Build Sustainability Into Your Business With These Simple Tips

For businesses, sustainability means having a conscious awareness of the impact your business has on the people who make up our society and on our environment we all share – and taking steps to decrease the negative aspects of that impact on the world. That can mean making an intentional effort to choose responsibly sourced materials, implement fair hiring practices, offer equal pay, and lessen the carbon footprint your business leaves on the environment. Sustainable business practices are also an important part of doing business today because consumers expect your business to be about more than mere dollars and cents.

Today’s shoppers want to know the businesses they support care about their communities and actively give back. They want to know they have sustainability, diversity, education, social welfare, and environmental policies in place. At DPRINT, we have a Social Responsibility Policy in place that relies on seven simple principles.

1. We commit to complying with all local, state, and federal environmental health and safety requirements
2. We commit to comply with all local, state and federal labor laws
3. We commit to being a responsible steward of our environmental resources
4. We commit to continuously applying lean manufacturing principles
5. We commit to the prevention of pollution and the general tenets of reduce, re-use, recycle
6. We commit to sharing our sustainability activities on our web site and upon request
7. We will lead our industry at the state level to ensure a healthy, vibrant Florida

You can read all the details of our sustainability and social responsibility policy here. Whether it’s a home-based business, brick and mortar retailer, event planning, small business, or major corporation, your business can easily create its own policy of sustainable business practices. Here’s how:

5 Sustainability Practices Your Business Can Embrace Today

1. Start by committing to meet all the local, state, and federal laws and regulations that keep your business in compliance with environmental and safety concerns.
2. Encourage employees to practice environmental sustainability in your business by providing recycling bins and by making your commitment to responsible product sourcing part of your written policy.
3. Designate a give-back goal or identify a charitable event or organization your business will sponsor or support.
4. Institute fair-hiring and equal pay practices. You can take this a step further by participating in mentoring for at-risk potential employees and by making room for girls, women, and minority encouragement and personal growth and development.
5. Wherever possible, use energy wisely in your business. That can mean creating a zero-waste policy or it can mean installing solar energy panels – or it can mean anything in between that reduces waste and energy consumption.

Sustainable business practices boost your company’s image, align your business with likeminded consumers, and can even give you a competitive edge. The sustainable business practices you implement can also reduce your carbon footprint, boost employee morale, increase productivity, and improve the environment. Sustainability is everyone’s responsibility. When each of us does our small part, we can make a huge impact.