Starting your sustainability journey

Last week, I outlined a seven-step process for master planning your sustainability strategy.

That’s all well and fine, but with the list of potential sustainability issues a mile long, it can be hard to know where to start.

This week, I share some ideas to help you turn your long-term ambitions for sustainability into practical steps forward. But before you embark on any journey, you need to know where you’re going – and that starts with defining your purpose.

Why are you here? What impact do you want to have in the world? And how do these tie into your business objectives?

Got it? Good. Now you can begin.

— Tarryn ✌️

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Tips for getting started on your sustainability journey

1. Decide what’s material to your business

Any information that could affect your operations, finances, or reputation is “material” to your business.

Materiality is basically a fancy way of referring to the things that, if looked after, keep you in business, and if ignored, could put you out of business.

It’s the stuff that investors, customers, and regulators consider when making important decisions, like whether to invest in your company, buy your product, or work for you.

It includes things like how you manage your waste, how you conserve resources and the environment around you, how you treat your staff, whether you pay them a fair wage, how much you pay your executives, and how you prevent fraud and corruption. These things are otherwise known as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria.

Take a look at this (non-exhaustive) list of ESG criteria and circle the things that are material to your business.

Then, choose one thing from each column – or just one thing from any column – and start there.

2. Listen to your stakeholders

Engage and involve employees, customers, suppliers, and local communities.

Understanding their views on sustainability issues and what they think you should be focusing on can help you to prioritise.

Often, some of the best ideas come from the people on the ground doing the work or the locals in your community.

For example, it irritates the shit out of me that Driscoll’s, one of Australia’s (and the US and Europe’s) biggest berry suppliers is probably also one of the biggest producers of single-use plastic punnets. Thousands and thousands of punnets of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, stocked in every major grocery store across three continents.

Ayva can inhale an entire punnet of blackberries in five seconds; Jan in three seconds. So we end up throwing away heaps of plastic punnets that can’t be recycled after they’ve reached the end of their 10-second useful life. For Valentine’s Day, Driscoll's boasted on social media about its new and completely unnecessary heart-shaped plastic container.

What’s even more off-pissing is that its website has an entire page preaching its sustainability commitments, including being “committed to making continual progress towards waste reduction”. Smells like greenwashing to me.

Mention plastic packaging on any of their posts, and you will be ignored. Mention the “cute” packaging and delicious berries, though, and you’ll always get a response.

If Driscoll’s truly cared about sustainability and reducing waste, it would start with its packaging. It can't say it's not possible, because look at this shit:

And how hard is it to switch to something like this?

Or this??

Ok, rant over.

3. Dig in your competitors’ trash bins

Look at what your competitors are doing. More importantly, look at what they’re not doing.

I bet there’s plenty of plastic in Driscoll’s bins, which presents an opportunity for truly organic berry growers to appeal to eco-conscious consumers, like me, who would pay extra for the cardboard packaging.

Identify competitors who you believe have adopted best practices in areas like waste reduction, water efficiency, and renewable energy. Benchmark yourself against them and work to adopt similar - or better - practices and approaches in your operations.

4. Ask probing questions

• Where does most of our energy come from? Can we increase our use of renewable energy?

• How much corporate travel do we do, and is it necessary?

• What processes, resources, and systems do we use to make products?

• Where do our supplies come from?

• Who are our suppliers? Can we get their carbon credentials?

• Have we measured and benchmarked our carbon emissions/waste/water usage?

• Is it really that difficult to switch from plastic to biodegradable packaging?

Check out this excellent article by former Meta product leader, Debbie Widjaja, on 17 questions to ask to sharpen your thinking about your problem.

My favourite questions are:

• Is this problem a symptom of a bigger problem?

• How impactful is this problem for customers?

• How will solving this problem benefit the company?

• Does it align with the company’s long-term vision and strategy?

• What do we need to deprioritise to work on this?

• What happens if we do nothing?

5. Get in line

Some companies align their sustainability strategies with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the Environment Principles of the UN Global Compact.

Suppose you own a restaurant in South Africa, where it’s not that easy to align with SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy). In that case, you could align with SDG 2 (zero hunger) and donate food to local charities or open a soup kitchen for the homeless. Or you could support SDG 14 (life below water) and only buy seafood that has been ethically and responsibly sourced.

Use SDG Compass, a free online tool, to map your business against the SDGs.

The UN Global Compact outlines three environmental principles (Principles 7 through 9):

• Principle 7: Support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.

