot inefficiencies and areas for improvements.

Here are some examples of considerations for embedding sustainability into your processes:

Efficiencies:

• You will most likely find that when improving the efficiency of your processes, your waste, energy and water usage will also be more efficient as a result. Consider measuring this as part of any process improvement initiatives

Waste as a resource:

• Review what resources you need for your business processes and consider what alternatives there are for sourcing them – can you use recycled materials or refurbished products? And on the flip side, review what waste products your processes create, how it is disposed of, and consider how someone else could use this waste as their resource.
• Find out what circular economy initiatives exist in your area. Are there any that could provide you with the resources you need and who could make use of your waste? The Yorkshire Circular Lab have produced this Circular Economy Initiatives Map. It includes nearly 800 community initiatives in Yorkshire and the Humber!

Policy:

• Processes also apply to the policies you have in place for your business. To ensure you promote and support a fair, equitable workforce, implement an Equity, Diversity & Inclusion policy and supporting processes. These could include job description reviews to ensure the wording does not alienate certain demographics, conducting regular pay equity reviews and implementing engagement initiatives to understand what an equitable and optimal experience looks like for employees of all backgrounds.

Here are some examples of companies reducing their environmental impact as a result of process improvements:

• McDonalds have found many ways to turn their waste into a resource. From turning used cooking oil into biodiesel for trucks to recycling cups into greeting cards. They’ve even turned their plastic toys into play parks!
  • Electrolux managed to reduce their overall energy use by 16% between 2008 and 2010. All by switching off all equipment when not in use. As well as, lowering the plant’s demand for compressed air and installing motion sensors for lighting. These changes also amounted to savings of more than $2m!

Technology

When we talk to our clients about technology, we establish whether you are using the right systems for the need you have, and whether they are being used in the right way.

Here are some top tips for using and considering technology from a sustainability point of view:

Software:

• Digitising your business often significantly increases operating efficiencies, however it is important to be mindful of the impact behind the scenes. For example, in 2016 the world’s data centres used more than Britain’s total electricity consumption! So, while less face-to-face meetings can mean less carbon emitted from travelling, if we are instead having more online meetings, are we in fact balancing out the emissions?
• A typical year of incoming mail is the equivalent of driving 200 miles in an average car. Consider the way you share and store information throughout your business – is it necessary to send large attachments over email, or can they be stored in shared folders?

Hardware:

• With any device we use, the most carbon is typically emitted during the manufacturing process. Try to keep your devices out of landfill for as long as possible – buy your devices second hand and get them repaired or refurbished

Digital Skills Gap:

• An issue exacerbated during the pandemic – there are so many people who do not have access to the kit that they need to learn, work or access services. When looking to dispose of your equipment, consider donating them to charities tackling the digital skills divide.

Here are some examples of new digital services introduced within the NHS and the impact the technology has resulted had:

• Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), which reduces travel to GP clinics and postage has led to £1.2m worth of carbon emissions savings per year
• The NHS Electronic Referral Service (e-RS) was built using sustainable technical architecture principles which has increased efficiency from 50% to nearer 100%.
• The Adult Social Care Provider Engagement and Support Service allows care homes to use NHSmail to share resident’s health information securely with NHS professionals, saving NHS resources and journey miles.

Information

For the information element of a business to be operating at its optimum, the right external information is required to steer the business, allowing it to be as proactive as possible to changes in the external environment. In addition, the right information from within the business needs to be available and accessible to easily measure and report on progress against key KPIs.

Some of our top sustainable tips relating to information are:

External

• Two words – information overload. How many newsletters do you sign up to but not get the time to read? I’m guilty of it too! Content heavy newsletters with attachments emit a fair amount of energy too so assess what information you will invest your time and effort in digesting and unsubscribe from the rest
• Invest in horizon scanning to learn more and understand how your business can contribute to a sustainable world

Internal:

• Big companies are already expected to report on ESG criterion, but it should be something all businesses should be considering and preparing to do. Much of the data required will likely already exist in your current systems, so determine what it is you need to measure, where you can get the data from, and produce a dashboard that pulls everything together for you to easily access and track
• Publish impact reports each year to communicate your social and environmental impact. This will also help potential talent, customers and investors engage with the work that you do

Here are some findings to illustrate the attitudes and importance around ESG:

• According to PWC, 49% of all consumers and 66% of millennials use the internet to learn about a company’s ESG practices before buying
• Simon-Kucher & Partners found that 85% of shoppers are more concerned about whether the things they buy are ecologically friendly than they were 5 years ago.
• Marsh Mclennan found that companies putting effort into ESG standards are 25% more appealing to young professionals and university students as employers, and that ESG outperformer organisations have 14% higher employee satisfaction rates

If you would like our help to support you improve your operations on your journey to sustainability, get in touch today for a free no-obligation consultation.