- Why do we need more sustainable businesses?
- How sustainable business practices help you grow
- How to make your business more sustainable
Q: What are sustainable business practices? What kind of ethical practices should I be using for my business?
A: Sustainable business practices are practices that focus on benefiting society and the environment rather than focusing exclusively on the bottom line. Think about ways to reduce your reliance on single-use plastics and nonrenewable resources. In addition to checking your company’s sourcing, consider making the switch to remote work in order to fully commit to becoming an eco-friendly business.
In the 1930s, a Canadian-born engineer named Guy Callendar connected an increase in carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere to what we now call global warming.
Since Callendar’s discovery, countless studies have bolstered his claims. There have also been many hypotheses about preventative measures that humans can take to avoid the warming of our planet.
Regardless of your personal feelings on global warming or the need for sustainable business practices, eco-friendly initiatives can improve your company in unexpected ways.
America’s feelings about climate change continue to become more pronounced. Remember, these are your customers.
According to a PEW Research study, approximately 60% of Americans are worried that climate change will directly harm them in their lifetimes.
This widespread fear of global warming is shaping up to be one of the largest social issues for coming generation — which is likely why ethical business practices are in such high demand.
Consumers want to buy from companies that share similar values. Some global trend studies already show a surprising 66% of Americans make purchased based on their personal values.
In this article, we’ll be taking a closer look at the definition of sustainable business practices. We will also look at why sustainable businesses are so important.
Next, we’ll explore how sustainable business practices can help your business grow.
You’ll also learn how to make your business more sustainable to capture this growth, and how sustainable business practices mesh with other virtual business tools.
- Why do we need more sustainable businesses?
- How sustainable business practices help you grow
- How to make your business more sustainable
- Using sustainable business practices in conjunction with virtual business tools
Why we need more sustainable businesses
Before we jump in, let’s look at what sustainable business practices are.
According to Harvard Business School, an ethical business tries to positively impact society, the environment, and its bottom line. This concept is often called the “triple bottom line” and it refers to people, the planet, and profit.
Sustainable business practices are very different from modern, profit-driven strategies. While a sustainable business focuses on a three-pronged approach, many modern businesses focus completely on profit without any regard for the environment or society.
One of the biggest issues with modern business practices is the sheer amount of waste and non-recyclable composite plastics that companies produce.
Years ago, three separately published scientific papers showed just how much plastic had made its way to the ocean — with this article showing an astronomical 5.25 trillion tons of plastic in the planet’s oceans.
A couple of years later in 2021, we found out that over 50% of this plastic waste came from only 20 companies — and that only 100 companies accounted for 90% of that same waste.
It’s fair to say that a lack of sustainability is quickly depleting our limited resources and causing massive ecological harm.
Many small business owners feel that they’re simply small fish in a big pond — that their waste is less harmful than the waste produced by big businesses. Therefore they don’t feel obligated to use sustainable business practices.
While it’s fair to say that small businesses aren’t accounting for anywhere near the same volume of waste as the companies, this laissez-faire attitude is partially what brought us to the point we’re at today.
Regardless of the volume of the waste, when businesses operate without an eye for sustainability, they end up furthering these negative effects.
On the flip side, if businesses shift to more sustainable practices, they help create a brighter future for everyone.
With more sustainable businesses, consumer will have more options. The more choices that consumers have, the less reliant they will be on the big businesses that are filling our oceans with trash.
Each business that commits to more sustainable business practices is pushing the world forward and helping to make these practices a prerequisite for any successful company.
You don’t have to be the CEO of a massive corporation to make a difference as an environmentally friendly business.
Read more: Green Business Ideas for Eco-minded Solopreneurs | Sustainable Business Ideas and Trends
How sustainable business practices help your business scale
Outside of the more straightforward, climate-related reasons, sustainable business practices are beneficial because of the ways they can directly help your business grow.
Below, we’ve listed some key ways that sustainable business practices can help your business grow and how to use your branding to push these practices even further.
- Help guarantee a future
- Better hires
- Increased brand recognition and customer loyalty
- Various tax breaks and credits
Guarantee a future
Your business’s growth could be limited by a total lack of nonrenewable resources. The U.S. is already a couple of decades away from a water crisis, and concerns over a lack of fossil fuels aren’t far behind.
If changes aren’t made, businesses may run out of the resources needed to keep running.
As it stands, we are on the brink of completely depleting the Earth’s supply of nonrenewable resources. With ecological issues becoming increasingly prominent in our daily lives, companies will have to switch to sustainable business practices at some point.
