Day by day, our relationship with the world is changing. Likewise, the trend of consumer consumption is changing towards a more sustainable direction. Consumers are now more aware of the impacts we are having on the environment with the availability ofgreen schemes, and the importance sustainability is heightening social pressure to take care of the world we share. This can be through simple, everyday practices, reflected through policies at the local and national levels, and even through the ways we do business.
Therefore, all businesses, including Small Medium Enterprises or SMEs, are expected to ensure that running a business must come with minimising carbon emissions and other harmful environmental outputs. In other words, they need to switch their business into a sustainable business. There are many benefits that can come if your business moves towards sustainability, namely: 1) Appeals to employees, customers and partners. 2) Enhances image and reputation: best ways to demonstrate your widers ethics in the eye of the wider public. 3) Save money: from rising Climate Change Levy Rates. 4) Preparedness for new government policies: safeguard from unexpected regulation and5) Able to compete with larger businesses.
To reduce their carbon footprint, businesses and SMEs can take these actionable steps:
- Calculate SMEs carbon footprint.
Calculating your company’s footprint is not an instant process, but it need not be complicated. Doing what is best for your company does not have to be at the cost of environmental degradation and climate change. With that in mind, businesses are able to measure the amount of carbon footprint by breaking each channel of production down into three categories as mentioned by Retail Merchant Services.
These are: 1) Scope 1 – Direct emissions, being the easiest category for data collection of all the emissions that abusiness is directly responsible for. 2) Scope 2 – Energy Indirect emissions, which refers to the energy outputs outside the control and ownership of a business. 3) Scope 3 – Other indirect emissions, which means taking into account the indirect contributions from third-party aspects of a business covering shipping, water supply and treatment, etc. Once all the information is collected, you’ll be able to break down what your business’s carbon footprint looks like.
- Reporting your carbon footprint
Reporting your findings is just as important and can even increase trust and accountability in a business. The first step is you need to assess who you think would be interested from the knowledge of your SME’s footprint. This can includes mapping potential stakeholders or clients, so to speak, which not only involve direct customers, but also employers, suppliers, and investors. After that, businesses need to decide on a platform to publish and disseminate this information such as websites, company newsletter, management reports, press releases, and other communication platforms.
- Making your SMEs more environmentally friendly
Furthermore, for SMEs to be more environmentally friendly, there are three pillars of sustainability useful for doing so: 1) Environmental: this pillar focuses on environmental protection. 2) Economic: this pillar can ensure that the money earned by businesses and SMEs is in accordance with environmentally ethical practices. 3) Social: ensure that the business operates in a way that benefits other people (staff, community, etc).
As a result, businesses and SMEs can lower carbon emissions with the help of those pillars, prioritise sustainability, while improving the overall performance of business through: 1) Sustainable products. 2) Creating recycling policies. 3) Reducing energy waste and swap to a renewable energy provider: reduce the use of heating and air conditioning, and replace as many lights as possible with LEDs. 4) Increasing the use of electric vehicles. 5) Creating a carbon reduction plan and 5) Using more sustainable shipping options.
In addition to that, the role of local governments is also needed in influencing businesses everywhere to be . Local governments can help the private sector in developing sustainable business by providing incentives that promote adaptation investments, offering risk guarantees and can use procurement contracts that are climate risk assessments and climate resilient products services. With all of that, it can help SMEs in building sustainable business in the long term. Collaboration and partnership are the keys!
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s make our world better every day by only producing and consuming sustainable products! Our future world is in our hands!
To find out more detailed insights and steps, read the original article by Retail Merchant Services (RMS) by clicking here.
Source:
https://www.retailmerchantservices.co.uk/sme-environmental-impact-carbon-footprint-guide/
https://www.iisd.org/articles/government-private-sector-invest-adaptation#:~:text=Governments%20can%20use%20 mechanisms%20like,for%20new%20products%20and%20services.
