Help2Grow Sustainable SMEs Workshop October 2024.
1. Do you think green skills are important for a 21st-century business to thrive and why?
Green Skills should be at the core of every business no matter how small. They are no longer a nice to have but a necessity to grow and build a resilient business.
Utilising skills and knowledge within any business top down bottom up creates a forward-thinking business that stands out from the crowd, ensures cost efficiencies, keeps up with regulatory requirements, meets market demands for sustainable products and services, attracts like-minded clients, suppliers and employees, fosters innovation and ultimately creates impacts to build a greener planet.
2. Why is it important for your business model to be more environmentally, socially, or economically sustainable?
Including sustainability elements into your business model keeps the business accountable and embedding it means it will be aligned to a business’s mission, vision and values.
Showing a commitment in this way enhances brand reputation and shows that the business is forward thinking and ensures that the operations at the heart of the business reduce overall costs and improve efficiencies.
Proactively addressing environmental issues helps to mitigate risks and helps a business to stay ahead of the curve and be adaptable and always doing the right things that drive efficiencies and resilience.
3. Could you provide some examples of your sustainable practices (e.g., operations, infrastructure, production, supply chain, distribution, and products)?
Auxilium provides consultancy services for small businesses to review their operations and ensure sustainability is at the heart of every part of their business operations.
The services include taking an SME from the wilderness of not knowing where to start to attaining an accreditation for their business, where an outside independent body has recognised their sustainable practices to date.
Auxilium has attained an accreditation for itself showing the way. It is a silver CSR-A accreditation which uses the four pillars of environment, workplace, community and philanthropy to showcase sustainable impacts.
The infographic below shows some of the areas in each of the four pillars where Auxilium has included sustainable practices within its business operations.
Auxilium has also compiled a 20-page Impact Report highlighting all its efforts since 2022 ( please email me if you like to receive a copy alex@auxiliumconsulting.co.uk stating Impact Report Request in the subject line)
4. What advice would you give to other businesses that are starting their sustainability/transition journey?
The most important thing is to start. By that I mean write down every small action that you are taking as a small business. Do this over a few weeks or months as you do things in the business and when you have a choice or a purchase to make, decide whether that is the most sustainable option or should you switch to something else.
This exercise is quite eye-opening as many small businesses at first think they are not doing much and how on earth could they as a small business make a difference. However, the more they think about their operations and activities, the more they can evidence the impacts they are making, and this is very rewarding to see just how much they are doing already.
Doing this exercise with others encourages innovative ideas and helps bring everyone together as champions for the business, top-down bottom-up.
The most important thing is to remember that no one is 100% sustainable and that the journey is always a “work in progress” so there will be things that you have done, are doing, planning and perhaps in some cases cannot do (e.g. you may not be able to put solar panels on your building as it is not physically possible, or you do not own the building)
5. What is the crucial question businesses should be asking to ensure we all contribute to a more sustainable future?
There are quite a few questions here and I don’t think there is only one but a group depending on the business type. Before any actions are taken there should be a thought process or procedure that ensures that any decisions made can be backed up with reasoning. Not every choice can be fully sustainable but if due diligence has been conducted then the business can be assured that they have done the right thing at that point in time.
- Do I really need to buy this? ( can I get this second-hand? )
- What is this made of? (what is it wrapped in?)
- Where does this come from? (how was it transported – what’s the carbon footprint?)
- Is it built to last (will I need to replace it in the future– how will I dispose of this safely?)
- Does this purchase support fair labour practices?
- Does this product or service have a recognised certification?
- What sort of company is selling this item to me?
- Are there any health impacts with this purchase?
All these questions and more help to make sure that every small business stops and thinks before taking action to ensure better efficiencies and long-term resilience.
Auxilium’s consultancy services have been built with an SME in mind so that they can move from the wilderness of knowing nothing about sustainability and how this can be incorporated to the heart of their business. Showing SMEs how to gather evidence and build firm foundations with policies, procedures and impacts. This will help their business grow and for them to become fully immersed so that daily impacts are woven in, using this information to gain accreditations that help them stand out from the crowd, gain new clients and build a better business that puts people and the planet first.