Is your business playing its part in the fight against climate change?
As the planet struggles with the effects of global warming, individuals and corporations everywhere gain an added responsibility to help combat them. Large corporations in every major industry are among the biggest contributors to global warming due to their unsustainable practices. Such companies are also likely to have the highest carbon footprints – a fact that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of.
Research shows that a majority of all modern consumers are likely to support sustainable businesses more than unsustainable ones. They want such businesses to focus on sustainable packaging, products, and practices. So, why shouldn’t your business play its part? Learn how you can make your business more sustainable in the following few steps.
Step 1: Review Your Current Policies
The first step toward redefining your business functions is to assess where you currently stand. You should have a good understanding of the operational policies and processes currently running your business. If your business already has environmental or sustainable guidelines in place, take the time to review them. If it doesn’t, then it is time to implement some.
Remember that environmental consciousness is a crucial part of sustainability, but it is not the only one. Your business should implement strategies that influence product lifecycles in a sustainable way. Your business operations should be sustainable such that they reduce your corporate carbon footprint instead of increasing it. All of these business-centric policies and frameworks need special attention if you are aiming to become a sustainable business.
Step 2: Redefine Your Goals and Mission
Creating a mission and vision statement is often the first thing every business owner does. These statements define your business, what it offers, and what it aims to become. You cannot become a sustainable business without putting sustainability at the core of your mission and vision statements.
Take the time to review your current mission and vision statements to see if they need changing. If you are truly dedicated to going green, then your mission and vision statements should reflect that. Remember to go through the quality standards and conscious guidelines highlighted by the ISO 14001 certification. This ISO certification was introduced solely to help businesses become and remain environmentally conscious.
Step 3: Set Up an Environmental Management System (EMS)
One of the most significant components of the ISO 14001 certification is its requirement for an environmental management system (EMS). A business that wants to become certifiably sustainable should be able to follow the criteria ISO 14001 establishes. An environmental management system acts as a framework that lets business managers review, evaluate, and improve their business’ environmental performance.
The United States government and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have started holding businesses socially responsible. They have introduced and mandated many environmental and sustainable policies in recent years. As a self-proclaimed sustainable business, your organization should be able to abide by these regulatory policies. An EMS can help you achieve this task. It can also help you implement and monitor renewed policies related to energy conservation, plastic use reduction, waste disposal, and air emissions.
Step 4: Involve Your Employees and Customers
Your business cannot thrive without its employees and customers. Customers drive the demand and acceptance of sustainable strategies, while employees help bring them to fruition. This makes it critical to make your employees and customers a part of your sustainability journey.
Implementing sustainable changes is often not enough. You need your workers to enforce the new policies, too. This can be an easy task to achieve if you invest in training your employees about the new sustainable policies. Similarly, you can be vocal about how your company is battling climate change in your local community to inform customers about your updated policies.
Step 5: Get an ISO 14001 Certification
Once you have implemented an EMS and started enforcing environmentally-conscious policies in your business, you can get certified for it!
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) introduced the ISO 14001 certification for conscious businesses. Your business can gain the ISO certification by getting its EMS evaluated by ISO consultants. You can reach out to an ISO consultancy firm to conduct an internal audit and learn what else your business needs to become ISO certified.
Learn Everything You Need to Know about ISO Certifications with Us
If you don’t know where to get started with ISO, reach out to BCS!
BCS is run by a team of experienced ISO consultants who help US businesses comply with quality standards. Our services are designed to make ISO certifications more accessible and easy to obtain for businesses in any industry. Whether you are interested in implementing environmentally-conscious business functions or prioritizing employee safety, our ISO certification consultancy services can help.
Contact us to start learning about any of our following ISO certification services:
- ISO 9001 quality management system
- ISO 13485
- ISO 14001
- ISO 45001
- AS9100
- API Q1