The word innovation is well spoken about especially in the last five years, most of us might have heard of the terms Net Zero, Climate Change, carbon neutrality and many more. You may have also heard of the term ESG. If you are like most people you may start to think that these terms are overused and are generally seen as burdensome on the organisational system, whatever the kind.
Being in business for over 10 years and having implemented eco-friendly principles throughout all of them, I have noticed that sustainability is not always what we perceive it to be so here are some of the things I have learnt:
- I have discovered that sustainability in practise means meeting the needs of the present, while not compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This means using resources that are available now wisely and conservatively. An example of this principle in practice is when this mindset helped the cleaning service business I managed to consider how we used our cleaning product, we looked at reducing wasteful use, buying food quality cleaning solutions and equipment that will do the job ones with lasting effects, we also decided that to preserve the environment in our limited financial capacity, we are only going to use eco-friendly cleaning solutions. This series of decisions led to changes that brought about some great customer feedback and increased our customer retention.
- The second lesson I learnt is that the road to being a sustainable business is a journey. It is difficult when often being sustainable is quickly categorised as driving electric cars or having a bunch of solar panels on the roof. Going back to my first lesson, your level of resource should determine the scope of your sustainable solutions implemented. We started with changing our cleaning solution to align with our sustainability goals but that was followed by reducing overall driving miles, office building energy consumption and at the right time, we also purchased a low carbon company car. The need to become sustainable can be implemented by setting out sustainability pathway. Your pathway should consider your organisation’s current resources and future needs. There needs to be a balance otherwise your attempts might fail and create a negative impression of sustainability.
- In most cases, to implement sustainable practices in an organisation, you have to rethink the relevant processes that are directly impacted. Take for example, a sandwich shop that set out to reduce food waste. Their analysis shows that they waste too much fruit due to low purchase. They weighed up their options and they are faced with removing fruit from the shelves, or buying less fruit. Neither of these is favourable as they are already purchasing the lowest possible crate size, and they also do not want to remove fruits entirely as it helps them promote a healthy diet. To implement their sustainable goal, they decided to invest in some kitchen equipment and turn unsold fruit into jam, and turn some into a bowl of fruit salad. This is a clear example of how sustainability can be a trigger for positive change and cause the organisation to innovate.
- Sustainable done right can be a tool to help a struggling business discover hidden gem within its people and processes as offer the opportunity to rethink everything and evaluate what is valuable and not. As my example above, the point of engaging with your sustainable goal becomes your opportunity to enact a lasting change, which opens up doors to new undiscovered opportunities and growth.
I hope you can see from my personal sustainability discoveries that exploring sustainable principles within your organisation offer more benefits than negative. It will require you and your team stepping out of your comfort zone but when sustainability is done right, you have nothing to loose.