In the current climate it can be understood that businesses have had to switch their priorities to ensure they can remain sustainable in an ever changing business environment.
This has meant that sustainability has become a larger issue to businesses that were focussing mainly on just the environment. The issues around economic and social sustainability become more prominent.
However, what this can mean is that things such as environmental impact can be pushed down the priority list. Although this may make sense in your current work flow, it is still a high priority issue that is not going away.
Some businesses are working towards reducing their impact by creating an internal sustainability team that will look into what areas they can imrpove in. According to Bain and Compoany research, a mere two percent of corporate sustainability programs achieve or exceed their aims. This points towards the need for expertise in this area to make a real difference. Often the people that make these groups up don't have the knowledge or resource to be able to have the desired impact.
On top of that, moving in the wrong direction could cost your business. Stuff ran an article on Commonsense Organics, an organic food supplier and environmentally conscious brand. They acted early to improve their sustainability. A decision was made to change to plastic compostable bags at double the cost.
Unfortunately, the Wellington City Council then banned all compostable packaging unless it met the Biogro certification. As a result, these compostable bags would need to be diverted back to landfill having the opposite effect of what was intended.
