What are sustainable business practices?- Sustainable Business Council Missoula Montana Area

Sustainable business practices are designed to save money, protect the environment, earn customer trust, comply with and exceed regulations, honor employees, boost efficiency and productivity, strengthen the economy, and create market opportunities.

Some sustainable practices to strive for include:

Create a sustainable vision, mission statement and sustainable core values...
    Vision is a concrete picture of where you want to be in 3-4 years, where anything is possible.
    Mission statement is why you exist. It answers the question, "What is the ultimate result of your work? It focuses on the outcomes and results,and can easily be memorized.
    Core values are characteristics that define you. They are the values you want to see more evident in your daily lives.
Communicate to the public your vision, mission, and values
Engage in strategic planning
Recycle/Precycle- Use materials in continuous cycles
Buy recycled (It’s not recycling unless you buy recycled!)
Choose products with an environmentally friendly life cycle
Use printing products that are environmentally friendly
Use cleaning supplies that are environmentally friendly
Reduce Office Waste
Find uses for manufacturing by-products-(See our materials exchange)
Group purchasing
Group marketing
Practice employee performance evaluations.
Motivate employees with unique benefits.
Encourage employee participation in the community.
Celebrate employee activities in the community
Create rewards, incentives, and recognition for employees who take on leadership in sustainability efforts.
Acknowledge employee performance, work ethic, and community participation
Encourage the use of alternative transportation
Create incentives for alternative transportation
Adopt alternative energy sources and practices
Practice Energy efficiency
Practice Water efficiency
Build an environmentally friendly building
Rent or lease instead of buy equipment
Teleconference instead of travel
Understand how your business affects the environment by evaluating the relationship with suppliers and customers, and the full life-cycle of your products and services.
Practice Extended Product Responsibility (the idea that there’s a shared responsibility—among suppliers, manufacturers, and consumer) for reducing the environmental impacts of products throughout their life cycles.
Develop Eco Industrial Parks- a concept that consists of a series of businesses linked not only by proximity but by production inputs and outputs.
Practice continuous improvement- always striving towards sustainability
Seek awards for your sustainability efforts
Learn from your mistakes
Toot your own horn about your sustainable business practices

Sustainability is a great challenge. Remember to start by making changes where they can be done profitably. And gradually take on more. Your improving performance will help you seize market opportunities that benefit you, the consumer, and the environment.

Sustainable Missoula