Get your business involved

Here are a few pointers on how businesses can improve their environmental performance:

• Understand where environmental impacts across the business are at their greatest. What natural resources are being used, where do they come from, and where is the main carbon footprint? The biggest impacts are often within the supply chain and at the consumer use of products.
• Prioritise green efforts in alignment with where there is greatest impact and decide where the company’s responsibilities start and end. How can goods and services be better produced, how can those in the supply chain be engaged, what alternative sourcing arrangements can be made, and how can customers be engaged to use products more responsibly (for example, using less hot water with home cleaning products)?
• Carbon management is under much scrutiny, so prioritise energy savings above all else. WWF’s suggested order of priorities is: 1) avoid, 2) reduce, 3) offset the irreducible carbon emissions (as a last resort) to a Gold Standard offset project.
• In a more visionary sense, what are the opportunities to shift towards a greener business model? Moving from product sales to the provision of services can be a key business differentiator, as well as a win for the environment. For example, services around car clubs and sharing schemes are growing as an alternative to the more traditional and impactful practice of car ownership.
• There are increasing opportunities for companies to look beyond their own environmental performance and to start playing a more proactive role in shaping the business world around them. Businesses on the front foot that are not just reacting to emerging trends but seeking to steer the future interests of their staff, customers and investors and to shape upcoming regulation will stay ahead of the game and be in a better position to build businesses that last.