Corporate social responsibility

Understand the environmental impact of your business

Your business affects many different people - employees, customers, suppliers and the local community. It also has a wider impact on the environment.

Even the simplest energy efficiency measures, like switching off lights and equipment when they aren't needed, makes a real difference. Reducing the use of water also directly cuts your costs. For more information, read about managing your resources on the Small Business Journey website - Opens in a new window or read our guides on how to save money by using energy more efficiently and use water efficiently - the basics.

Minimising waste can also make a big difference. Simple steps like reducing the amount of paper you waste can immediately cut costs. You can save even more by thinking about waste implications when you design new products and production processes. For more information, read our guide on how to save money by reducing waste.

Caring about the environment can increase revenue too. Many customers prefer to buy from responsible companies.

There are all sorts of ways in which you can reduce the environmental impact of your business. For example:

• creating recyclable products
• sourcing responsibly (eg using recycled materials and sustainable timber)
• minimising packaging
• buying locally to save fuel costs
• creating an efficient (and fuel-efficient) distribution network
• working with suppliers and distributors who take steps to minimise their environmental impact

You could reduce the environmental impact of your business by using environmental assessment techniques such as lifecycle assessment and setting up an environmental management system. See our guides on environmental assessment techniques - an overview and environmental management systems - the basics

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Corporate social responsibility and your business
• The business benefits of corporate social responsibility
• Understand the environmental impact of your business
• Deal responsibly with customers and suppliers
• Work with the local community
• Measure the effectiveness of your corporate social responsibility
• Benefit from corporate social responsibility
• Here's how a corporate social responsibility initiative benefitted my business
• Here's how my business benefited from corporate social responsibility (Flash video)

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