• Principle 8: Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility (e.g., increase self-regulation and have open conversations with your employees and the public).

• Principle 9: Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies (tech that protects the environment, is less polluting, uses resources more sustainably, and recycles more of their wastes and products).

6. Partner up

Partner with a local nonprofit organisation or charity that aligns with your sustainability goals. Often, these organisations have expertise and resources that can help you to improve your sustainability practices.

For example, an environmental organisation might have some ideas about how you can reduce your carbon footprint or build a more sustainable supply chain.

You could also partner with other businesses in your community to multiply your impact. By working together, you can create joint sustainability initiatives that address common challenges while leveraging each other’s resources and expertise for bigger impact.

Just start somewhere 

When it comes to sustainability, the common advice is: Just start. 

Start small, start somewhere, just get going.

Nobody has all the answers and everyone is figuring it out along the way. Through trial and error, you’ll figure out what works best for your business, your people, and your community.

The biggest challenge with sustainability is often the practical implementation. It’s easy to get lost in the details and become overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done.

Focus on the bigger picture but create a prioritisation framework that maps mini objectives and splits work into manageable chunks.

For example:

Vision: An ocean and landfills free from plastic pollution.

Sustainability goal: Switch from plastic to biodegradable packaging.

Mini objectives:

• Understand our current impact: How much single-use plastic do we currently produce?

• Research alternative packaging options.

• Engage with suppliers.

• Complete a pilot project in one manufacturing facility in one region.

• Scale to more facilities in more regions.

Sustainability is a long-term game. An infinite game a la Simon Sink. Searching for solutions and ways to reduce your negative impact and enhance your positive impact never ends. It just evolves.

This week's climate and sustainability news worth noting

🚘 An increase in competition and government incentives and a decrease in the cost of raw materials for batteries are driving down the price of electric vehicles (EVs), which could be as affordable as fuel-powered cars as soon as this year. Manufacturers – including Tesla – have already slashed the price of their EVs, Ford is pumping $3.5 billion into a battery factory in Michigan, Tesla has something up its sleeve for its gigafactory in Texas, and the European Parliament has approved a law to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the European Union from 2035.

🇦🇺 The Australian government's Closing the Gap Implementation Plan will allocate an additional AU$424 million to address indigenous disadvantage across areas such as housing, food, education, and water infrastructure.

⛏️ Australia has also refused plans for a new coal mine in Queensland, both on climate grounds and its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef just 10km away. This is the first time in Australian history that the government has blocked the creation of a coal mine.

✅ The first G20 environment and climate sustainability working Group (ECSWG) meeting concluded last week with all G20 countries expressing interest and commitment to  arresting land degradation, accelerating ecosystem restoration, and enriching biodiversity, promoting a sustainable and climate resilient blue economy, and encouraging resource efficiency and the circular economy.

🌲 US President Joe Biden met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to discuss, among other things, combatting the climate crisis and protecting the Amazon rainforest. John Kerry, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, will make a follow-up visit to Brazil following Lula’s visit to Washington.

👏 Meanwhile, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest fell 61% in January from a year earlier under the leadership of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

🇪🇹 Ethiopia and the World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL) have signed a landmark agreement that rewards community efforts to reduce carbon emissions by tackling deforestation and land and forest degradation.

💰 Ireland and Austria have joined the African Development Bank’s Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF) with contributions of €2 million and €1 million, respectively, to support the Fund’s work.

🌀 Wild weather: A state of emergency in New Zealand after Cyclone Gabrielle, the worst the country has seen in a century, a state of disaster in South Africa in response to flooding in multiple provinces, wildfires in Chile, 

And in business news:

❌ A new report by Carbon Market Watch – the 2023 Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor – found that 24 of the world's largest and richest companies – including Nestle, Volkswagen, and Walmart – have failed to deliver on their climate pledges. The scathing report said many businesses are exploiting vague and misleading 'net zero' pledges to greenwash their brands while continuing with business as usual.

🏦 The European Central Bank has published "new experimental and analytical indicators” to help analyse climate-related risks in the finance sector and monitor the green transition. The indicators cover sustainable finance, carbon emissions financed by financial institutions, and climate-related physical risks. The Reserve Bank of India has also issued guidelines on climate risk and sustainable finance, including a broad framework for the acceptance of green deposits, disclosure frameworks on climate-related financial risks, and guidance on climate scenario analysis and stress testing.

I'll leave you on this happy note...

Nobody loves blueberries as much as this guy.

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