Corporate digitisation and sustainability

One of the things I love most about the Zero Waste movement, is that ideas can be scaled up or down.

When I first started promoting this way of life, I worked predominantly with householders. Individuals were hungry for information on how to reduce waste, save money and preserve resources in their homes. Next, I was asked how individuals could make a positive impact at work. And it soon became apparent that businesses and organisations have those exact same goals. It finally fell into place that advice which works for a household can be tweaked and scaled up to be impactful in the workplace too! At the end of the day, every manager and CEO must deal with waste at home, in the same way they have to during their work hours. Albeit on a different scale.

Over the past couple of decades, I’m heartened to see that responsible corporate action and sustainability are among the loudest current demands. Studies have shown that both employees and consumers are expecting businesses to play their part.  According to research, 59% of consumers said they expect companies to make a stand on climate and environmental issues and Forbes tell us that “65% of employees would seriously consider leaving their job if their company harmed the environment”.

 

While some businesses are getting back to ‘normal’ after the disruption of the pandemic, many will be embracing flexible working. The office for national statistics discovered that more than 8 in 10 workers who had to work from home during the corona-virus pandemic said they planned to hybrid work, meaning they would spend some time working from home and some time at their place of work.

It seems like the time is ripe then for using digitisation as a way to create ecological, economic, and social advantages for companies. What’s interesting as I’m brainstorming these ideas, are they are similar to the ideas I suggest for people who want to reduce their waste at home: know your starting point (you can’t manage what you don’t measure), take an audit, find your support network, take the first waste reduction step, assess and repeat. If we apply that principle to a digitised office, here’s what that might look like:

Take an audit.

Before you make any changes, take an audit. What processes do you already have in place and which ones can transition to digitisation more easily? Put these processes into an ordered list. It would be beneficial to begin with the ‘low hanging fruit’; those process which can be easily moved to digital, with the least impact on efficiency.

Declutter.

Just as you don’t pack up and take rubbish when you move home, you don’t want to digitise a broken or defunct process. Look at what’s working and what isn’t. Come up with solutions to those issues and start with a clean slate.

Find suppliers.

Now you know what you’re left with, it’s time to find suppliers. Depending on the nature of your business, you may need to select particular software to replace each manual process. Or you might find that one piece of software is multi-function.

Take small steps.

Now you’ve put your list together, it’s time to make your first switch. Have as much relevant information as possible in electronic form. Internally, this can include manuals, memos and training documents. Externally, this might include customer quotations, invoices and receipts. By sending documents digitally, you can bypass the postal route. This saves time, paper, postage and emissions.

Look at the bigger picture.

Digitalisation concepts can be used both indirectly and directly to achieve sustainable development. Indirectly means that information and communication technologies are used, for example, to save electricity or optimise transport routes. Another option would be the implementation of sustainable web hosting, as through the use of green energy, businesses can reduce their impact on the climate this way, as well.

Assess. Repeat.

Once you’ve got one system in place, get feedback from staff, suppliers or customers and analyse how everything is working. Measure business efficiency, employee or customer engagement and analyse your results to make your next transition even smoother and more successful.

 

Opportunities of environmentally friendly businesses

The road to becoming a climate-neutral company is still very long for many. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile, whether you are a small or medium-sized company or a large corporation. After all, environmentally friendly business practices bring with them many opportunities and benefits such as:

• Strengthening of innovative ability
• Improving the company’s image and reputation
• Positive influence on customers’ purchasing decisions
• The opportunity to reinvest savings in digital training and/or in further green technologies such as collaboration or chat tools
• Digitising your office, for example, enables your employees to work more flexibly and productively

As with any long term goal in life, plan for small steps that build on each other to achieve success.

If your workplace or organisation needs help implementing a Zero Waste strategy, contact us for information on our talks, workshops and consulting.