NO ONE IS TOO SMALL TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Greta Thunberg 2018

These past few weeks I’ve felt particularly twitchy every time I get a whiff of smoke or hear a fire engine. I’m sitting in my house in the middle of a tinder box. The grass is yellow, for miles around. If anything should cause a spark I dread to imagine how fast the whole lot will set on fire. This whole situation reminded me of the words from Greta Thunberg’s speech to the World Economic Forum, Davos 25th January 2019 – “Our house is on fire”. At the time it felt her words were a bit over the top but look at us now. In that speech she referred to the IPCC which stated at that time “we are less than 12 years away from not being able to undo our mistakes.”  That would take us to 2031. We’re at the back end of 2026 and I’m not convinced we have done as much as we could.

Micro, small and medium sized enterprises make up 99% of all business in the UK. There are many opportunities for any business regardless of size to make slight changes which would collectively, make a massive difference. No one is too small to make a difference. Saving the planet is a great reason to change but if that’s not a convincing reason, there are several others.

Reasons to be sustainable.

Becoming a net zero business may also be attractive for investors and shareholders. The investment landscape is evolving. There is a growing emphasis on sustainable investing. Investors, including institutional funds and asset managers, are increasingly considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors when making investment decisions. Sustainable businesses are in a better position to attract capital from investors particularly if the investors are prioritising companies with strong ESG performance. For businesses, access to capital can promote:

growth

expansion

innovation

    2) Embracing sustainability can be an attractive factor for potential employees. Many employees now look for purpose-driven work environments and are more likely to stay with employers who show their commitment to sustainability.

    3) Consumers are becoming increasingly discerning about the products and businesses they buy from. Environmental and ethical consumerism in the UK is worth £141 billion and growing (2023 Ethical Markets Report, Co-operative Bank).

    4)Having sustainability at the heart of your business can give you a competitive edge over other businesses in the same sector. For new companies it demonstrates to stakeholders that you are a well organised company. Deborah Meedon (Dragon’s Den fame) is known to favour businesses that have an environmental management system in place.

No one is too small to make a difference. Let me give you an example, if you asked everyone in Great Britain to donate a pound to a charity, which seems a small amount, it would total in the region of £67,353,600 which is not to be sniffed at. And the same impact can be achieved by every business doing just one thing that reduces carbon emissions.

If you don’t know where to start, try Sustainable Leaders in Business (www.sustainableleadersinbusiness.co.uk). This is designed to take out the complexity and make it easy for you to get up and running and then track your progress. We think you’ll like it.