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To be successful in business there are many facets to adhere to. There are plenty of young entrepreneurs today who have great ideas and don’t know how to implement them. However, when you choose to adopt sustainability and technology into your business, you can become incredibly successful. You may want to read about Adrian Jones of Oracle for further inspiration. 

To run a business dedicated to sustainability, everyone needs to be involved, because every contribution counts. Building a lasting business alliance will ensure buy-in at all levels of your business. If you buy durable materials for your production line, but your employees leave the lights and machines on after hours, your mission suffers. When you hire employees, make sure they uphold the same sustainability values as your business. In an interview, feel free to present your business practices and standards to candidates and ask them frankly what sustainability means to them.

For current employees, empower those who are already committed to the cause by encouraging them to come up with new, sustainable business ideas. Offer them roles that allow them to oversee new practices and initiatives and have them deepen your own knowledge of industry standards. There are many opportunities to gain new knowledge in this area, whether through sustainable business advice or forums, or even through additional training. These are initiatives that will only help your business as your employees become more involved in its mission. By being proactive with your staff, you are also allowing yourself to grow and develop as well as learn about the benefits of being more sustainable. For employees who are reluctant to change their current practices, find opportunities to educate them on why sustainability is an organization value, adn how the changes they will make as an individual will help to improve things for everyone.

Implement daily sustainable business practices

While the important choices matter, it’s the day-to-day behaviors that have the greatest impact overall. Try to find ways to (smoothly) enforce best practices, such as turning off computers every day, maintaining friendly and ongoing relationships with partners, and monitoring water usage in the shared kitchen. These small adjustments will form the foundation of a sustainable business. Help your staff see the increased value of these tasks by highlighting the savings from avoiding waste as well as how the company has been able to help others.  Take the opportunity to encourage good social practices (the time to start computers in the morning is exactly the time it takes to have coffee with colleagues).

Once you have established some standards for your business to meet, the next common step is to find partners and suppliers who share similar perspectives too. Do not hesitate to communicate your new mandate to long-standing partners. You may well be motivating them to re-evaluate their own practices. When you build a lasting business network, you don’t just connect with companies through contracts, you connect with them through shared values. Being sustainable is a reason to be proud, therefore you must conduct this every day.