I've started a journey about being a sustainable micro-business – late last year I did some fantastic, free training with Small Business Britain in partnership with Oxford Brookes Business School. Can't thank the facilitators Ciaran Armstrong, Adam Bastock, and Lauren Tuckerman enough for this six week course.
You will know that my business is service based and delivered online. You might wonder what does Liz need to worry about for Full Frame Coach to be a sustainable business?
Liz doesn’t have a bricks and mortar business, there are no products and packaging to ship, it’s paperless, meetings are held online or walking telephone calls, and she doesn’t employ anyone.
But there are definitely things I can do to be a more sustainable business and resident (as I run my business from my home).
Recently I attended what I’m calling a “top up” workshop with Ciaran during an early lunch break on an NHS working day. As always, Ciaran comes with energy, passion and pragmatism!
The following day was a non-NHS day, so I took myself off to my favourite tea house to make a start on my Impact Assessment using Sustainable Pathways Benchmark tool.
With Maggie the cat, a delicious pot of Keemun leaf tea and BBC sounds in my ears, I worked out some of the key things I can do to make my business more sustainable. They are focused on my Value Network (eg where my spending power goes) and reducing my digital carbon footprint.
These priorities are focused on the triple bottom line reporting that I learnt from my civil servant days in Australia in the early 2000s – an equal focus on Quality/Outcomes, Financial Sustainability and Environmental Sustainability.
Here are my top three priorities to get me started:
Review my business and personal banking companies – to understand their ethical priorities, to what extent they invest in fossil fuels and other initiatives that negatively impact the planet and people
Calculate my website carbon footprint using www.websitecarbon.com and reduce its digital load.
Use Adam’s digital emissions calculator (Small 99)
Do you think about the climate crisis and what impact your working life has? If you’re not sure where to start, perhaps you could find a podcast, or read/listen to a book.
Ciaran recommends – Net Positive: How courageous companies thrive by giving more than they take by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston. Let me know if you’ve already read it. I’d love to hear your takeaways!