How to Implement a Sustainable Business Strategy in 3 Steps
28 May 2015 - Ekaterina Larsson

Our recent Business Lab was hosted by Impact Hub Stockholm COO and sustainability expert Gabriella Silfwerbrand, who showed us how everyoneeven startups and small businessescan benefit from putting sustainability strategy at the core of their business.

Desso, the commercial carpet company that produces plastic fiber carpets, rents them out to consumers, and collects them to recycle them into a new generation of carpets. Nudie Jeans, the clothing company that recycle jeans. What do these two companies have in common? They both have a sustainable business strategy.

These inspiring examples were shared with us by Gabriella Silfwerbrand, who led our recent Business Lab. In addition to acting as COO at Impact Hub Stockholm Gabriella has dedicated much time to sustainability and holds a Master’s Degree in Resilience and Governance from the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Most recently, she lead the internal assessment of Impact Hub Stockholm according to ISO 26000 guidelines for social responsibility.

NUDIE JEANSSo, why have a sustainable business strategy?

Well, we all want to create a better world, right? As we enter into the so called Anthropocene period, a new geological epoch that sees humans activity having a bigger impact on earth’s crust than ever before, we realize we have to do something to curb our destructive habits and take more responsibility for supporting a healthy planet.

As a business, you don’t have to be Tesla and invent a 7 KWH household solar-storage battery to make a difference for the environment, however you do have a great opportunity to make a positive impact with the choices you make. Even small businesses can make a difference. It’s all about prioritization— making sustainability a cornerstone of your business strategy. And getting started doesn’t have to be complicated. Just follow these 3 steps for implementation.

3 Steps to a Sustainable Business Strategy

1) Assess Your Sphere of Influence
There are many things to consider, so Gabriella grouped them into three areas of responsibility, which a company should consider when assessing their sphere of influence:

  • The Environment— water, energy, material used
  • Social Internal— labor practices, organizational governance, fair operational practices
  • Social External— human rights, consumer issues, community involvement

2) Assess Your Impact and Make an Action Plan
Complete an assessment of your impact based on your sphere of influence. You can follow an existing framework like ISO26000, or your own simplified version. Set goals for what you want to achieve and identify actions you want to take to get there.

3) Tell Others About Your Actions and Goals
Communicating about the actions you’re taking for sustainability not only sets a good example for others in your industry, it adds more value to your offering thus attracting more customer interest.

How about an example?
Let’s put this into perspective. Say you, like me, are a communications consultant and are the sole employee in your company, (yes, even you can implement a sustainable business strategy).

As a first step (Assessing your Sphere of Influence), you take a look at the top 10 things you purchase and analyze how each item is related to nature or people. For instance, you pay to sit at a co-working office, and there you use resources such as the internet, paper, fruit, coffee, milk, etc. Digging a bit deeper, you can ascertain that the internet uses electricity (How is it generated?); paper is made from trees (Where and how are they harvested?); coffee comes from plantations (What are their labor practices like?); milk from cows (What are they fed?); and so on. You also consider your daily activities and the impact they have on the environment: what you sell, what your product is made out of, what your customers do with it.

Your next step is to zero in on 5-10 items or activities that you are most dependent upon in the daily running of your business, and quantify their impact. Identify what you want to change and develop an action plan, based on these focus areas, for reducing your environmental impact for each. For instance, perhaps you’ve identified electricity (which generates your internet, lighting, heat, etc.) as a focus area. You make a point to switch your energy supplier to one that uses wind or solar energy. You even take steps to ensure that your co-working space uses renewable energy.

Once you have taken action to reduce the environmental impact of your 5-10 identified focus areas, its time to tell others about it. Perhaps you have a page on your website dedicated to communicating your sustainable business strategy. Maybe you even share the actions you have taken with the networking group you regularly meet with, or in a blog post on LinkedIn. You may very well find that spreading the word about the responsibility you’re taking to reduce your company’s environmental footprint attracts even more interest to your services.

The Business Lab is a new program that we offer at Impact Hub Stockholm. For programs and events check here. 

Author

Ekaterina Larsson is a freelancing Digital Communications Consultant and Marketing Manager who has worked with organisations including Stockholm International Water Institute and Greenpeace.