This post was contributed by Kyle Payton, General Manager at ThriftCart.

In crowded marketplaces, sustainable business practices stand out and win:

• 89% of consumers worldwide report changing their shopping habits to be more eco-friendly.
• 65% of consumers are more likely to choose fair trade products.
• Consumers in 2022 were already 26% more likely to buy from sustainable sources than they were just two years earlier in 2020.

These strategic advantages aren’t just for large businesses. In many ways, small shops are in the best position to make changes that increase sustainability and improve the health of their organizations. After all, your small business likely isn’t burdened by huge departments, slow decision-making processes, and embedded cultures that have certain ways of doing things.

Let’s take a look at nine sustainability ideas for small businesses. We’ll start by answering a key question:

What Does Sustainability Mean for Your Small Business?

Every business can tap into its own unique mix of sustainability practices. Your distinct industry, community, culture, values, and audience will all shape the sustainability program that makes the most sense for your business.

What should you know as you begin to work out exactly what this unique mix means for you?

There are three general and interconnected fields of sustainability — environmental, social, and economic. You might already know if your business and its values lean in one particular direction, but remember that you’re not limited to choosing one lane. After all, a guiding principle of sustainability is that many small acts add up to greater change.

Regardless of its area of focus, your sustainability plan should follow a few key steps:

1. Educate: Align your team with the best sustainability practices — and the logic and values behind them. Learn more about your options and common practices in your field.
2. Assess: Review your business operations, consumption habits, supply chains, and other elements that can be adjusted or improved with an eye toward sustainability.
3. Explore: Look closely at your options in the areas you identified in step 2. Where are the easiest and most impactful places to implement new practices?
4. Envision: Refine your vision for your sustainability program by clearly defining your new practices. Develop goals you can use to measure effectiveness and adoption.
5. Iterate: Unleash your new practices. Keep measuring and improving, and don’t forget to communicate your efforts to your audience of customers and partners!

Throughout these steps, there are several concrete tactics you should also adopt to improve your business’s sustainability results:

• Define your mission or expand it to include sustainability — whatever it means for your unique circumstances. Then, walk the walk by referring to your mission to guide new practices.
• Set specific goals. As mentioned above, you’ll need them to ensure your new practices are making an impact. Consider the positive environmental, social, and economic impacts as well as the positive business impacts (i.e. customer acquisition, retention, etc.).
• Get employee input and feedback. Your employees can and should have a say in your sustainability program. Get their thoughts upfront then regularly collect input once the program is underway.
• Deepen your community ties. Sustainability is a team sport. Tap into and grow your partnerships with local businesses, government offices, nonprofits, and other groups to amplify the reach and impact of your new practices.

With a solid understanding of these steps and best practices, you’ll have what you need to begin exploring potential sustainability practices for your business.

9 Small Business Sustainability Ideas to Consider

Now, let’s take a look at some specific ideas. Note that these aren’t categorized — there’s so much overlap between the positive impacts of many of these ideas. Consider your unique position, community, and values as you determine the practices that sit at the best intersections of impact and feasibility.

• Improve your inventory practices. About 30% of food in U.S. grocery stores gets thrown away, and the total value of that discarded food is estimated to be twice the profit generated by food sales. If you work with perishable products, how much goes to waste? In other retail environments, do you run into challenges with overstocking or discarding products with the seasons or as trends change? What happens to inventory that doesn’t sell?First, reduce that waste. Then, find a more environmentally, socially, or economically beneficial way to handle anything that does go to waste. You might already use inventory management software — use it intentionally and make full use of its features, or switch to a more industry-specific one if needed, whether you’re a thrift store, grocer, boutique, or any other retail business.