Better hires
People are passionate about sustainability. By shifting to an environmentally friendly business, you can hire people who are passionate about this subject and create a working environment that incentivizes innovation.
We’ve seen record-breaking numbers of workers quit their positions or accept new offers in the past year, so retaining good talent is more important than ever.
Increased brand recognition and customer loyalty
Bad press can create a swarm of issues for your business damage your brand’s image. Ethical business practices allow your business to avoid bad press, increasing brand recognition and customer loyalty.
Using green branding and giving consumers some sustainable business practices examples lets your customers know that you are as invested in the future as they are.
These shared values will help you boost loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.
Making this shift to sustainable business practices differentiates your business from the competition and helps you capture new segments of the market.
Various tax breaks and credits
There are several tax breaks and tax credits that your business can receive if you use sustainable business practices.
For example, on August 16th of 2022 Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive federal investment that is dedicated to fighting climate change in the U.S.
Some of these measures include offering financial incentives to those who are purchasing efficient appliances, electric cars, or even solar panels.
Even if you feel completely opposed to using these practices, there is a genuine financial incentive for doing so. Outside of the rewards you’ll see in the market, the government will also reward you for making these changes.
Becoming more sustainable
Now that the benefits of sustainable business practices have been made clear, it’s time to figure out how your business can start making the switch to a greener future.
We’ve compiled a list of actionable tips that your business can use to strive toward sustainability. While it isn’t exactly a sustainable business practices PPT, it will give you some green ideas for your company:
- Avoid single-use plastics
- Pay for ethical labor
- Avoid fossil fuels when possible
- Reduce water consumption
- Source sustainably
- Switch to remote work
Avoid single-use plastics
Single-use plastics are some of the most damaging waste products that businesses produce.
Our oceans are home to more than 5 trillion tons of plastic, and while removing that plastic will be difficult, we can all do our part to help prevent additional trash from adding to this mess.
Several kitchenware companies, entertainment businesses, and even McDonald’s itself are already attempting to phase plastic out of their business operations.
As more companies make this transition, those that continue to use plastic (especially single-use plastics) will be ostracized from the market.
Pay for ethical labor
As many business owners know, labor in certain countries can be incredibly cheap. Because this is so widely known, simply paying for ethical labor is an excellent sustainable business practice.
Being able to claim that your product is created entirely with ethical labor shows consumers that you care about bringing to an end to serious human rights abuses that are common in various nations.
Avoid fossil fuels when possible
The burning and production of fossil fuels is one of the leading contributors to global warming and general air pollution. While more difficult than some of the tips on this list, avoiding fossil fuels is a great way to increase your engagement with consumers and increase brand recognition.
Renewable energy, nuclear power, hydrogen, and geothermal energy are all alternatives to the standard, polluting fossil fuels.
Some experts are claiming that the world will have completely depleted its oil reserves by 2060, so finding an alternative to these fuels is more important now than ever before.
Reduce water consumption
When discussing sustainability, the subject of water is often forgotten or dismissed in favor of more pressing matters like greenhouse gases and other emissions.
That said, sustainable business practices are those that focus on helping the planet in its entirety. Therefore, water consumption should be at the top of any ethical business’s priorities.
Some scientists are already calling for the depletion of our freshwater reserves as soon as 2060.
States like Arizona and California that depend on other states for their drinking water are already in trouble.
Unless the process of binding atoms together to create water gets easier, these problems aren’t going to magically evaporate.
Several companies are already using their lowered emissions and sustainable practices for green branding, but others are highlighting their reduced water consumption or general efforts to curb the global water crisis.
If your business starts employing sustainable business practices designed to reduce water consumption, you’ll be one step ahead of the curve.
When the global water crisis does get more media attention, your business will already be compliant — and consumers will know that you’ve been paying attention to this issue for years.
Source sustainably
Similar to paying for ethical labor, sustainable sourcing is a great way to let your customers know that you are serious about ethical practices.
The hardest part about sourcing sustainably is identifying trustworthy suppliers.
Unless your business is providing a service or a product that requires no raw materials, you’ve likely already created relationships with some suppliers.
The key is making sure that these suppliers are sourcing their products responsibly as well.
While this might seem like a lot of back and forth, the result is worth it. Ethical sourcing helps your business stay in consumers’ good graces while preventing bad press.
