Doing Our Bit For The Planet

Nothing has made the news more in the early days of 2020 than the future of our planet.  The increasingly powerful messages from Greta Thunberg, Sir David Attenborough and others, the Australian wildfires and talk of Veganuary at every corner, it already seems sure that the sustainability of our planet will be the dominant topic of the decade, and rightly so.

We all want to do the best for our planet but some of the changes can be pretty daunting for a small business like us.  Without a doubt doing the right thing can come at a big financial cost and this will always be a major factor in small business decision-making.  We all know that switching out plastics and gas-guzzling cars for more sustainable options is right, but we also know that they come at double the cost.  And what's the point of making those choices if we won't survive as a business long enough to see them through?

However, we've quickly realised that it's not about being perfect and not about changing everything overnight.  We've been able to make a number of small changes that soon add up, such as:

• replacing all bubble wrap packaging with shredded card
• removing clingfilm wrapping from 90% of our products
• increasing storage space to hold more stock & reduce deliveries
• consolidating suppliers to further reduce deliveries
• selling & giving away left-over products to reduce food waste
• increasing our Vegan range to support those moving to plant-based diets

None of these are ground-breaking of course, but they do ensure we're moving in the right direction and are the kind of small, simple steps that all businesses can make.  We've also found that by thinking about what we can change, we've become more aware of the things we're still doing to damage our planet and therefore what we still need to focus on changing.

Lots of these changes make perfect business sense too.  Selling left-over products has added some additional revenue, increasing our Vegan range has given access to new customers and consolidating suppliers has reduced our delivery costs.  

Whilst recent news can be scary and trying to conform intimidating, we've found it reassuring that we've been able to take positive steps fairly easily.  We, like many small businesses, have a long way to go, but at least we've started the journey.