Sustainability is no longer just a concern for large corporations with dedicated sustainability teams and global reporting obligations. Today, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly recognising the opportunity and importance of embedding sustainability into their operations. Despite sustainability becoming more important across all types of businesses, we recognise that SME’s don’t usually have the resources in place or a dedicated person in charge of sustainability and therefore sustainability is usually given to employees as additional work.
How to implement sustainability into your business practices:
- Identify areas of focus: this will allow you to prioritise actions and assign ownership to each area.
- Set measurable goals: make sure you set achievable targets with clear timelines and specified owners.
- Find quick wins: find low-cost, high-impact actions you can deliver helping you to demonstrate your commitment to stakeholders.
- Embed sustainability: Update policies, procedures and processes to ensure they are considering sustainability KPIs
- Communicate progress: shout about your achievements on social media platforms, newsletters, on your website and through sustainability reporting to help gain a competitive advantage.
At Achieve Goal 12 we understand this can be time consuming and that’s why we offer tailored hands-on support to help you implement sustainability into your business helping to save time, reduce risks and accelerate progress.
Below are some of the success stories we have helped our SME clients achieve:
SME success stories
- Ecovadis: To date every one of our SME clients has achieved Ecovadis Gold.
- Strategy development: We have helped SMEs to develop and effectively implement sustainability within their businesses.
- Compliance: We have helped SMEs comply with stricter legal and customer requirements.
- Setting net zero targets: We have helped develop and set net zero targets in line with international agreements.
How can Achieve Goal 12 help:
Below is a more detailed overview of the services we offer:
- Strategy Development: We can help implement sustainability strategies that are aligned with your sustainability goals and challenges.
- Compliance: We can help to ensure compliance with relevant legislation and certification schemes, examples include ISO 14001, Ecovadis and compliance with NHS sustainability requirements.
- Carbon footprint and reduction plans: We can help you calculate your carbon footprint and create a net zero plan in line with PPN 06/21 and international agreements. We can also identify climate and sustainability related risks and opportunities and complete reporting such as the SME Climate Hub or CDP.
- Sustainable operations and profit improvement: We can help you develop strategies that not only benefit the environment and society but also promote profit improvement.
- Sustainability reporting: We will help you develop a sustainability report and implement strategies to improve your sustainability.
We are currently in the process of developing resources to help you identify your sustainability challenges and help you with your sustainability journey. Keep an eye on our website to keep up to date with new resources.
If you feel that tailored support is something you would be interested in, then book a free 30-minute consultation with our Managing Director Andy Young.