Importance for businesses to minimise and create transparency about their environmental and social impact has grown in recent years, with advocacy from consumers pushing many business owners into action.
It’s also created opportunities, with demand for products and solutions to social and global issues, such as the popularity of bamboo toothbrushes, environmental tech, and eco-friendly cleaning products.
Incorporating purpose into your business doesn’t mean giving up hope of making a profit or running successfully.
Regardless of your industry, there are ways to minimise your negative impact and future-proof your company’s growth and impact as the world evolves.
1. Broaden your values
If there’s nothing in your internal business values about impact, now is the perfect time to revisit and rework them into an aspirational statement and tangible commitment.
This ensures that you’re not only looking after yourself and your business but also the community and world you live and operate in.
One of Hub Australia’s values is to live something bigger and be beyond profit.
As a flexible workspace provider, we action these by creating tight-knit communities and personal development opportunities, such as events and wellness days for our 3000+ member base.
For our environment and communities, we are a certified B Corporation, and have become Australia’s first carbon neutral certified coworking provider with certification as both a business and product.
To ensure the company focus on being beyond profit, Hub Australia runs a staff volunteer program and donates 1% of our product through the Flexi-Impact program, providing purpose-driven organisations around Australia with a Hub Australia membership and the benefits that come with it.
2. Revisit your supply chain
Where we spend our money matters.
A growing movement in younger consumers shows preference for organisations that build purpose and demonstrate values – businesses taking care of the environment or making efforts to be socially conscious.
Running a business involves hundreds of moving parts. Visiting and re-evaluating this chain is a large project, but one that can have an amazing impact.
The social climate has renewed public awareness of issues like modern slavery, unsafe working conditions, wage theft, and more.
Ensuring your company knows where its products and assets are coming from will not only ensure you’re not causing tangible harm but also help you hold suppliers to higher levels of accountability.
3. Use your skills to lift up other businesses
Whether you are an entrepreneur, business owner, manager, or team member, everyone has skills they are able to share amongst a community to support and educate each other.
Being an active part of a community helps you build purpose – share knowledge, actively listen, and educate yourself with the information and experiences others share with you.
Nobody has ever finished learning.
The conversation you have while waiting for your coffee could spark the idea that transforms your business’s purpose or makes a change that helps you create the impact you want to see in the world.
Being part of business doesn’t always have to be about chasing profit to the neglect of all else.
It can give you a platform and opportunity to spotlight issues you care about and amplify voices of people that have helped to educate you.
Use your business knowledge and opportunities to join thousands of businesses around the world building their business’s purpose to improve conditions for our planet and its people.
