Small Business: the Movers and Shakers of Sustainability?

So your business is not a General Electric, Wal-Mart, or even a Starbucks. And so you may not have the same unlimited capital and resources to take sustainability challenges head-on. And so you may not make the newspaper headlines for your sustainability efforts. However when it comes to realizing immediate benefits from sustainability implementation, your small business may have an advantage over these large corporations.

More small businesses than ever before are subscribing to the idea that they can save money, increase sales, and improve brand value by implementing social and environmental business sustainability practices. As a professional consultant working directly in the field of business sustainability, I have personally observed the ability of small businesses to quickly respond to changing market conditions to capitalize on opportunities and lower their risk.

Just recently, in speaking with an "eco curious" business owner, we discussed the distinct advantages present within a small business setting:

•    Greater flexibility to respond to market changes.
•    Reduced decision chains to accelerate approvals and business action.
•    Closer relations with business stakeholders to capture feedback and address concerns.
•    Greater speed to transform business sustainability resistance into corporate action.

At Taiga Company, our small business resources work directly with clients to build a business case for sustainability for small businesses. Our professional consulting engages with key stakeholders to guide businesses to their unique links between defined sustainability concepts and their business value drivers to positively affect change in the workplace.