Retain Business– In today’s world with every company’s major goal is to obtain long-term business and achieve higher profits they generally ignore one of the major factors is the environment. Nowadays industries are producing many goods and this is causing a lot of harm to the environment and they are releasing huge amounts of carbon emissions. Due to such release of carbon emissions the environment is changing rapidly which is not favorable for any business. The resources are reducing day by day and there are very less chances of storing resources for a longer period.
This article will help you in understanding the environmental situation and modifying your business in such a way that your business is growing in a sustainable manner. This will not only reduce the harmful effect on the environment but will also increase your potential to stand out from the crowd and more as well as gain a better brand image. In this article, we will discuss what exactly sustainable business is, how it will be beneficial for your business, what are the different challenges of using sustainability in your business, and how you can improve your business sustainably in different industries.
What Sustainable Business Is All About
Your business will be called sustainable business when your company is providing a more positive effect on the environment and also minimizing the negative impact on the environment. It is basically when you choose to go with a method of producing or transporting your goods or doing any business in such a way that there is a very lesser amount of carbon emission produced and you try to work responsibility for the society and the environment.
India is ranked 10th in the list of CO2 emitting countries in the world. For this, you need to take action immediately to make sure that you have a reserve in resources for the future and make no wastage of any material as well as reduce the carbon emission.
Now let’s discuss how sustainable business will help you in growing your business
Reducing business cost
- Sustainability in your business will help you to reduce the cost of the business.
- You can reduce the operational cost as with sustainability you improve the efficiency of your operations and the cost of wasting material.
- For example, if you’re using sustainable lighting in your manufacturing unit this will help you not only get proper lighting for the building but will also help you reduce the electricity bill as well.
- There are several government policies that encourage sustainable business and also provide different relaxes so companies who are following sustainability.
- Sustainability will help you in reducing your cost as well as your spending on energy and material.
Brand image
- This will help you in building your brand image as customers will look at you as a socially responsible enterprise.
- You can use different sustainable business strategies which will help you in building brand image and position your brand as a responsible brand in customers’ minds.
- Nowadays, people look for brands that are using sustainable and organic materials and if you are using such things then you will get them from the customers.
Competitive advantage
- You can also get competitive advances when it comes to performing sustainability as it will increase your return on investment.
- This increases your ROI because you are managing your resources and also planning for climate changes and making those strategies accordingly.
Improving bottom line
- Sustainable business not only brings more profit but it will also help you in reducing the business of improving your strategy, coming up with more innovative strategies, building a strong brand image, as well as in retaining and acquiring new customers who have a higher preference towards brands working on sustainability.
Even though there are many benefits and it is a need of the hour to use sustainable business strategies, still there are a few challenges that are faced when you are opting for sustainability in your business. So we are mentioning some of the challenges that you will face while your business towards sustainability.
Lack of Resources
- We can see that in case you want to reduce the carbon emission you need the material or resources that produce a very negative effect on the environment but it is very difficult to find such resources in every industry.
- Finding sustainable resources can be a little expensive when it comes to working in the fashion industry.
Time-consuming process
- It is also a very time-consuming process as you are required to research a lot on finding out the right way to reduce carbon emissions and at the same time, you need time to provide your sustainable product to your customer in a sustainable way.
Difficult to implement
- It becomes very difficult to implement sustainable strategies when other companies are using unsustainable strategies. This happens because it is very easy to use any random strategies that may attract an audience at a larger level by using strategies that may affect the environment negatively. It becomes very difficult for the organization to motivate every employee working in the company to use sustainable strategies as it also brings a lot of difficult tasks for the employees.
These are some challenges that you may face when you are opting for a sustainable strategy but you should make your business sustainable as it also has a lot of positive impacts not only on the environment but also for your business as it brings more audience, as the audience that requires a good quality product will come to you as well as the audience wants a brand who are making sustainable goods will also come to your brand.
Now let’s discuss how you can implement sustainable strategies in your business in general and then we will discuss what kind of certificate you can use in different industries.
- Waste management
In your company, you need to have a management team who will be responsible for minimizing the waste your company. In order to minimize the waste of your company, you can use the waste material to introduce some other product. In case you are an industrialist and you waste that is disposed of in rivers or leaves you need to put filters so that no harmful chemicals are disposed of in the rivers or lakes because there are many animals who drink that as well as farmers who use the water in agriculture. You need to implement strategies in your business so that there will be zero waste production.
For this you can use the 5 Rs strategy which is to reduce the waste, reuse, recycle, reprocess, and recover.
- Sustainable in packaging
As a company, you can redesign your packaging and make it more sustainable. You can use a material that can be either reused or recycled. You also need to make your designs in such a way that when it decomposes in the environment it produces a positive effect like a fertilizer to the trees.
