Tagged with Sustainable Business Growth

Steps the Logistics Industry Needs To Take To Be More Sustainable

There are a lot of global challenges involved in fighting climate change and making our environment more sustainable. We have written about the dire state of the environment before, and it’s easy to read such discussions as having to do solely with specific habitats or ecosystems. That’s fair enough, and it’s those ecosystems that, in some cases, are going to need the most direct rehabilitation. But it’s also important to maintain some global perspective and focus on some of the larger causes that can help to slow, and hopefully stop climate change worldwide.

Sustainability in the logistics industry is one such cause. Gary Marion wrote about transportation pollution for The Balance and clearly conveyed the relatively disastrous impact that modern supply chains can have. As he pointed out, an inventory item that arrives at a warehouse for distribution today will typically have been transported by multiple trucks, forklifts, possibly airplanes, and possibly cargo ships. This process, multiplied by innumerable product orders and across thousands of companies around the world, accounts for a significant portion of worldwide greenhouse emissions – not to mention a great deal of energy and material waste.

Considering all of this makes it clear that a more sustainable logistics industry, and more energy-efficient supply chains, represent important steps toward a healthier climate and recovering environment. So here we’ll look at a few steps that can be taken toward a more responsible industry.

Driver Education

Drivers are not the primary cause of emissions in the modern logistics industry, but they carry more responsibility than most people probably assume. Taylor Fasulas of Verizon Connect Australia wrote about driver education as a possible solution, suggesting that more informed and regulated drivers could help to lower fuel costs (and ultimately, fuel emissions). As she pointed out, simple education can make drivers more conscious of how the way they drive affects fuel consumption. For example, an idling truck, according to the article, can consume a litre of fuel every hour. If companies with busy logistics operations better educate their fleet managers and drivers on points like this, it can result in significant fuel conservation and thus lower emissions.  Steps the Logistics Industry Needs To Take To Be More Sustainable

Going Electric

While certain electric cars have more benefits than others, and no two are exactly alike, it’s accepted at this point that by and large they have lower CO2 emissions, and are thus far better for the environment than traditional vehicles. More important for this conversation, though, is that they’re also becoming feasible at an industry supply chain scale. Writing on the subject of the environmental friendliness of electric cars, Science Focus noted that manufacturers are now convinced that they can “build electric cars with a comparable range and speed to their petrol counterparts.” That doesn’t mean these cars or the manufacturing of them have been perfected – but it does mean that companies can begin restructuring their shipping fleets to include more electric vehicles, and significantly reduce emissions.

Implementing Supply Chain IoT

The Internet of Things can also play a significant role in making modern supply chains more sustainable, and in fact is already doing so in some cases. IoT-connected sensors can be built into fleet vehicles to monitor driving performance and produce data that can be used to improve practices and reduce unnecessary emissions. Products and store shelves can be outfitted with other sensors such that inventory is tracked automatically and shipping occurs only when necessary. The benefits in this case are varied and wide-ranging, but can ultimately do a great deal to reduce wasteful logistical activity.

By implementing these steps, companies in the logistics industry can take significant strides toward a more sustainable future. And ultimately, this could be one of the more impactful global efforts we see toward stopping the advance of climate change.

Exclusively written by Sab Mitchell for liveablecities.org.au

5 Ways to Make Your Business Sustainable

A business can either fail or succeed. Its outcome greatly depends on the consistency of the business in social, financial and environmental aspects. The ability to make your business sustainable comes from the effort of these three elements. In addition, we place the focus on the environmental aspects as your business’ sustainability depends on how eco-friendly it really is.

What is Sustainability in Business?

In order for a business to be consistent, it needs to assemble traction right from the start. With steady traction going forward you can make your business sustainable. A setback here and there is completely normal, as long as it’s not a full stop. For example, we can apply the automobile analogy here. When a car is going uphill, it requires a good speed start and a steady pace to reach the top. If the driver breaks frequently, it will need twice the energy to start over and get back to the steady pace at which it was initially going. In order to have your business be eco-friendly, you require a steady pace so that it can eventually create regular results. Sustainability is basically consistency. Consequently, it is the key ingredient to any type of success.

Make Your Business Sustainable

Follow these green tips and tricks to make your business eco-friendly.

Lists of tips and tricks are always beneficial and easy to follow. Below we list various ways to make your business sustainable:

  • Be in sync with your business mission.
  • Revise your business plan and highlight where you can do better.
  • Integrate green resources into your every-day business.
  • Keep up with the evolving technology.
  • Spread the environmental initiatives outside of your business.

Believe in Sustainability

As we mentioned above, effort and consistency are essential for business success. First and foremost, you have to believe in what you are doing. Also, believe that your business mission is efficient. Conducting business at a 50% energy level is basically the same as not trying at all. Number one on the list of tips and tricks states that you should be in sync with your business mission. If you understand why it is important and necessary to create value, then you can make your business sustainable.