• Re-examine your supply chains and source materials. Every business has to use tools and/or materials that come from somewhere else. Do your vendors have a net positive or negative impact on the world and their communities? Are there more sustainable alternatives to consider, whether that’s more environmentally-friendly raw materials or using vendors that are closer geographically to reduce transportation emissions? Take a moment to list the vendors you purchase from and consider how they might be impacting your business’s overall footprint. Remember, spending locally brings many benefits — strengthening your local economy, building stronger and more flexible relationships with local partners, and saving you money through lowered transportation costs and fewer corporate markups.

• Partner with other organizations. Community partnerships can be powerful ways to spread the word about your business and amplify your shared sustainability impacts. Have you explored your local or regional nonprofit community before? The nonprofit world offers tons of valuable partnership opportunities like commercial coventures (also called cause marketing), sponsorships, grants, in-kind gifts of supplies, and more. Leverage these partnerships to raise your visibility as a positive player in the community (and reach more customers or tap into tax breaks along the way).

• Offer philanthropic perks to employees. Take the guesswork out of establishing a corporate social responsibility program by putting your employees in the driver’s seat. Matching gift programs are the easiest way to support organizations driving positive change in your community. Establish policies and a budget for the program, then encourage your employees to request financial matches from your business for eligible donations to nonprofits. You can do the same with volunteer time, as well, by financially matching after employees volunteer a specific number of hours. Double the Donation’s roundup of top matching gift companies can give you an idea of how other businesses structure their programs.

• Refurbish and resell gently used products. For retail businesses, are there ways you can reduce waste and offer more cost-effective options to customers by reselling used products? This will vary a lot depending on your industry, but devoting a corner of your floorspace to selling consigned clothes, donated shoes in good condition, used books and media, or other nonperishables can be a low-effort, sustainability-minded revenue stream. Just be sure to strike the right balance of appealing to customers and turning a small profit in your thrift pricing strategy to ensure this stays a viable long-term practice.

• Provide public transit stipends and other incentives. The complex relationships between local economies, labor forces, and business practices open up opportunities to implement strategies that boost sustainability. If you care about your local community, look at the average cost of living in your area. Does your compensation strategy keep up and allow employees to live and thrive there? Could public transit stipends help employees save time and money? Could you offer a monthly paid day off for team volunteering projects?

• Consider the packaging you put out into the world. For some businesses, plastic and other forms of throw-away, nonrecyclable packaging are massive drags on their sustainability progress. Look closely at the things your business purchases that are intended to be shipped out or leave the store with customers — bags, packaging, tags, and more. If you want to prioritize making a more sustainable supply chain and purchasing decisions, this could be the easiest and most impactful area to focus on first. You may even save a good deal of money in the long run by making a switch or incentivizing the use of reusable bags and materials.

• Check out grants and perks for eco-friendly businesses. Local, state, and federal government offices offer a variety of tax breaks and perks for businesses that implement eco-friendly practices. Common programs involve using electric vehicles and making building improvements to boost energy efficiency. If you’re already a good fit for any of these programs, great! If you’re almost a good fit, use this opportunity to make the change. Just be sure to understand all documentation and reporting requirements.
• Partner with secondary and tertiary retailers. Don’t overlook the power of in-kind donations to nonprofits. Thrift stores, other types of bargain stores, food banks, and more might also happily accept donated or heavily discounted goods. Not only will this reduce the amount of waste you produce but also create tax deductions for your business. Some businesses even establish their own nonprofit branches like thrift stores to manage the process of accepting, processing, and selling donated items — check out ThriftCart’s guide to learn more about the ins and outs of starting this kind of business.

No two small business sustainability programs look alike. By understanding the full scope of potential practices you can adopt, you can find the perfect blend of initiatives, partnerships, and policies that help you stand out and make a more positive impact in your community.

Just remember, sustainability is an iterative process. You can start small, and your practices can (and will) change over time, but you have to start somewhere.

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About the Author

Kyle Payton

Kyle Payton is the general manager of ThriftCart, an all-in-one point-of-sale product assisting nonprofits and small businesses in navigating the complexities of retail.