And so we come to the final Blog in this series looking at the 5 key milestones in improving the sustainability of your business. In previous Blogs we have covered the milestones of Commitment, Operations, Circular Supply Chains and Value Creation In this final blog we’ll discuss what it takes to be a Sustainability Leader.
Sustainability Leaders – these are businesses that go the extra mile and often give you that warm and fuzzy feeling when spending your hard-earned money. They lead by example, influence others and share their knowledge and passion to make net positive contributions to the environment and society. They’re the companies that a new generation of sustainability conscious consumers want to engage and spend their money with. This includes the 73% of millennials (born from 1977 to 1995)* that are willing to pay more for sustainable goods.
A sustainability culture
Sustainability Leaders create a culture that gives back more than they take from the environment and society. In other words, they do “more good” rather than “less bad”. Such companies work on reducing their environmental footprint as far as possible across their entire supply chain and, only then, look at investing in environmental offset projects such as for carbon or biodiversity.
They create and inspire change through engaging and supporting local community groups or social enterprises. They are transparent and regularly report on their own sustainability and social corporate responsibility performance.
They set up innovation teams to actively work on the next innovative project or refine the existing ones. They actively support innovation in their own sector and others through participating in intrapreneur workshops, start-ups, hubs and incubators. They foster partnerships across supply chains and between technology companies and academia.
There are the big-name companies such as Ikea, Unilever, Patagonia, Tesla and Interface that are the well-known sustainability leaders. But then there are also many small to medium businesses that are leading the way. Companies such as Mars BirdCare, Perfect Potions, Deicke Richards and Guymer Bailey are all leaders in the respective fields. We’ll feature some of these companies in upcoming posts.
Achieving the sustainability milestones discussed in our last 5 blogs requires long term commitment by many stakeholders. It requires there to be processes and procedures in place to foster innovation and the adoption of new ideas.
To find out more, view our free training video which explains further about the five steps towards improving business sustainability and how you can take them within your workplace.
You can also book in a free 20 minute consultation to discuss how your organisation can achieve its sustainability goals.
*https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/73-percent-of-millennials-are-willing-to-spend-more-money-on-this-1-type-of-product.html