Sustainable Business Plan

With a business mission comes a good business plan. Moreover, when you are trying to make your business more sustainable, it is a good idea to go to your original business plan. Review it, study it, and highlight the areas where you can implement more green steps in your daily operations. Look at your numbers and conclude whether you can smoothly accomplish the transition into a sustainable business. Ensure you have a firm plan of action and an objective. It will be that much simpler to share it with your employees and spread this positive change.

Go Green Daily

Take into consideration your daily business operations and performance, and let’s apply some alternative options. For example, the first on the list could be your supply chain. Evaluate it in order to figure out whether your business could rely on green energy as a means of power for your production plant. Also, can you switch to plastic when manufacturing your goods? Utilising green energy and plastic in your day to day business system would be a great start to make your business more sustainable. In addition, we eliminate the excess waste and unnecessary usage of harmful operations, while benefiting our business and community.

Meanwhile, take a look at your space of work and think about the changes you can apply there. Encourage everyone at the office to recycle. By recycling every day, your business becomes eco-friendlier as it reduces overall pollution that the waste causes. Maybe even come up with a weekly reward system for your employees so that the habit of recycling picks up quicker. Sometimes people need a bit of a push to implement changes, so why not positively influence your colleagues! Finally, this green initiative will also save you money, as you will be spending less on energy supply. Another way for your business to save money is to make your commercial relocation cheap, which will free up your budget for more important things.

Meanwhile, if you are using halogen or incandescent light bulbs, switch to LEDs. They require a smaller amount of energy usage while lasting longer. Moreover, if you are thinking of completely moving offices and starting fresh, that could be an option as well. Work around your business address and analyse where you could save money. Do your research and find a reliable moving company such as usantini.com.

Evolving Technology – Keep Up!

The 21st century is a digital sphere. Online businesses have been growing in numbers in the last couple of years, and if you do not have an online presence, your business might as well be out of the game completely. Nowadays, it is crucial to have an online platform. By being present online, you are multiplying your reach to international levels. In addition, by being more digital, you are minimising the negative effects on our environment and maximising the sustainability of your business.

Sustainable Business = Sustainable Community

Start in your office and continue throughout your whole business infrastructure. However, don’t stop there. Take the initiative to motivate your employees to implement these new habits at home as well. If we take the time to spread the implementation of more green culture in our lives, we can truly have a positive effect on our society and environment. Once people become more conscious of green initiatives at home, they are more likely to implement the same at work.

Work in Progress

A successful strategy to make your business more sustainable also means understanding that it is a big step. Things won’t simply change overnight, but it doesn’t mean they won’t change for the better. With a solid plan of action, a smart strategy, and a powerful presentation, your business can undoubtedly become more sustainable. Sometimes, the greatest impacts require multiple approaches. Make your ideas loud, visualise your mission and inspire others to implement all of these eco-friendly policies wherever they are. All in all, applying all these beneficial changes throughout your business will greatly affect society, our environment and each and every one of us.

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Success in Sustainability Combines These 3 Ingredients

Commit. Collaborate. Communicate.

That seems to be the mantra these days when it comes to tackling the complexity of sustainability challenges. Whether the topic is carbon removal, renewable energy procurement, transforming supply chains or creating a circular economy, inevitably the road to success is paved with these three ingredients …

The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, organised by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and U.N. Environment, sets forth a set of broad targets, including eliminating problematic and unnecessary plastic packaging, increasing reusable packaging and making all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable.

It’s a bold and audacious set of commitments, and the global brands included among the signatories — Coca-Cola, Danone, Diageo, Unilever, Mars, Nestlé, Philips, SC Johnson and others — aren’t likely to see this as a cavalier, check-the-box P.R. exercise. Indeed, these companies are all but screaming, “Judge us on what we do, not what we say we’ll do.”Success in Sustainability Combines These 3 Ingredients - cardboard

Most if not all of them are already on a path to deliver on such promises, but it will take a great deal more hard work to make good on them — maybe more work than some of these companies fully appreciate. It will require collaborating with their entire value chain — or is it now a value loop? — and communicating openly and authentically how well they’re doing in achieving their targets.

We’re seeing this three-legged stool — commit-collaborate-communicate — throughout the sustainability profession and the emerging clean economy.

We saw it in spades at our recent VERGE conference: cities pulling together to become “smart” and sustainable; big companies collaborating to electrify their fleets; companies partnering to scale up renewable energy purchases; companies looking externally for partners to help build new circular models for products and materials; companies working together to create new value propositions around removing carbon from the atmosphere.

All of these require new ecosystems of partners and collaborators, whether suppliers, customers, communities or others. And all require commitments and communications.

None of the Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved without these three ingredients. Or the Paris Agreement on climate change. Or pretty much any other global, sectoral or multisectoral goals or commitments.

It’s probably the last of the Cs — communicate — that will be most challenging for companies. In general, companies do not tell their stories well. That makes sense given the history of sustainable business.Success in Sustainability Combines These 3 Ingredients - business

Time was that being humble and modest about one’s environmental achievements and progress was seen as an asset, a means of minimising reputational risk from being seen as taking only partial measures to solve complex challenges. Better to do your thing, the thinking went, than to promote yourself and gain unwanted attention that could turn your good deeds into a liability. And maybe, if things worked well, activists or the media would “catch us being good.”

