Manufacturers Can Advance Sustainability With These Strategies

Corporate sustainability for manufacturers does more than save money on energy bills. It represents a good marketing tactic, creates a more efficient production process and changes the entire company culture. If your firm is considering a move to green manufacturing and greater sustainability, consider these five strategies to identify how your specific company can create its own program.

1. Find Your Focus

There is no cookie-cutter approach to discovering your corporate sustainability strategy. Your firm must focus on its own key areas that are attainable in terms of sustainability goals. The top-performing organizations are able to make material contributions towards sustainability, but it's impossible to cover every single aspect of green manufacturing within your company. Narrow your focus and reach for the easiest possible goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions or reducing your company's carbon footprint.

2. Assess and Evaluate

Assess where your company currently stands with corporate sustainability. Do you have a robust recycling program? Is your building energy-efficient? Do your marketing materials reflect your sustainability efforts? Once you determine your level of sustainability, you can find ways to improve upon it, as long as your staff is willing to create an action plan that reviews and reports on sustainability practices on a regular basis.

3. Point Out the Risks

Identify and plan for any potential risks. Corporate sustainability, while a noble cause, may lead to threats to your business model. For example, you may discover that going green could cause supply problems if one of your suppliers faces flooding or drought. If that supplier can't deliver on its organic cotton supply for your textile business, where do you find an alternative if there is a disruption while still maintaining your sustainability plan?

Another risk to consider involves reporting to investors and clients regarding your sustainability goals. If your statistics fall short of what you planned, your marketing efforts might have been futile, and your reputation may diminish.

4. Manage and Implement

You have many choices when it comes to corporate sustainability. Management must take responsibility for meeting monthly and annual goals for complying with regulations, keeping statistics and implementing parts of the plan. Managers must understand how to budget for sustainability practices, such as reducing energy consumption, buying green supplies, developing sustainable products and using circular economic principles to keep the investments going while turning a profit. Without proper management, this entire strategy fails.

5. Report Your Efforts Properly

Reporting on your sustainability efforts is more than just spouting off statistics. Reporting includes a lot of behind-the-scenes work, and all of that effort goes into aligning your corporate goals with your sustainability strategy, monitoring performance and getting the word out through your public relations department.

Corporate sustainability is more than just tracking of how much you recycle or the kilowatt-hours you save per month. This type of business model can drive your core business higher, thereby giving you a competitive edge. Finding value, managing the process and reporting your numbers all work towards that goal.

Photo courtesy of Harry Hernandez at Flickr.com