April is Earth Month. April 22nd is Earth Day. As sustainability is one of our core values I make no apologies for jumping on the bandwagon this month.
You probably know that the UN has 17 sustainability goals (you can find them here). The goals are huge and feel a bit out of reach to us mere mortals. But as Tesco says, every little bit helps, but to plagiarise Neil Armstrong… one small step by each man, one giant leap for the planet.
How can small businesses help?
In this article I’m going to share 10 ideas that small businesses and individuals can do to help.
- Grow our businesses. Growing businesses create employment opportunities and more wealth. More wealth creates more tax to support the social infrastructure required to achieve some of the goals and allows us to support projects that are making a difference.
- Employ others. A secure income that is enough to live on underpins so many of the development goals. Whether we create permanent or casual jobs or outsource work to others we are making a contribution.
- Commit to lifelong learning. We may have studied the agricultural and industrial revolutions in our youth, but we are living in the technological revolution. If we don’t keep on learning we will be left behind.
- Teach what you know. You have skills and experience that others don’t have. You could share your skills by delivering training courses, taking on an apprentice or just by sharing them in a talk at a networking or other business event.
- Build sustainability into your decision making. Try thinking sustainable first. What impact might this decision have on the planet, on my customers, my team, on other people, on my suppliers and their staff?
- Embrace the circular economy. If you are making products how can you eliminate waste in your design? Are components recyclable or biodegradable? What about the packaging? How easy will it be to repair to prolong the item’s life? What will happen to it when the item reaches the end of its life or is no longer of use to the original purchaser. (Look out for upcoming articles on this topic)
Switch to environmentally friendly options. Can you reduce the amount of single use plastic that you are buying? Can you eliminate nasty chemicals by changing the products you use? Can you print your marketing on recycled paper? Or better still eliminate paper altogether. Use public transport or car share.- Be more mindful in your use of natural resources. Turn off the taps or the lights. Reuse the vegetable water to look after your plants. Consider if there is a more environmentally friendly alternative.
- Look after your own health and wellbeing. If we each took a bit more care of ourselves we would be able to alleviate some of the pressure on the health services. Learn from people in the health and wellbeing industry, share their content so others can benefit, use their services to promote your own wellbeing.
- Support charities either financially or in kind. The following are areas that will support the UN goals…
- Entrepreneurship, employment, job-readiness. E.g. Deki supports women in Togo with loans and training to help them start a business which then supports their family and children’s education.
- Food banks and food production charities.
- Water and sanitation projects.
- Homeless and youth charities. E.g. Centrepoint provides safe accommodation and training to help get young people get out of homelessness and into work.
- Charities supporting education for children who are at risk of missing out whether through lack of finance, suitable provision, disability, special educational needs, or behaviour.
- Organisations working towards equality of opportunity.
- Environmental and infrastructure charities.
I hope this has inspired you to think about actions you can take to make a positive contribution towards environmental sustainability.
How are we doing our bit?
- I have a subscription to Ecologi (this is an affiliate link and if you sign up using it we’ll both have 5 trees added to our forests) to offset my carbon footprint and we buy a tree for every person attending one of our in-person events. Since returning to in person events post-pandemic we have purchased 1148 trees and funded 31 climate projects.
- Sustainability is a key consideration in our making purchasing decisions. We have changed many of our cleaning products to less damaging formulae and more sustainable packaging.
- We have reduced our printing and resource uses significantly and switched to more environmentally sustainable printing when only paper will do. I use a Remarkable2 instead of paper whenever possible.
- Our giveaways are chosen on the basis of sustainability. Most recently we have given seeds and a wooden pencil with a seed pod built in.
- Our charity donations include Crisis, The Trussel Trust, Centrepoint, Deki and Red Nose Day. I have just signed up with A Good Thing a charity matching businesses that have things to dispose of with charities who can use those items.
- We have encouraged car sharing when travelling to meetings but there is more we can do here. We also want to do more to eliminate single use plastics.
- I am currently conducting an audit to identify further opportunities for improvement and am considering some form of sustainable practices accreditation.
What are you doing?
I’d love to hear what other small businesses are doing and to share your ideas to inspire others to take action that works for them. Please email me or tag me in your posts on LinkedIn.