If you need an incredibly specific material and there are only a few suppliers, try talking with them and letting them know just how important sustainable sourcing is for your business.
One of the coolest things about using sustainable business practices is that a majority of consumers are willing to spend a little extra to ensure that their products are ethically sourced.
Ethical business practices may very well increase the cost of your business’s operations, but green branding and solid digital marketing allows you to easily recoup these costs as consumers flock to your environmentally friendly business.
Switch to remote work
A switch to remote work is the fastest and most straightforward method of adopting sustainable business practices for your company.
A transition to remote work provides many different avenues of sustainability. Here are some key ways that remote work will make your business greener:
- Eliminate daily commutes
- Eliminate traditional office utilities
- Using a Virtual Office reduces your carbon footprint
- Improved work-life balance
Eliminate daily commutes
The daily commute is one of the most frustrating aspects of traditional work — even without the environmental ramifications.
A thirty-minute drive can easily turn into a forty-five-minute drive. When you’re making this drive twice a day, you’re spending over an hour driving.
This much driving isn’t great for the environment. Switching to remote operations eliminates this daily commute and drastically cuts down on personal emissions.
In addition to helping the environment, eliminating the daily commute will save you a considerable amount of money on gas and other car maintenance costs.
If you’d like to see just how much you’re spending and emitting on your daily commute, try out this Commute Cost & Carbon Emissions Calculator from Stanford University.
Eliminate traditional office utilities
The generation of electricity is one of the leading producers of carbon dioxide emissions. When you switch to remote work, you’re no longer responsible for keeping your lights on at a physical business location.
In a traditional space, you’re typically buying several paper and plastic products. You’ll also need to pay for heating and cooling.
With remote work, you’re off the hook for all of these expenses — and you get the added benefit of reducing your company’s emissions.
Using a Virtual Office reduces your carbon footprint
Despite the environmental harm that comes with a traditional office rental, it’s nice to have a space that you can work in away from your home. With a high-quality Virtual Office, you get all of the benefits of a traditional office without the negative environmental impact.
Alliance Virtual Offices provides high-quality, professional, and space-backed offices that you can use when the routine of working from home becomes too monotonous.
With one of our Virtual Offices, you can use green branding to tout your company’s reduced emissions and consumption without giving up access to a private and professional workspace.
Improved work-life balance
An improved work-life balance isn’t often associated with sustainable business practices, but in reality, a healthy work-life balance is the starting point for many environmentally-sound individuals.
If you’re suffering from burnout and constantly dreading your next day of work, chances are high that you’re not worried about helping the planet.
Switching to remote work allows you and your employees to create your own schedules, collaborate on projects, and focus on what matters most.
Once you’re not miserably awaiting your next day in the office, it’s much easier to start focusing on how you can increase your sustainability.
Using sustainable business practices in conjunction with virtual business tools
Sustainable businesses are more important than ever. Not only does being sustainable help the planet, but it also has the potential to financially benefit your business.
It doesn’t matter whether or not you agree with the overarching concept of climate change.
The only thing that matters is whether you can employ sustainable business practices. Companies that are doing so are being rewarded with greater customer loyalty and improved brand recognition.
Shifting to remote work with an Alliance Virtual Office is a great way to make your business more sustainable without losing any of the benefits that traditional office spaces provide.
Alliance provides several tools that are environmentally friendly alternatives to their traditional counterparts — such as our coworking spaces, meeting rooms, and Virtual Offices.
With each of these tools, your business can focus on reducing emissions, connecting with consumers, and increasing profits.
A switch to remote work is the perfect way to introduce sustainable business practices, and the associated amenities will have you wondering why you hadn’t made the switch earlier.
Further reading
- The Best Place to Start a Business Isn’t a “Place” At All
- Green Business Ideas for Eco-Minded Solopreneurs | Sustainable Business Ideas and Trends
With one of our Virtual Offices, you have access to easily reservable meeting rooms, private workspaces, and a professional and well-known business address — allowing you to keep your home address out of the public domain.
Our live receptionists provide a friendly and professional voice for any incoming phone calls, allowing you to completely focus on saving the planet with your organization
Our virtual phone numbers allow you to connect with your employees without being forced to disclose personal phone numbers.
Regardless of whether or not you’re a fledgling entrepreneur hoping to start an environmentally friendly business or a battle-tested business owner hoping to introduce some new sustainable business practices, we’ve got you covered.
Contact us today to see how Alliance Virtual Offices can help you on your journey to increased sustainability and higher profits!
