People tend to think sustainability and reducing a company’s environmental footprint is easier in big companies. They have significant resources available to assess ESG gaps and needs, engage stakeholders and make investments in process changes or IT systems. Small companies can be intimidated by even begin thinking about sustainability. The truth is – a lot of small company sustainability progress is simple and requires essentially no resources. Not only that, it can save hard dollars.
Here are a few things we do here at CCRcorp that began a couple years ago:
- Eliminated paper business cards and converted to QR codes on phones that link to on-line contact information and professional profiles.
- Eliminated give-away trinkets at conferences.
- We give employees options for employee recognition, appreciation and holiday gifts. Instead of company-branded clothing, coffee mugs or other physical items, CCRcorp employees can choose to have the company donate to charities. Reflecting employee sentiments, the charities tend to focus on animal shelters. Further, we offer additional days off as another option.
We’ve done more and continue to move the needle, as our CEO Mel Yarbrough likes to say. Almost any company can make changes that reduce resource use, have identifiable positive impacts for customers and other stakeholders, can be a competitive differentiator and – yes – reduce costs. It also creates a real sense of optimism about the value of sustainability – setting things up for future ESG success.
Don’t underestimate the impact of these seemingly small steps. Our employees recognize and embrace these initiatives, as well as the “why” behind them. Furthermore, the response I received when I talked about this at GreenBiz24 and the IFRS Sustainability Symposium was eye opening. You would think at such events filled with ESG/sustainability experts, these efforts would not have garnered any response. However, I was amazed at how many supportive responses I received, along with the realization that many, many companies have not even taken these small steps.
Small companies – you now have no excuse.
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