- Paperless
As we know today’s world is moving towards advanced technology. This brings the highest and the greatest opportunity for the companies to go for a paperless approach. So basically, instead of producing bills in form of paper, you can send this to the customers’ phones directly through an SMS or by mail. Instead of using paper bags, you can supply cloth bags, and when it comes to packaging instead of using paper packaging you can use glass packaging if you are selling some liquid items. Even in your operation work, you can use the different software to connect with your employees and send them details instead of making huge files and sending them across the company.
- Limiting natural resources Usage
You need to put limits on using natural resources. You need to do this because if you are using the resources more than the required amount it will convert into the wastage of resources. As we know in the future, natural resources are reducing rapidly. We need to conserve our resources and utilize the maximum of the limited resources. So in order to avoid any kind of wastage you need to limit the use of natural resources. For example, when you are using water and electricity in your company by producing, make sure you are using water in an amount that does not create any wastage and you’re using electricity in such a way that reduces the wastage of electricity.
- Product with long-wear life
In today’s world, specifically in the fashion industry, the trends are changing rapidly and companies are producing lower quality products that generally last for a very small period of time. The company uses the strategy to increase the consumption of the customer. Because there is a huge wastage of materials as you’re providing a very low-quality product as well as companies are wasting other resources as well just to increase their sales numbers. So in case, you want to become a sustainable business instead of providing an average or low-quality product, you can provide a high-quality product that can be used for a longer period and customers can use it in the long term.
- Promote remote work option
Nowadays, companies are expecting employees to come to the office daily and because of this pollution is increasing rapidly because every time an employee wants to come there comes to a separate vehicle and they generally avoid public transportation. To reduce such carbon emissions produced by the vehicle instead of calling every employee in the company you can provide employees the option of working from home. This will initially help you and reduce the cost of operations as well as make your business sustainable by reducing more carbon emissions.
Now, we will discuss how you can imply sustainability in your Business if it lies in the following industries.
FMCG
If your company comes under fast-moving consumer goods then you can use the following ways to make your business sustainable:
- You need to train your reducers to produce quotes by keeping sustainability in mind and reducing wastage while producing.
- You need to reduce the uses of natural resources and energy which are limited in nature. Or just use it in such a quantity that it does not get wasted.
- Reduce the carbon emission which is generated in the supply chain.
- In case you have edible products you need to make the product chemical-free of any harmful preservatives.
- You need to package your product in a recyclable and reusable material.
- You also need to spread awareness in society about sustainability.
- You can package your product with a material that can be used as a fertilizer for the plants or is edible.
If you are having a company in the healthcare and life sciences industry, you can use the following ways to develop more sustainability in your business.
- Reduce vitamin and mineral deficiencies through developing innovative micronutrient supplements and food fortification solutions.
- Increase the use of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency in hospitals, healthcare facilities, manufacturing plants, and throughout the logistical value chain.
- Improved procedures for reducing, reusing, and recycling water, raw materials, nonrenewable minerals, energy, other inputs, by-products, hazardous waste, non-hazardous trash, and packaging are being developed and implemented.
If you are having an Industrial manufacturing company, you can use the following ways to develop more sustainability in your business.
- You need to develop machinery that is resource-efficiency to make sure that they produce less waste pollution and effluent.
- You need to develop a product while keeping in mind a circular economy article in order to promote product lifecycle reuse and recycling.
- In today’s world, we have a lot of softwares that provides us with advanced technology. We can use 3D printing technology instead of wasting materials in producing prototypes in the manufacturing process.
If you are having a logistics or transportation company, you can use the following ways to develop more sustainability in your business.
- Develop novel transportation options, such as pooled freighting services, to make goods moving more cost-effective.
- Increase the energy efficiency of automobiles, ships, rail rolling stock, and planes, and hasten the transition to renewable-energy-powered transportation.
- Reduce resource waste and costly product recalls by achieving zero fault manufacturing.
- Natural refrigerants should be used to transport food, vaccines, medications, and other items that require refrigeration instead of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
If you are having energy, or chemical company, you can use the following ways to develop more sustainability in your business.
- Extend electrical grids to underprivileged populations, especially fragile nations, in collaboration with governments and other stakeholders.
- Off-grid areas should have cheap access to renewable energy (e.g. through low-carbon micro-grids or low-cost community solar systems).
- Develop and scale breakthrough technologies that hasten the transition to a bigger percentage of renewable energy in the global energy mix (solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass).
If you are having clothing manufacturing company, you can use the following ways to develop more sustainability in your business.
- You can produce clothes that have a long life and are of high quality.
- Instead of using plastic price tags, you can use tags that can laterally used as a seed for growing plants.
- You can avoid using plastic wrappers as well.
Conclusion
So in this article, we discussed how you can develop your business in a very sustainable way through which you can gain a lot of profit as well as preserve the natural resources by not wasting any material and reducing the carbon footprint. We have mentioned a few industries and different measures, through which you can reduce the negative impact and move towards sustainability.