A Guide to Becoming a Sustainable Small Business

No business wants to be deemed out of touch, unwilling to adapt to change, or dangerous to the planet. Unfortunately, in an age of conscious consumers who want to feel like they’re spending money with companies who care about the environment, these perceptions can spread quickly. For a small business that doesn’t embrace the eco-friendly approach, this offers a huge potential hurdle before your company has even begun to gain momentum.

If you’re a small business with big future plans, chances are that you’ve already had several conversations about becoming more sustainable. But what are the most important steps to take in order to get you there? And what are the small everyday changes you can make to help facilitate change? Here’s a guide to becoming a more sustainable small business venture.

Embrace the right business software

The right kind of software can help to remove time-wasting and pinpoint places in your business where hold-ups occur. In addition to this, your software can significantly reduce your administrative paperwork by creating a fully-digital structure and a more streamlined approach to each process.

If you’re a business that deals with a lot of customer data, then some form of Customer Relationship Management software (CRM software) is essential. There’s even software like ETRM software that provides solutions for specified commodities. What is ETRM software? Take a look and see if this can help your business to achieve those sustainability goals.

Be more eco-friendly in your packaging

Most businesses these days have some kind of online delivery of their goods or services. And while the popularity of online shopping has been of huge benefit to businesses, the environment is suffering due to the amount of plastic and non-biodegradable materials included in these packages.

While this stems from a desire to protect the goods being delivered, it’s easy to replace some of the packaging included for something far more planet friendly. It may cost a little bit more to use recycled materials or biodegradable packaging, but customers appreciate a business that thinks green!

Set achievable targets

Over the course of the business year, there are quarterly goals and targets you all hope to hit in order to play into a bigger game plan to ensure the future of your business is secure and profitable. And if you can set business goals in this way, why not set some sustainability goals too?

It doesn’t matter what those targets are for the first few months. What matters is that you set them and stick to them. Getting in the habit of being more eco-friendly will eventually become habitual, and it all starts at the very top. Lead by example and make achieving these kinds of targets one of your top priorities.

Final Thoughts

A business that’s aware of the importance of sustainability and the environment is a business that knows its future. And while it won’t happen overnight, embracing change and working together as a cohesive unit can dramatically improve your eco-practices and reduce your carbon footprint too.