How Can Businesses Be More Sustainable

A recent study showed that more and more consumers in North America, Asia, and Europe are looking at product sustainability before they buy.

In fact, 77% of people said they wanted to see environmentally responsible packaging. Even more, there has been a 71% increase worldwide in online searches for sustainable goods.

So, how can businesses be more sustainable? What can businesses do to take sustainability seriously and go beyond just making surface changes?

While it can be a challenging process at first, you just need to learn what changes make the most impact. Then you’ll know where to focus and can start moving in the right direction.

Keep reading this guide to learn how businesses can take steps to be more sustainable!

How Can Businesses Be More Sustainable?

You’ll first need to put a plan in place to make sustainability a part of your everyday business functions.

To do this, you’ll need to take steps that include:

Make Sustainability the Main Part of Your Brand Mission

What better way to embody sustainability as a small business than to incorporate it into your company’s mission and brand identity?

Nowadays, going green and being more eco-conscious should be goals for any company to work toward. Putting these goals as part of your mission statement will completely change the direction of your company.

Having this as a core value will help your team focus their efforts toward specific goals. This could include considering the environment in how you produce your products.

You might also develop a project that helps you reduce waste overall.

Whatever you do, making this a part of your brand identity gets the ball rolling in the right direction.

Embrace Sustainability in Your Supply Chain

If you run a business that sells and produces a physical product, it’s time to sit down and consider some options. First, you must analyze your current supply chain to look for opportunities to make sustainable changes.

One change should be how you source your materials. If you use raw materials or specific items from outside vendors, how do these vendors procure the materials? Simply ensuring you responsibly source all your materials is a huge first step.

You should also look closely at your consumption of natural resources. There will be more opportunities than you realize to reduce the strain on natural resources. For example, you can rethink what materials you use for packaging. You can also make your manufacturing process more efficient to reduce waste.

Finally, you can reduce your carbon emissions as a whole by upgrading your business facility. This can include installing smart sensors to ensure your cooling and heating shut off automatically when not needed.

Even using solar energy may be a possibility. Whatever you do now to be more sustainable will have a massive impact in the future.

Create Eco-Friendly Products

Once you make sustainability a part of your company’s mission, you must focus on creating eco-friendly products that use sustainable materials.

While changing your current products takes time, any new product you create can be eco-friendly. To do this, you must ensure the product has certain characteristics like:

• Sourced sustainably
• Only from materials and suppliers with fair-trade certifications
• Uses renewable and recyclable materials like reclaimed wood
• Locally sourced to reduce transportation emissions

Remember, creating a sustainable product takes time. It can also be difficult to completely change your current products to a 100% sustainable model. You’ll need to focus on both your new and existing products to develop a long-term plan.

Get Environmental Certifications

Another thing you can do is work towards getting various environmental certifications. To begin with, you can look at becoming a Certified B Corporation. This certification means that a business meets high standards in things like:

• Performance
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Charitable giving

This certification requires that you achieve a minimum score in meeting specific environmental and social standards. You’ll also need to define a sustainable mission and ensure your products do not cause harm.

Attaining this certification will take your business to a new sustainable level. It also shows your shareholders and stakeholders that you’re serious about the environment.

Implement Sustainable Marketing Practices

Believe it or not, you can even make your digital marketing practices more sustainable for everybody.

Companies promote socially responsible services, practices, and products through sustainable marketing. Sustainable marketing is also a broader approach compared to green marketing. This is because it goes beyond simply promoting products.

A sustainable shift in marketing means your company has a larger purpose. To do this, you’ll need to have a clear social mission. Your mission must define how you want your brand to play a role in helping the environment.

Sustainable marketing also means you think ahead and consider long-term value. In many cases, brands focus on getting immediate returns to amp up their cash flow.

But when you do this, you don’t take the time to educate your consumers. Sustainable marketing allows you to do things like publish content on ethical farming. You can even go over the recycling process of your packaging with your customers.

You should focus on partnering with marketing companies that are mindful of sustainable marketing. For example, if you need web design services, partner with a sustainable company that offers affordable web design.

Sustainable marketing techniques will help you connect more deeply with customers. You’ll also be able to connect with charitable organizations and make even more significant eco-friendly changes.

Use These Tips to Make Your Business More Sustainable

Now that you know the answer to the question “How can businesses be more sustainable,” you can start implementing these tips.

Remember, this process will seem overwhelming in the beginning. You may also feel like you’re not making much progress since these changes take time. Don’t worry; as long as you take steps each day, you’ll be well on your way to having a sustainable business and reducing your carbon footprint overall.

To learn more business tips and tricks, be sure to visit the rest of our blog today.