It was a dubious strategy then, and it’s an even worse one now. These days, transparency rules. You can’t get by saying, “Trust us. We’re working on it.”

But how to tell stories that are about progress, but not perfection? How do you communicate to customers and others, “We’re doing less bad than we used to”? After all, most of these initiatives — eliminating plastic waste, reducing the use of polluting energy sources and so on — are about reducing problems, not necessarily about creating new sources of value. Doing-less-bad stories are tough to tell.

This was originally published by Greenbiz.com. Click here to read the entire article.

Discover the key to sustainable business practices

The 2019 National Sustainability Conference will highlight discussions on the current challenges, successes and future plans for sustainable practices within business.

Hear from a lineup of experienced keynote speakers from all facets of sustainability, network with like minded professionals and gain insight into the progress and plans taking place for a smart, successful and healthy future.

Find out more.

Sense in Sustainability: the Changing Focus for Boards

Sustainability has become more than a trendy buzzword in business in the past few years as an increasing number of companies are putting it at the centre of their strategies.

Sense in Sustainability: the Changing Focus for Boards

Image: article supplied

Boards are waking up to the fact that there is more to a sustainably run business than eco-friendly behaviour. They are seeing the broader picture and shifting to a business model that takes more responsibility for all stakeholders—including employees and supply chains—and focuses on efficient, cost-effective operational strategies that can help boost the bottom line.

In the UN Global Compact–Accenture Strategy CEO Study carried out last year, 87% of global chief executives said the goals triggered a rethink on approaches to sustainability (see box, below). And nearly half (49%) agreed that the role of business was vital to achieving the UN goals.

Evolution of views

George Dallas, head of policy at the International Corporate Governance Network—led by investors responsible for more than $26trn of assets—points to an evolution in the way companies and investors view sustainability.

“In the past, sustainability was seen more as a separate CSR [corporate social responsibility] silo but now boardroom conversations are focusing on this,” he says.

Over the past decade a number of factors have driven the shift. Among these are environmental disasters, climate change, an increasing exposure of abuse of labour rights, particularly in supply chains, and inequality of opportunity, forcing companies to improve their governance and responsibility. “These issues can no longer be avoided,” Dallas says.

Public and investor anger at the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline in the US with regard to  violating human and environmental rights, and the scandal at Volkswagen, the German car maker caught cheating over diesel emissions, make sharp lessons for any board. The reputational damage that can follow malpractice and irresponsible behaviour is also pushing risk management to the top of the boardroom agenda.

This was originally published by Board Agenda.

Click here to read the entire article.

The SME’s Guide To Benefitting From Sustainability

Recognising that sustainability is a key business driver, a growing number of SMEs are keen to get certified sustainable, but are confronted with complex processes and high costs. Sustainability experts advise on what SMEs can do.

As big corporations move forward with sustainability initiatives to save energy, improve efficiency and build sustainable supply chains, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are following suit. They no longer dismiss sustainability as merely good intentions, but as a key business driver and strategic differentiator for brands.

SMEs and sustainability

Photo: article supplied

Increasingly SMEs are trying to establish stronger standards surrounding their sustainability practices with many being keen to work with established sustainability certifications and accreditation bodies.

The challenge for SMEs, however, is that sustainability certifications for big corporations, such as those conducted by the Global Resources Initiative (GRI) and the CDP, are expensive and complex relative to the scale of their business operations.

How can SMEs link sustainability to profit and leverage sustainability to better market their company?

Experts Steve Malkin from international sustainability certification programme, The Planet Mark™, and Tony Wines, Founder and CEO and Ian Catley, Director and Head of Business Development of Turnkey Group – A sustainability platform and services company — share their practical advices in this area.

What does it really mean for a company to be sustainable?

Steve Malkin (SM): In simple terms, sustainability defines the ability of systems to remain diverse and productive and self-sustain indefinitely. For a business, this means the capability to continue for an indefinite period, sustain itself in a rapidly changing world and market by balancing economic, social and environmental impact.

Sounds straight-forward but how can SMEs achieve it?

SM: For sustained, strong economic performance you have to consider the social and environmental impacts of your business. They are inter-dependent. Let’s consider the environmental aspect as a primary impact. Our aim here will be to reduce carbon, energy, water, waste.

You can achieve it by engaging your employees to start looking at resource efficiency and being better for the planet. By reducing your carbon footprint, you reduce costs.

By measuring results, you are getting evidence of your environmental and social performance that could be used to diferrentiate and attract customers. It is a virtuous circle – good for business, planet your employees and customers.

Ian Catley (IC): From an ethical perspective, by embedding sustainability initiatives into your business, you are are engaging your employees towards a common goal. This strenghtens your team, helps to retain and attract good employees and makes you more attractive to customers and investors.

This article was originally published by Eco Business.

Click here to read the entire article.