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Is your business feeling carbon-heavy? Are your waste bins bulging? Is your product a bit out-of-shape?

Then a sustainability tune-up’s in order! Here’s our four-step sustainability workout programme to help your business trim down, tone up, and stay in shape in 2022. (And if you already have a sustainability programme, early in the year is a great time to review it.)

The good news: this programme is a business plan. So, while your efforts will help sustain the planet and its people, your business will be fitter too. You’ll spot opportunities for your products, uncover risks in your processes, and strengthen relationships with your team, customers, and suppliers. And you’ll become known as a manufacturer who’s doing the right thing. Let’s get started.

Step one: build a plan

Every sustainability programme needs a plan.

1. Decide what ‘sustainability’ means for your business. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a good place to start. These 17 inter-related goals form an urgent ‘call to action’ for companies to protect the environment, tackle climate change, and improve people’s lives. The good news? All these actions help businesses like yours get ahead too.

You can’t tackle all 17 goals and you shouldn’t try. Instead, choose four or five SDGs that are relevant to your business: where can you have the greatest impact? Here are some SDGs which fellow manufacturers have chosen.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has picked SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) as one of their goals. It’s relevant to their customers and their team. Seafood company Sanford is using SDG 14 (Life Below Water) as one of their goals, to focus their sustainability work. Trans-Tasman manufacturer Eagle Lighting has made SDG 12 (Responsible Production and Consumption) a priority goal.

2. Focus on what matters. Identify your main stakeholders, like your team, customers, investors, local iwi, and suppliers. Seek their views: when it comes to sustainability, what do they care about? Then add a business lens: what matters to your business?

The result will be a list of issues to focus on. They’re likely to include environmental issues (climate change?), social issues (a safe workplace? developing your team?) and general business issues (supplier relationships?) You may not see them as ‘sustainability’ issues, but they are. They’re all essential if you want to succeed in business long term.

Step two: trim down your business

Trim before you tone!

3. Reduce your carbon emissions. The global target is challenging: man-made CO₂ emissions must fall by 45% by 2030 (from 2010 levels) and reach ‘net zero’ by 2050 if we’re to keep global warming to +1.5°C on pre-industrial levels. Every manufacturer can play a part. Measure your emissions and plan how you’ll reduce them.
4. Design waste out of your products. Circular economy principles are your friend. They’ve seen Wellington manufacturer Reusabowl set up a ‘reuse network’ at food outlets across the capital to reduce the waste single-use takeaway containers create. Or go a step further. Tackle a range of social and environmental impacts and get your product Cradle to Cradle Certified®. (Well done, Eagle Lighting!)
5. Tackle your packaging. Consumers are increasingly rejecting single-use packaging. Many are frustrated by restrictions that consign recyclable packaging to landfill. And even if your packaging is 100% recyclable, some consumers see landfill as their first port of call. Redesigning your packaging can reduce these problems.

Step three: tone up your business

Here’s how to build your sustainability muscle.

6. Reduce your products’ environmental impacts. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a good place to start. There are LCAs for many products, including jet engines, drinking cups, computers, and food.

LCA measures your product’s environmental footprint over its life cycle. This footprint could include the energy your manufacturing processes use, the carbon you emit, and the impact of your emissions on local waterways. Armed with this data, you can improve your products and processes to reduce these impacts. Bonus: you’ll reduce your operating risks too!

7. Publish an environmental product declaration (EPD). EPDs summarise a product’s environmental impact over its life cycle. They are based on ISO 14025, independently verified, centrally registered, and publicly available.

New Zealand manufacturers who have produced EPDs include Essity (previously Asaleo Care: Purex toilet paper and Tork hand towels), David Trubridge (lights) and Pink® Batts® (insulation). These businesses are using (or plan to use) their EPDs to benchmark their products against competitors’, improve their environmental management systems, and advertise their business’ environmental strengths.

8. Refocus relationships with your suppliers. Many of your business’ environmental and social impacts come through your supply chain, in the goods and services you buy. A responsible procurement strategy will help you reduce them. Manufacturer Eagle Lighting is doing this, with a supplier code of conduct and rules that screen potential suppliers.

Step four: stay in shape

So, you’re getting back in shape. Well done! Here are some suggestions to stay that way.

9. Set sustainability targets. What gets measured gets managed. (It’s a cliché but it’s true.)
10. Report your targets and progress. NZX regulations require listed manufacturers like F&P Healthcare or Sanford to report publicly on their sustainability activities.

Reporting benefits smaller, unlisted manufacturers too. It helps you identify risks and opportunities and keeps you accountable for making progress on your sustainability goals. Plus, with customers increasingly asking suppliers to confirm their ‘sustainability credentials’, a report documents what you’re doing. (It can be short and simple!)

11. Keep learning about sustainability. Join like-mined people and learn from them. The Sustainable Business Network, Sustainable Business Council and Climate Leaders Coalition are great places to build your knowledge.

Certifications can be useful too. For example, B Corp is a non-profit network ‘transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet’. New Zealand manufacturers who are certified ‘B Corp’ include Synlait Milk, Grounded Packaging, and the Better Packaging Co.

You’ll learn a lot from the certification process to help you run your business. Plus, your B Corp certification will show your team, customers, and suppliers that you’re serious about sustainability.

So, there it is: your sustainability workout programme for 2022. We wish you well with it. And remember: the hardest step in any workout’s the first one!

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