Customers today want to support companies that are concerned about the environment. Sustainability is a top priority for many people. Fortunately, establishing a long-term business is not difficult. You can find sustainable companies at every stage of the supply chain, no matter what products and services you provide.
Start with these 5 strategies when it’s time to make your brand more sustainable.
1. Look for environmentally friendly packaging
Because brands that are serious about sustainability do not make exceptions for their packaging, consumers can tell when they are. For example, you won’t find plastic packaging associated with a company that cares about the environment.
You don’t have to look hard to find environmentally friendly packaging. Burd and Fletcher, for example, is a well-known food packaging company that is also certified sustainable. They are members of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and are dedicated to environmental preservation.
Even the most environmentally friendly products require environmentally friendly packaging. Start looking for eco-friendly packaging if your products aren’t going to sit on the shelf unprotected.
2. Conduct research on the brands with which you do business and report your findings
You must also be transparent with your customers in order to be considered sustainable. Make sure to inform your customers about your findings when researching the brands with which you do business.
Let’s say you order product parts from Wisconsin-based Company A. Find out how sustainable Company A is, and let your customers know if they meet your sustainability standards. You could write a simple blog post about the practices of Company A.
If you come across any companies that don’t meet your sustainability criteria, find a replacement as soon as possible. Customers will eventually find out if you do business with companies that are harmful to the environment, and they will demand answers.
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3. Make sure you’ve covered all of your bases before declaring yourself sustainable
Consumers expect companies to be honest in their claims. While you’re transforming your business into a sustainable operation, avoid making claims about sustainability.
Tell your customers about your brand’s transformation while you’re still working on becoming more sustainable. You’ll have a lot of help this way. Simply put, don’t declare yourself sustainable until all of your business partnerships and practices are.
4. Create a roadmap for long-term success
You’ll need a roadmap with goals and milestones along the way to become fully sustainable. Start planning ways to make your entire operation sustainable, in addition to working toward sustainable packaging and product parts, such as:
- Your actual workplace. Coffee pods, for example, are extremely wasteful, despite the fact that some are recyclable. Instead, use freshly ground coffee and reusable pods.
- Your Employee’s Advantages Look for some advantages that will help you to be more sustainable. Allow time off for volunteer work, match donations, or allocate a special sustainability budget to your teams to explore new ideas for solving environmental problems.
When your sustainability goals are organized and written down, you’ll be able to achieve them much more quickly.
5. Emulate what other companies are doing
Being a copycat isn’t usually a good idea. Efforts to improve sustainability, on the other hand, are fair game. Investigate what other sustainable businesses are doing and follow their lead.
Many businesses, for example, have eliminated the need to travel to and from a physical office. They allow employees to work from home and use Zoom to host virtual meetings.
Here’s a list of some well-known companies that take sustainability seriously to get you started:
- Patagonia. Patagonia has been committed to sustainability for more than two decades. They give a portion of their profits to environmental organizations and teach people how to mend their clothes. They’ll even fix a customer’s clothing, whether it’s Patagonia or not. Clothing repair is one of the most environmentally friendly things a person can do, and Patagonia is resurrecting this long-forgotten skill.
- Tony’s Chocolonely is a chocolate bar. This company is dedicated to making the cocoa industry a slave-free and fair-trade industry.
- Triodos Bank is a Greek bank. This bank invests the money of its customers in environmentally friendly businesses, such as renewable energy companies.
- Too good to be true. This is a fantastic app that helps people find restaurants that are giving away food for 50% off at the end of the night. Restaurants are prohibited by company policies and health department regulations from donating leftover food, so this is a great way to reduce food waste.
These are only a few suggestions to get you started. When you search for sustainable businesses, you’ll come across a plethora of innovative ideas to incorporate into your sustainability strategy.
Profits are driven by sustainability
At the end of the day, profits will be driven by sustainability. Consumers today are picky about who they do business with, and they will not accept anything less than complete sustainability.
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