Sustainability ideas for businesses: Easy ways companies can go green 🌱

What is a sustainable business?

Corporate sustainability can refer to a company’s desire to uphold both its environmental and social values.

Green companies try to prioritise the environment in their general business decisions.

It’s important that this is implemented from the top-down. But, ultimately, it should encourage actions from individuals all through the company.

This is also true on a global scale. While the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) focuses on changes from above, it doesn’t underestimate the impact individuals can still have.

The goal is reducing people’s demand for energy, and this can come from people themselves changing their habits.

At Give a Grad a Go, our team acted on this idea. Our main initiative this year has been encouraging our employees to take individual actions to change their day-to-day behaviour.

This way, we aim to start making a green impact with incremental, lifestyle-based changes.

We believe these changes are infectious, and can spread to our employees’ personal circles, beyond the immediate reach of our office.

How can businesses protect the environment?

This predicament will always depend on the company in question.

Large, multinational companies have to consider different questions to those that startups and SMEs do.

The former should be reviewing their carbon footprint, and navigating ways to reduce this. This can include re-evaluating how products are manufactured and distributed.

It is easier for smaller companies to focus on individual employee efforts and their more manageable office spaces. For example, reducing waste, paper usage, and becoming more energy efficient.

These are changes you can put in practice as soon as tomorrow!

How can my business be more sustainable?

Take us, for example.

We’ve always understood our responsibility to contribute positively to the environment. But, we also know we have to improve.

Companies of all sizes cannot be passive in the pursuit of a greener world.

We are proud to work with a range of green clients, whose operations focus on leaving a positive impact on the environment.

We also enthusiastically encourage flexible working, reducing the time employees spend travelling to and from the office.

Our office is also almost entirely paperless, and we’ve recently been working to ensure our space is filled with eco-friendly products.

We often take the chance to create content promoting sustainability, and have taken time out of the office to engage in company activities like litter picking.

This attitude is encouraged from the very top of Give a Grad a Go. Our CEO, Cary Curtis, recently reflected on our commitment to sustainable practices:

‘It’s so important, at a time like this, that businesses keep a firm eye on the environment, and how company practices may affect it. A lot has changed since Give a Grad a Go was born in 2009, and we are constantly aware of how we must adapt to the world around us.’

‘I’m proud, therefore, that our team are passionate about making a difference. The Give Green a Go initiative is the most direct and exciting action we’ve taken so far, without a doubt.’

What products are sustainable?

We live in a consumer society, so we cannot reasonably avoid buying and using new products.

But, we can still go about this in a sustainable way.

Green products are more popular and widely used than ever in 2022. The Give a Grad a Go team have been following this trend:

• Cruelty-free makeup: Graduate Recruitment Consultant, Saira, has made an effort to use ‘cruelty-free makeup and sustainable shampoos’, which she’s found ‘works wonders on my hair!’
• Bars of soap: Junior Digital Marketing Assistant, Emma, has ‘switched to bars of soap instead of buying bottled hand soap which comes in plastic bottles’.
• Bamboo cotton buds: Emma also switched over to bamboo cotton buds, which helps to reduce the plastic in circulation.
• Re-usable coffee cup: Recruitment Consultant, Lottie, has switched to the very popular reusable coffee cup – some shops even offer discounts to encourage people to bring these!
• ‘smol’ Eco dishwasher tablets: Key Account Manager, Luke, has been using these as alternatives, which are still incredibly efficient while also reducing plastic and chemical usage.
• Ecover washing up liquid: Digital Marketing Assistant, Erin, has been using this washing up alternative, which is made from biodegradable ingredients and can be refilled at multiple stations across the country.
• Eco toilet roll: A few of our team members have been investing in eco-friendly toilet roll (Who Gives A Crap is a great brand!), which has revolutionised the manufacturing and distribution process of toilet roll.

These are small changes in themselves, but ones that add up.

Switching out products that are used every day sustains a continuous change. These sorts of actions accumulate to bigger and more comprehensive lifestyle changes.

What food is sustainable?

We can also help protect the environment by reflecting on our spending and eating habits.

Saira has tried to ‘cut down on how much meat I eat and use plant-based milk’, while Lottie has been ‘shopping at my local refill shop called Jarr’.

She adds: ‘I’ve been buying all my household items like olive oil, rice and grains and washing powder and I’ve noticed a real decrease in my plastic waste and spending habits.’

Again, these are relatively simple, lifestyle changes. But, they help to restructure the consumer demand for certain damaging products. This, in turn, can change the production habits of bigger businesses.

Lottie reflects on the efforts she’s made since the start of the year:

‘Small individual measures can create new habits, and now I don’t really think about them as changes/measures. I also feel as if we don’t have much control over larger companies, who are making the worst impact on the climate. It’s nice to feel I’m making a small impact in any way.’

Lottie, like all of us at Give a Grad a Go, is making a pointed effort to act differently.

Where can this take us?

There is undeniably a long way to go.

Business sustainability is something we can only improve on.

As your company grows, you must also appreciate the bigger impact your business will inevitably have on the environment.

Follow our Give Green a Go guide, and secure your company’s green future.

If you’re looking to take your business to new heights this year and achieve your short-term and long-term business goals, it’s essential you’re hiring qualified and suited candidates for your roles.

If you’re wondering how to hire staff, implement out step by step guide, or get in touch and discover why we’re the UK’s leading graduate recruitment agency.

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