How important is sustainability in business?

Sustainability has become a bit of a buzzword these days, with everyone suddenly taking an interest into what is happening in the world. Perhaps the pandemic woke some people up and brought us together as we were all suddenly suffering at the same time. But it’s definitely great influence from the likes of Greta Thunberg and the publicity surrounding COP26 that really opened our eyes up to what impact we’re having on the world.

For me, it’s when I went on BIMA’s Net Carbon Negative course , (which is now called Net Zero ) and learned about the impact my daily business actions were having on the environment. I had no idea; I felt really stupid. This course gave me the kick up the butt that I needed and I started implementing everything I could to reduce Complex Creative’s carbon footprint and educate the team.

Before I delve into what I did to make a change, I want to discuss the term “sustainability” as it’s used in so many ways.

What is sustainability in business?

I think that when people hear the term sustainability, they generally think of climate change and environmental factors. However, it’s so much more than that, as it’s also the impact companies have on society. A sustainable business aims to have a positive impact on both the environment and society and focuses on some of the following areas:

-??????Gender bias

-??????Racial injustice

-??????Income inequality

-??????DEI

-??????Climate change

-??????Pollution

-??????Human rights

-??????Fair working conditions

Many small businesses get concerned that they do not have the financial resources to worry about all of this when they already have their immediate business issues to sort. This is a pretty understandable, as your business does need to be in a decent financial state before you can put money aside for these causes. However, there are other ways to get involved that doesn’t cost money, such as volunteering your time.

Why is sustainability in business important?

It’s the collective action that is going to help drive social and environmental change, so if everyone does their little bit to help, then we can make some major strides in this world.

Plus, a strong sustainable business strategy can actually help improve the profitability of your company overall. This may seem counterintuitive as how can a company spending all this extra money on ESG (environmental, social and governance) activities end up making more money?! Well, according to a McKinsey report , those companies with the highest ESG ratings consistently outperform other companies in the market. It also helps attract talent to your business in this time of Great Resignation, as many candidates now really value sustainable business strategies.

Sustainable business strategies for small businesses

If you’re part of a small business, there are several things you can still do to help make a positive difference on the world.

Here are some of the things that Complex Creative has done over the last 2 years:

-??????Offset all our company’s carbon and planted thousands of trees via Ecologi

-??????Switched to using products made by sustainable brands

-??????Redesigned our website to emit less carbon (finished product will be available in about a month’s time)

-??????Switched to green website hosting

-??????Volunteered at charitable organisations

-??????Donate a percentage of our profits to environmental causes

-??????Continue with our pro-bono scheme

-??????Taken the Million Tree Pledge

-??????Gone on a B Corp Bootcamp and made company-wide changes to implement real change

We still have lots of ideas to come, but we are proud of what we’ve achieved so far.

If you need any advice on how we did any of the above, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Sustainability in Digital

We ran a fantastic panel discussion yesterday about how businesses can implement sustainable business strategies into their digital efforts and I had an absolutely expert panel to answer the questions:

James Cannings, Chief Sustainability Office at MMQ and Chair of BIMA’s Sustainability Council

Marcus Hemsley, Founder of Fountain Partnership and the creator of the Million Tree Pledge

Tom Greenwood, Founder of Wholegrain Digital and author of Sustainable Web Design

For those who missed the event, you can check out the event on the video below and find out what amazing advice they gave about sustainability in digital.