The word “sustainable” gets bandied around a lot. Sustainable production, sustainability, sustainable business practices, and associated terms like green, eco-, and references to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals….what does it all mean?

When working with producers and service providers, I find that most of them want to make sure that what they do does not have a negative impact on the planet, or at least, they want to try to minimise, or limit, if not reduce the negative impact. I include myself and my own business in this.  It occurred to me that while everyone of course is very well meaning, wanting to do the best they can, I wonder if people have given as much thought to (a) how to do it and (b)  to ensuring their business is sustainable too? What impact does all this have on the bottom line?

With that in mind I embarked on the Green for Micro programme with Niall McManus of Earthroute, offered through my Local Enterprise Office, and I’ve done some training and mentoring with Derek Hannick of Lean Green Management Services. Both of these have helped me work through the notion of  doing something, to actually capturing what I’m already doing, setting targets for what I will do in the future to reduce the impact of my activities, and also how I can articulate all this and use it to help my clients.

It’s a work in progress…my draft Environmental Policy has been written, it needs tweaking, and will be published soon, watch this (green!) space!