It’s simple to see how sustainability can apply to product-heavy companies. A mining company or direct-to-consumer start-up has a distinct environmental impact. But what about service-based companies and sustainability?

Sustainability initiatives are how you take sustainability from idea to process. Many small businesses have an idea of what they want to do, have done their version of an audit, but aren’t sure how to create an effective initiative to make sustainability happen. An initiative usually comes after the audit.

In this case, an initiative is a task to make achieve sustainability in business. Whether you’re trying to reduce waste or water, you want to achieve something to make sustainability happen in your business.

"Stakeholders" and “stakeholder engagement” are prominent sustainability buzzwords. Stakeholders usually get associated with large companies tromping about in remote areas, or companies that are on a mea culpa tour for doing something bad. But stakeholder engagement can be crucial in building a smaller business. Businesses can use stakeholder relationships to boost their sustainability practices, or just to strengthen their business.

We humans are notorious for our knee jerk, judgmental reactions. Hearing something and saying “ That’s not me” “ I don’t like that,” “ I can never do that.” Have you ever had a snap judgment define your thought process? I've had snap judgments on everything from lima beans to the Cleveland Browns to hedge funds. 

Business owners are also prone to snap judgments at work. We have to climb through a lot of muck and review so much information, it’s easy to become biased against strategies. We’ve all been caught glossing over something or using the phrase “ I know about that” or “ I’m not spending time on that.” 

Events are a great way to promote your small business, gather the community, and talk about interest areas. Many businesses are using events as a marketing strategy. And for good reason, they work and are linked to company growth! With growth anticipation, companies are spending time and money on events.  Half of companies spend 20% of a marketing budget on events, and companies are increasing the number of events held each year.