What should you be doing?

Every business will have different initiatives for reducing the impact of its operations.

Reducing the impact of business services and products benefit the environment and society, but also has the potential to benefit businesses themselves through efficiency savings, reduced risk from climate change and resource constraints, improving reputation and opening new market opportunities.

Examples of more sustainable business practice include:

• Sustainable procurement: buying goods and services sustainably is central to ensuring sustainable supply chains;
• Energy efficiency: the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme is a mandatory energy efficiency scheme aimed at improving energy efficiency and cutting emissions in large public and private sector organisations; the Energy Saving Trust provides guidance to business on reducing energy consumption;
• Resource efficiency and waste reduction: using natural resources in the most effective way and as many times as possible benefits the economy and environment;
• Sustainable travel: teleconferencing can reduce business travel; incentive schemes can encourage employees to use alternative forms of transport;
• Sustainable logistics: more efficient distribution can reduce environmental impact and deliver significant cost savings;
• Sustainable strategy and decision making: leadership is essential to achieve sustainability in any organisation.

See Where to go to for advice for more sources of advice, support and guidance.