Camilla Sherwin from Investors in the Environment shares her advice on how a business can get started on the journey to becoming a more environmentally responsible organisation.
Being an environmentally and socially responsible business is the right thing to do. The planet and its people must not be forsaken in the quest for profit, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that a better sustainability performance makes good business sense, too.
Not only does reducing your environmental impact save costs and reduce risk, it can also improve your business’ reputation, attracting and retaining staff, gaining more customers, and engaging principled investors.
And in order to truly embrace sustainability, businesses need to place it firmly at the heart of what they do, not just ‘on top’ of what they do. This can lead to new opportunities and a better economic position.
Where to start?
Whilst the willingness to go green is becoming more widespread, many organisations don’t know where to start. Even well-intentioned actions can lead to a scatter-gun approach if they’re not part of a coherent plan. For example, you might invest in better more efficient lightbulbs, upgrade your business recycling system, or make a charitable donation, but these alone do not bring measurable results.
Laying the foundations is essential for long term sustainable change. This involves adopting policies, establishing systems, measuring baseline performance, developing action plans, and taking staff on the journey with you.
Rushing into a sustainability quick-fix puts your business at risk of a greenwashing PR disaster, but taking simple steps on firm foundations leads to steady progress and proven results.
A holistic approach
Businesses have a responsibility to reduce the UK’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, and to do this, many organisations have set Net Zero targets. In order to accurately measure the full scale of emissions, a holistic approach needs to be taken. Indirect emissions must be accounted for by obtaining carbon emissions data from supply chains, and those seeking or fulfilling public sector contracts are also being asked to report their carbon reduction plans to meet the requirements of PPN 06/21.
Long-term sustainable change
Like any large change, breaking sustainability down into smaller elements makes it much easier to get started. Simple actions will set any organisation on its way to managing and reducing its environmental impacts, as well as social impacts.
These actions include:
Adopting an environmental or sustainability policy
A clear and actionable framework that should be signed off by senior members of staff, providing the foundation for performance improvement.
Recruiting a dedicated team
Employees from across the organisation who will help to introduce and improve sustainability initiatives and encourage colleagues to put them into practice. This may include someone taking on the role of Green Champion/Leader.
Reviewing environmental factors and impacts
Considering which resources are being used by the organisation and the impact they are having.
Gathering baseline data
Evaluating how resources are being used, including taking meter readings, mileage returns, staff surveys, and invoices.
Creating action plans
From quick wins to long term aims that might require financial investment or system changes, action plans are there to set key targets about resource use. Having this in place encourages you to reduce or stop activities which threaten or damage biodiversity.
Monitoring progress
Compare performance figures to past periods. This allows you to adjust plans to ensure improvement targets are as reachable as possible, working with suppliers to make sure they are supporting your objectives too.
Encouraging engagement within the team
Sustainability is a staff-wide effort, and activities and projects must be supported by all. This can also help to build team morale and benefit your overall business practices and reputation, internally and externally.
Communicating your progress
Staff and wider stakeholders should know of your progress, so invest in a well-respected third party evaluation of performance to add credence to your achievements.
Getting the right support
Introducing strong sustainability stewardship into an organisation requires change, and will present challenges. This is where the right advice and structured support, such as that provided by SmartCarbon’s partner, Investors in the Environment (iiE), is essential.
iiE provides a framework to measure progress, develop internal capability, improve performance and gain accreditation. Founded 15 years ago, the programme provides guidance, resources and tools though its e-learning platform as well as in person support from its team of sustainability experts; it is suitable for businesses of any size and from any sector and has helped hundreds of organisations improve their sustainability performance.
The SmartCarbon platform is used to meet and essential element of the iiE programme; to measure and report participating organisations’ carbon emissions.