3 Keys to Starting a Sustainable Business

Learn  3 easy ways to incorporate sustainable aspects to your business:

1. Control your footprint

2. Be part of your community

3. Foster a dynamic workspace

Starting a business is a daunting task. It’s a risk that can take all of your time, money, energy, and still may not work out. On the other hand, it can also end up being the most fulfilling decision if done right. Here at Physis, we want you to succeed and have your money work for you. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a few tips on how to run or start a sustainable business.

Control your Footprint

Your building will inevitably take up land. However, you can mitigate your effects on the surrounding area by making your business a green space. 

Make recycling bins as accessible as trash cans. Avoid the use of napkins, paper towels, and other disposable cleaners in favor of reusable alternatives like floor towels/rags. 

Don’t communicate through the paper. Try to make all transactions and business communications paperless with the help of online data storage, e-receipts, and emails. Send returning customers coupons, news, and other updates through email or automated text messages.

Make Disposal Easy. Another part of reducing your footprint is making it easier for customers to responsibly handle your product. If you sell a physical good, try to make it recyclable or biodegradable. Inform and/or provide your customers with an area to safely dispose of their waste. If your product is mechanical in any way, start a program where consumers can have their goods repaired instead of having to buy a new one. 

Try to reduce unnecessary packaging or labeling with your products. Finally, strive to power your establishment in a ‘green’ way. Ideally, you can invest in self-sustainable clean energy, like solar energy, for power.

Another way to reduce your footprint is to buy power from companies that utilize green energy-production technology such as nuclear plants, wind farms, or solar energy farms.

Be a part of your community 

Overall, the most important thing anyone can do is make the community around them better. Get to know surrounding business owners in order to collaborate and grow your consumer base. Try to genuinely get to know customers you see repeatedly. Hire locally. This helps you by boosting your local economy while also having an active stake in it. Work with local suppliers and transportation companies in order to be as ingrained in your community as possible. If you can have a noticeable impact on the lives of those around you, you as well as those around you will be incentivized to see you succeed. 

On a larger scale, make an active effort to maximize your support of other sustainable businesses. When organizing distant transactions or collaborations (national, global, interstate) research the business practices of your partners in order to ensure that their actions align morally with yours.

Foster a dynamic workspace

Curating a positive forward-thinking workspace and culture can go a long way towards maximizing external success and internal happiness. 

Require your employees to be socially aware. Your employees should be aware of what’s going on in the world around them. With everyone informed, your business is less dependent on one person in situations that require a quick and appropriate response. 

Always look to innovate and take calculated risks. Don’t rest even when you’re making a profit. Try to improve and/or develop better practices, business relations, and products. Moving forward is what will get you where you want to be; if you’re not moving forward you’re moving backward! 

Take a personal approach when interacting with your employees. Try to get to know them not just as workers but people. Inquire about their families, goals, hobbies, etc. This will help create not just a business but a team where everyone feels comfortable and wants to succeed. 

Give everyone a voice. Ensure that all involved in your business can directly reach you or someone else when they have questions or concerns. Likewise, provide avenues where your customers can provide feedback. Empowering those around you allows you to get the most out of every idea or suggestion that anyone may come up with! With the above tips, any business you create will be prepared for success while also making a difference in the greater community!