Feeling stuck coming up with a new plan to make your business more sustainable? Learn from other sustainable pioneers and implement your own sustainable business practice tomorrow!
Installing sustainable business practices in your organisation not only benefits you for your CSR and finances but also saves the planet and creates a brighter world for our future generations.
Yet, laying out such a campaign is always a challenge to many companies because it doesn’t matter if your employees and communities are not so engaged in the sustainable business practice you worked very hard to implement.
Furthermore, in the 2020 report, 80% of companies worldwide expressed their dedication to sustainable business practice, which urges you to not miss this global green bandwagon.
Regardless of the size of your organisation, you should always look out for inspirations from other successful campaigns to push you further in excelling your own amazing sustainable strategy for your business.
5 noteworthy sustainable business practices
Here are 5 examples of green pioneers whose sustainable programs are changing societies and their organisations themselves.
1. Google
In house circular factory
You hardly make a connection between a tech giant like Google and circular economy as technological development often resides on a different spectrum from sustainability.
So, how did the company achieve its transition into a zero waste practice?
Google applied an innovative circular approach to maintain, reuse, refurbish, and recycle all components of its data servers. Due to the ever growing demand for its data service (yes, I’m very aware of my YouTube use), Google’s data centers are constantly upgrading their server systems.
However, rather than ordering new equipment or materials to expand the data capacity, they use the resources they already have. When they cannot find ways to reuse materials to upgrade the servers, Google resells the components to other markets to give them a second life after erasing all the data stored in the servers.
2. New Belgium Brewing
Data and community driven sustainable practice
New Belgium Brewing is an industry leader when it comes to zero waste practice and a forward advocate of social and environmental change.
The world class circular brewery diverted 99.8% of its waste from going to landfills and installed a sustainable mindset across all the breweries.
What made such success possible at New Belgium Brewing?
In their zero waste management, data is the king. The brewery conducted a zero waste audit at more than 500 collection points to use the generated data to identify future management practices and end-of-life scenarios for wasted materials. Thus, they can have the bigger picture and find repurposing options for these materials.
Moreover, they know exactly how to motivate their community to join their sustainable advocacy through their eco campaigns such as creating bicycling culture across the company and supporting other green organisations.
3. Patagonia
Happy planet, happy employees
Patagonia doesn’t shine only in their eco-friendly manufacturing and recycling/upcycling practices but also in investing their talents in saving the planet.
The green outdoor clothing brand offers their employees access to a host of opportunities as part of their “Employee Internship Program.”
Through the program, Patagonia allows their employees to work for the environmental group of their choices for up to two months while enjoying their paychecks and employee benefits. The recent Employee Internship Program generated almost 10,000 hours for 43 organisations, resulting in a huge impact on our planet.
However, this talent investment in environmental causes also brings a huge benefit back to Patagonia themselves.
While many companies struggle to retain their highly skilled talents, Patagonia’s Employee Internship Program contributed to 4% employee turnover as their employees can freely express their passions for their environmental impact thanks to the supportive employer.
At the end of the day, a happy synergy between employers and employees maximizes your positive impact on the planet.
4. Nike
Root cause solutions leading sustainable organisational culture
Nike has been known for being an influential social advocate and doing everything to live up to their vision toward sustainability and product life cycle in the manufacturing process.
This clearly shows that their employees and the sports brand themselves are integrated to achieve a brighter and greener future by being a powerful driver in society.
But are they doing anything to build a sustainable environment inside their office?
The answer is an absolute yes!
Nike encourages their employees at their World Headquarter to bring disposable containers to the office as a part of the “Reusable Dishware Program” to compost, recycle, and reduce the waste they produced in the office by eliminating ‘one-time-use’ boxes.
The program removed 16,000 pounds (approximately 7257 kg) of waste sent to landfills and incinerators per quarter and marked an average of 11.9% reduction of waste per employee at five headquarters in 2017.
5. IKEA
“Live LAGOM” sustainable business practice to synergize the sustainable community
IKEA already operates a top-notch sustainable business setting ambitious CSR goals that are highlighting the current green reputation of the brand.
Yet, IKEA doesn’t only stop there.
They rolled out a project called “Live LAGOM” where they support their participants on a practical level and nurture both online and offline communities where people can exchange ideas and opinions to further improve their sustainable knowledge and actions.
Furthermore, each year, the project provides between 100-150 households with extensive options of IKEA products that enable people to live more sustainably on top of professional advice, home-visit, and in-store workshop assistance.
The result of the project showed enormous success due to the fact that 80% of the participants continued their own initiatives outside the project after being provided necessary educations and 100% of them intend to continue living in LAGOM lifestyle. This sustainable lifestyle transition also reduced their electricity bills by 90%, their food bills by 83%, and 60% on gas bills.
The lesson from IKEA’s sustainable business practice is that community building and reinforcing their sustainable behavior through synergies is very important to any organisation because what matters to a more sustainable future is an action taken by every single person.
Conclusion
Excelling in your sustainable business will bring a multitude of benefits to your company in terms of your societal reputation and building a strongly connected community that advocates your business everywhere. Regardless of the size of your organisation, there are always resources you can utilize to optimize your zero waste practice such as your office itself and materials you already own in house. Start paying attention and think about what creative advantage they can give you in your sustainable business practice.
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