It has never been more important for businesses to operate sustainably. According to Deloitte, reducing the impact on the planet is now an imperative for businesses.¹ Plus, it’s increasingly important to customers – both business and consumer – too.^2,3

Exactly how to go about improving your business’s sustainability efforts and reducing its environmental impact will vary depending on the size and nature of your business. You might want to look at the materials you use in your products or packaging and explore any more sustainable alternatives. You could also consider the types of services your business uses – such as your energy supplier – as well as your day-to-day operations. For example, could a face-to-face meeting be replaced with a video call? Could you switch to an energy provider that uses 100% renewable energy?⁴

A good way to start is by conducting a thorough review of your business’s environmental impact. This could help to highlight where there are areas for improvement, as well as give you a clear benchmark to work from so you can track progress.

Balancing your efforts to improve sustainability credentials with the day-to-day job of running and growing the business can sometimes feel tough to get right. With this in mind, we explore some of the ways to lower your business’s environmental impact and hopefully give revenue a boost at the same time.

You may have heard of carbon offsetting, whereby you compensate for the carbon emissions created by your business by investing in schemes that reduce or remove emissions elsewhere.

This may be an option you could consider. However, it is important to research this fully and make sure you only invest in high-quality credits from credible carbon-offsetting projects. And ideally, offsetting should only be for the emissions that you cannot eliminate or reduce yourself.

Some business choose an alternative route, for example by countering their impact through investment in nature-based solutions such as tree planting. Other projects pursue a different environmental benefit. For example, Spain-based FedEx Small Business Grant 2021 winner The Gravity Wave partners with businesses to remove plastic waste from the Mediterranean.

Committing a portion of each sale to beneficial environmental projects like these means that the more you sell, the more you help.

FedEx Small Business Grant 2021 winner The Gravity Wave

Some revenue streams have a greater environmental impact than others, and diversification may help you to grow your business in ways that are more sustainable.

For example, one way for product-based businesses to grow revenue – without increasing their consumption of raw materials to produce new goods – could be to add related services, such as maintenance and repairs.

Similarly, you could consider offering training and consultancy services, or in-person events. Perhaps there is an opportunity to reach a new demographic of customers with product rental services, without cannibalising your existing customer base?⁵

Of course, any business expansion is likely to have an environmental impact of its own, so it’s important to consider what the overall effect would be.

As the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. You may find that some of the material waste your business produces has economic value, if it could be used to create another product.⁶ For example, timber offcuts, chippings and sawdust could have value as a fuel material, or be used to create synthetic logs or animal bedding.

Look at the waste your business disposes of and consider how those materials could be used productively.