Here are 10 ways to make your business more sustainable:
It’s not all about solar panels, but they’re a great start
Solar panels are the most accessible and fastest-to-deploy clean energy technology available in Ireland today. There are various ways to use the power: either on-site self-consumption, in conjunction with battery storage, or by exporting the electricity to the grid. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has a range of grants to support businesses investing in renewable heating, cooling, building fabric upgrades and energy management systems.
Measure your impact
If you can’t see what you’re consuming in granular detail, you may end up investing in measures that don’t deliver the expected savings. A sustainability audit should tell the complete ecological truth about your business. Small businesses could do this by themselves with online tools such as the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard, but larger businesses will be well-advised to engage experts such as Business in the Community.
Support the shift to active travel and public transport
Businesses are the life blood of all our villages, towns and cities. Many are under increasing pressure from out-of-town retail centres and online shopping. But more car parking and road infrastructure will only exacerbate car dependency and add to congestion in the longer term. Most businesses will do better, not worse, with improved active travel networks.
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Implement the Chambers Ireland SDG Toolkit
The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are probably the best distillation of the priority areas of work facing humanity, from climate action to gender equality and zero hunger. Chambers Ireland has produced an excellent toolkit for small businesses and it includes 70 suggestions for how businesses can support the SDGs from making women more visible, introducing a four-day week, providing on-site bicycle parking and setting aside areas for nature.
Invest in eco-literacy training
Prof Isabel Rimanoczy argues in her book, The Sustainability Mindset Principles, that business leaders need to be able to grasp the magnitude and complexity of global challenges and understand the scientific data and trends before they will be positioned to act effectively. Invest in staff training to help your organisation become more eco-literate and avoid making environmental claims that are not supported by evidence.
Think long-term
No one has a crystal ball, but we do know for sure that climate change is already wreaking havoc and that ending our reliance on fossil fuels is necessary. Offsetting is not an effective long-term substitute for decarbonisation. Businesses and investors should develop transparent strategies that are aligned with Ireland’s national climate goals and science-based targets. Increasingly companies will be expected to report on biodiversity and nature-related disclosures, actual climate risk exposure (to flooding for example) and operational resilience. Now is the time to explore new business models, products and services that address societal challenges without adding to environmental burdens or shifting their impacts across time and space.
Consider what your employees and customers want
Make your company an attractive place to work by facilitating, for example, home and hybrid working, bicycle parking and a four-day week. The world’s ecological challenges are getting worse, not better. Your customers and employees will likely start demanding and expecting action even if the Government is not leading.
Use your voice responsibly to support climate action and sustainability
Businesses have a lot of influence over national and local government. This power can be used to push for progress or to stall it. Businesses should be at the vanguard of decarbonisation and circular economy transformations, but there is a tendency for business organisations to cherry-pick measures that are relatively easy or to misrepresent environmentally damaging projects as sustainable. Use your voice to make the business case for sustainability and meaningful climate action and be open-minded about what that looks like.
Get a grip on plastics
There is not much point getting rid of plastic straws in the staff canteen if your entire business model relies on mountains of packaging waste or single-use consumer goods. Much of this waste is generated upstream, so engage your suppliers about reusable packaging and circular economy initiatives. Take your staff to the local civic amenity site and just observe the mountains of non-recyclable waste that started out as useful “stuff”. Avoid plastic plants and engage with programmes such as Trinity College Dublin’s The Business of Being Nature Positive on how to implement biodiversity measures.
Reconsider your bottom line
There are no profits to be made on a dead planet. Businesses cannot afford to indulge in wishful thinking that a technology breakthrough will materialise in time to fix our problems. We don’t have time to wait. Some technologies such as artificial intelligence come with huge energy and water demands. Our collective futures depend on shifting the focus away from economic growth as measured by GDP to wellbeing and regenerative systems of production and consumption.
Sadhbh O’Neill is a climate and environmental researcher
