Business Sustainability Journey: Introduction
Embarking on a business sustainability journey can feel a bit like trying to navigate a maze while blindfolded. You know there’s a way through, but the path isn’t always clear. That’s where we come in at Play It Green, offering a bit of light (and perhaps a chuckle) along the way.
Whether you’re just getting started or already on the road, here are five key things to consider as you work towards making your business more sustainable.
Business Sustainability Journey: Five Things to Consider
1. Start with Small, Manageable Changes
Before diving into large-scale projects, begin with small, impactful changes that are easy to implement. Consider switching to a green bank that doesn’t invest in fossil fuels, or perhaps review your company’s pension plans to ensure they support sustainable investments.
Encourage recycling in the office, and explore work-from-home policies that reduce commuting emissions. Moreover, consider promoting cycle-to-work schemes, car-sharing options, and the use of public transport among your team. Even small changes can make a big difference.
At Play It Green, we can help you rebalance your business and team’s carbon footprint through nature-based solutions that create jobs and restore habitats for animals, birds, and sea creatures. These initial steps not only set the tone for bigger changes down the line but also help engage your team in the process.
2. Engage Your Employees in the Process
Sustainability isn’t just a boardroom discussion—it’s something that should involve everyone in the organisation. Engaging your employees in your sustainability goals can lead to better ideas and greater commitment. When people feel they have a stake in the outcome, they are more likely to participate actively.
Engaging employees can also be fun! Create green teams, organise sustainability challenges, or have regular brainstorming sessions. Not only does this promote a positive workplace culture, but it also makes your sustainability journey a shared experience.
Play It Green can help you with employee engagement through our interactive sustainability platform, offering tools and resources to keep your team involved and motivated.
3. Look Beyond the Obvious
It’s easy to focus on the obvious when thinking about sustainability: energy use, recycling, and reducing waste. But sustainability is much broader than that. Consider your supply chain, for example. Are your suppliers operating sustainably? What about your product lifecycle? How does your product impact the environment from production to disposal?
Take a holistic approach to sustainability by considering every aspect of your business. This might involve conducting a sustainability audit or reassessing your product design.
At Play It Green, we offer guidance on how to look beyond the obvious and implement more comprehensive sustainability practices. Our Net Zero plan and other resources can help you think about sustainability in ways you might not have considered.
4. Measure Your Impact
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Tracking your progress is crucial on your business sustainability journey. This means setting clear, achievable goals and regularly assessing your progress. Are you reducing your carbon footprint? How much waste have you diverted from landfills? What are the financial benefits of your sustainability efforts?
To help with this, Play It Green partners with Catalyst Commercial to offer robust footprint measurement and reduction plans that are in line with government legislation. Unlike many tools out there, our partnership ensures that your sustainability efforts are compliant and effective. We provide simple, effective ways to track your progress, ensuring you stay on course and celebrate your achievements.
5. Communicate Your Efforts
Lastly, don’t keep your sustainability efforts to yourself. Communicating your journey, both internally and externally, is essential. Internally, it keeps your team motivated and engaged. Externally, it enhances your brand reputation and builds trust with your customers, partners, and investors.
Use your website, social media, and marketing materials to share what you’re doing. Be transparent about your goals, the challenges you face, and the successes you achieve. At Play It Green, we can help you craft your sustainability narrative, ensuring that your efforts are communicated effectively and authentically.
Business Sustainability Journey: Future Outlook and Wrap Up
Your business sustainability journey is just that—a journey. There will be ups and downs, but with the right mindset and tools, it can be incredibly rewarding. Start with small, manageable changes like switching to green banking or implementing cycle-to-work schemes.
Engage your employees, look beyond the obvious, measure your impact, and communicate your efforts. And remember, you’re not alone on this path. Play It Green is here to support you every step of the way with resources, tools, and a bit of humour to keep things light.
Here’s to building a more sustainable and resilient future, one step at a time!
Take Your Business Sustainability Journey with Us: The Best £5 per Month You'll Spend
Take your business sustainability journey to the next level with Play It Green.
Every £5 in your subscription plants 10 trees and regifts 50p to your chosen charity. Furthermore. we also provide you with weekly education and tools to reduce your personal and business emissions. Helping you to get to net zero, we’ll give you the plan, the marketing content and the ongoing support to ensure you get to where you need to be.
The Play It Green platform allows you to plant a tree with every sale or can signpost you to a Carbon Footprint Report and other providers. Incredibly, our service is taken by G4S, Manchester Central and Shires PLC amongst many others. At £5 per person per month what is stopping you?
