7 Best Business Sustainability Strategies and Solutions

As per the latest survey and study of GRI, 60% of Indian companies have indicated their activities to the sustainable business goals (SDGs) in India. Also, around 31 Indian businesses made it to the global list of enterprises unveiling their climate change-related statistics to their investors. Sustainability is being practised and adapted from small startups to big ventures. Many business owners are seeking the best sustainable business practices. After extensive case studies and market research, we have listed the top 7 business sustainability strategies and solutions for various businesses. So if you are wondering what is sustainability in business and how sustainability can be implemented in your business strategy, continue reading.

1. Assess the Current Business Model

Before planning and implementing any sustainable business strategy or solution to your venture, it is essential to assess the current business model. Evaluating the current business model will help you identify the areas that need sustainability and integrate its strategies in the current business model. Focus on the following key points to assess your business model:

• How many natural resources does your venture need to produce the end product or services?
• Does the hiring process of your venture support multi-cultural norms?
• Does the venture's end products or services help the targeted audience?
• What type of waste will be generated in the post-production cycle?
• How does the current business model impact the local community?
• Does the current business model have a waste management process?

2. Define Objectives Around Sustainable Business Model

Based on your assessment of your current business model, analyse the received input. It will help you to take the following steps towards integrating various sustainability strategies into your business model. Now, define the objectives for the areas that need sustainability strategies to adopt a sustainable business model. To do so, you can take the SMART approach as you move forward. Ensure that the objectives are SMART:

• Specific – The defined objectives should be to the point and focus on the pain points. It must solve the issues and loopholes in the current business model to make it a sustainable one.
• Measurable – The defined objectives should be easily measurable, and you could easily measure the outcome of the defined goals.
• Achievable – The defined objectives should be feasible and practical enough to implement into your current business model. Avoid assigning unrealistic goals within tight deadlines to achieve the desired outcome in different areas.
• Relevant – The defined objectives should be pertinent to the problematic areas or pain points. Ensure that defined goals fit well to the elusive regions and help to achieve the desired outcome.
• Time-Bound – The defined objectives should have a dedicated timeline within which your business must execute the outlined goals to achieve the targeted results.

3. Focus on Minimising the Usage of Natural Resources

Once you have a detailed outline of the assessment of your current business model, enumerate the areas that involve usage of natural resources. There are two types of natural resources – limited and unlimited. Differentiate the use of limited and unlimited natural resources in your business production cycle. Ensure that you are drafting and following measures to:

• Limit the usage of limited natural resources, and find alternative methods to replace its use in the various phases of the product development cycle.
• Avoid exploitation of unlimited natural resources, and hunt for various ways to reuse them.

4. Plan a Structured Waste Management Process

Every venture develops waste in various forms such as liquid, hazardous, solid, or gaseous. Ensure that you have proper inputs on the types of waste generated within your venture. Based on your assessment, you follow all the preventive measures with a detailed and structured waste management cycle. To plan out a structured waste management process, you may consider the following pointers:

• Measure the waste quantity involved in the various phases of the production cycle.
• Practice the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle while drafting the waste management structure for your business.
• Include locals for promoting the reusing and recycling of the produced waste. You may identify and reach out to waste collectors for a smooth waste management process.

5. Plan and Implement Sustainable Work Policies

Develop sustainable work policies based on your current business model. It will help you to focus on the key areas to adopt sustainability. Ensure that the sustainable business strategy concentrates on:

• Innovating the end products and services as sustainable ones
• Recruiting individuals and professionals to ensure sustainability strategies are practised and followed in different stages of the production cycle.
• Creating periodic sustainability reports based on various implemented sustainable business practices

6. Innovate Product Development Life Cycle

Ensure that you are adept with the latest set of machinery, technologies, and dynamic workforce. If you do not involve the latest machinery and technologies in the production process, you may end up with high energy consumption. While, if you tend to skip recruiting diverse professionals in your venture, you might not get innovative ideas and various work styles to support and push your business. So, innovating the product development lifecycle is also one of the most effective ways to implement sustainability strategies. You may refer to a few tips to innovate the product development lifecycle effectively:

• Recruit a multicultural and dynamic workforce.
• Promote local artisans, workers, and helpers.
• Plan quality checks and periodic performance tests on types of machinery and technologies
• The old pieces of machinery and technologies require high energy and power consumption and often eject high waste. Upgrade the pieces of machinery and technologies as per the latest performance and efficiency.

7. Update with the Latest Sustainability Strategies and Trends

Once you have outlined a structured set of objectives towards integrating the sustainability tips with your business model, you should also periodically update them. It is necessary to keep an eye on the latest sustainability strategies and trends to keep your sustainable business model aligned with sustainable business practices. The process implemented today doesn't need to be feasible and apt in the coming future. You adapt the following techniques to keep your venture updated and aligned with the latest sustainable business strategy:

• Create a detailed schedule to research and analyse the business sustainability management skills.
• Recruit influential entities to update the sustainability trends periodically and educate the workforce to follow the latest sustainable business practices.
• Ensure that your workforce is skilled enough to carry out responsibilities and conduct periodic training sessions to support and brush their skills.
• Connect with locals, consumers, stakeholders, and workforce to gain constructive feedback on your end products, services, work style, management skills.

Bottom Line

After going through the well-researched sustainable business practices and strategies, you must have insight into how to adapt the best suitable sustainable business strategy and follow a sustainable business model. So, what are you waiting for? Take note of the sustainability tips mentioned in the detailed article and start adapting and following sustainable business practices.

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FAQs

Q. What is sustainability in business?

Ans. Sustainability is a way or process of doing things without harming the surroundings or the environment. Sustainability in business is doing business without affecting the environment, society, community and exploiting natural resources in the process of production/ manufacturing or providing service.

Q. What is business sustainability management?

Ans. Business sustainability management is a progression to analyse and investigate the possibilities of technology effectively. They are incorporated in business models, product ideas, design, and innovation to enable or limit the excessive use of natural resources and harm to the environment.

Q. What is a sustainable business model?

Ans. The sustainable business model is a term used for the business ideas that follows sustainable tips to build and promote their business. They usually follow a structured approach to ideate, design, and deliver value to their patrons without harming or depleting any social, environmental, or economic resources.