Sustainability - A Better Way to Business
Improvement
What does sustainability mean for a food and drink
business?
Within the food and drink industry strategy 'Fresh Thinking',
sustainability has been defined as:
1. Making a healthy and growing contribution to
the Scottish economy;
2. By continuing to behave responsibly towards
the environment we benefit our reputation and growth.
A sustainable business is a growing business that aims to deliver
economic growth whilst also making a significant, positive
improvement to the environment and community in which it
exists.
Implementing sustainable practices within your businesses will not
only improve your environmental performance and reputation to
customers, it will also help cut costs.
Growing a business and being a sustainable business are not
mutually exclusive things. Sustainability can help businesses
reduce operating and supply costs, mitigate risks, managing
expectations and increase profits; while at the same time reducing
resource use and your business's carbon footprint.
Why should the Food and Drink sector embrace
sustainability?
1. Save Money:
• By increasing your resource efficiency, you
can reduce the raw materials, water and energy needed for the
production of your products.
• By preventing waste in the first place,
therefore saving money raw materials and on waste management
costs.
• By using by-products from other industries you
can also reduce your costs as virgin materials are generally more
expensive.
2. Increase Your Market
• With a sustainability approach, there is
potential to expand your product lines, and tap into new markets
(such as local low carbon products or more sustainable produce) and
increase long term customer loyalty.
• Many retailers now require suppliers to meet
minimum standards, or have a preference for suppliers who align to
their sustainability goals.
• Being proactive in meeting sustainable goals
can improve your reputation thus increasing brand value.
• By increasing the sustainability of your
business you could gain a competitive edge when tendering to supply
to organisations with a sustainable procurement strategy.
• PR opportunities - many companies promoting
their environmental improvements have gained from the good
publicity it attracts.
3. Employee Relationships
• Graduates are now stating that the
sustainability policies of potential employees are 'very important'
in their decision-making process .
4. Future Proofing
• Through embracing best practice and
integrating a robust auditing process into your business you could
avoid negative impacts such as: none compliance, new taxation (such
as the ever increasing landfill tax), and being negatively impact
by unexpected new regulation.
• Potential reduction in insurance , the ability
to demonstrate that your business is future-proofing itself against
these types of risks (climate change, increased severe weather and
pollution incidents) should have a downward effect on insurance
premiums.