Kickstart Sustainability: Start small, be profitable, strengthen reporting
Panel 4: Starting Small: Practical Steps to Begin Your Sustainability Journey
Our ‘Starting Small’ speakers discussed the challenges faced by small businesses in obtaining and maintaining sustainability certifications.
They emphasized the importance of community partnerships in building a sustainable company, and mentioned the need for a holistic approach to sustainability and consideration of fundraising during the first steps of this journey.
HIGLIGHTS
Ameena Y. Majid
“Within the ESG space, for me sustainability means governance on top and everything goes from there. Sustainability is very much about our wellbeing, and on the environmental side it is also focused on inputs and is very quantitative. The output will be the impact that happens on a number of levels in a quantitative a qualitative basis”.
Jason Graham-Nye
“ We found this growing group of moms who were our first customers that became our key stakeholders of our company. It made us realize the importance of putting our clients first and foremost, because they are the ones that provide the true insights of our products and the most important and relevant feedback”.
Melissa Stires
“Small steps begin from contributions within your company from one person or group and then it spreads throughout the entire company. Something as basic as a Slack channel and sharing pictures and ideas will add up and rally everybody else to make great change”.
Mel Peh
“From the top down of most industries, we can see large initiatives, regulations (voluntary or not) leading to some improvement in regards to sustainability. But a lot of times, these are only suggestions and guidelines, and what actually happens is that the action takes place from the ground up. Which is why everyone in that group is super important to the sustainability achievements that we can obtain together”.
Panel 5: Kickstart Sustainability: Start small, be profitable, strengthen reporting –
Our speakers discussed reporting and transparency in sustainability efforts, prioritizing stakeholders, navigating misalignments efficiently, ESG reporting, the impact of politics on reporting, and challenges and opportunities of ESG initiatives.
They also highlighted the importance of transparency, peer-reviewed data, and integrating sustainability into business models.
HIGLIGHTS
Jennifer Evans
“We believe transparency is key for stakeholders, shareholders, investors, and employees. It’s essential for talent retention and acquisition, and with ESG reporting becoming regulatory, it’s something we must commit to globally”.
Dr Gareth Thomas
“Over the past two years, I’ve seen corporate financial institutions better understand research institutions. The key risk is that biodiversity studies face the same skepticism as climate change. To prevent this, transparency and peer-reviewed data are crucial for all parties involved”.
Cristina Villalon
“We began our sustainability journey by creating an impact report to bring transparency to our efforts. Since then, our initiatives have grown, as what gets measured improves. This led us to pursue a B Corp assessment, which, while challenging for a small company, was highly rewarding for the insights gained”.
Samrah Kazmi
“A major challenge for any company is the lack of a standardized taxonomy for reporting. Frameworks like GRI help by providing a reference point that can be adapted to your industry or business model”.
Charles Darling
“Users of our platform are facing regulations like EUDR that demand greater transparency. This requires assessing not only the impact on your business but also building a value chain that engages all stakeholders”.