How to make your startup both innovative and sustainable
Adopting sustainability practices as a founder can be overwhelming — here’s how to make it easier.
At Metta, sustainability is integrated into everything we do.
We are a remote-first company, with employees in London, Glasgow, Bristol and Italy. Even as a small business, we decided early on that we wanted to be an impact-driven company and work sustainably — but that we also wanted to helping others to do the same.
However, being as sustainable as possible in an early-stage business doesn’t come without its challenges. It’s hard to manage everything — funding, pitching, keeping the business running, making sure staff are happy, while also wanting to think about the planet and the climate crisis as well. We can speak from experience — we’ve done our best to balance all of the above while also doing things like for our BCorp certification (and a few others!).
Put simply: it all takes time and resource.
Where are founders supposed to go for support in this situation?
So how do you balance running a business while keeping sustainability in mind?
As we’ve gone through our own journey, we’ve discovered there’s not much content out there around ‘business as usual’ activities and sustainability. And, because we’ve found it challenging, we wanted to help make it easier and more accessible to get the support other businesses needed when trying to incorporate sustainability into daily business practices as well.
We asked some of our friends in the startup space what they thought could be done to make sustainability easier to access for founders and business owners.
Here’s what they had to say:
“Embarking on a sustainability journey is not a perfect thing. It’s a deep behaviour change, and it’s behaviour change that needs to start somewhere. So don’t be too hard on yourself, just do one thing that you think is good and that you feel comfortable doing. And that’s doing something.”
— Anne-Charlotte Mornington | Head of Impact at OLIO
“There are many factors preventing businesses from being more sustainable. In today’s challenging climate & competitive economy, the reality is that most are focused on survival & growth. Unfortunately, the market still favours short-term economic gains over the pursuit of social & environmental interests. Even if there is a sincere desire to be more sustainable, many businesses simply lack the know-how &/ or resources to do so.
To help make businesses more sustainable, business leaders need access to resources that allow them to identify & address relevant sustainability issues. They will also need the support of regulators, investors, employees, partners & other stakeholders to develop & implement an effective sustainability strategy. These strategic partnerships can help businesses such as startups efficiently and positively utilise limited resources.”
— Gabriella Gisele Hernandez | Cofounder at KANARA Sport
“All companies face an imperative to imbed sustainability into the fabric of their organisations: to attract socially conscious consumers, to attract investment, and simply because it is the right thing to do.
“Startups face unique opportunities and challenges when it comes to thinking about sustainability. The primary challenge is a lack of resources and pressure to remain entirely laser focused on attracting investment. The primary opportunity is that sustainability is a lot easier to achieve when it is considered in the design stage of a business just starting out. It is a lot harder to retrofit sustainability principles into an existing product design, supply chain, and company culture.
“There are two key elements that are strong positive enablers to startups becoming more sustainability focused — Green Investment and Open-source Toolkits.
“Green Investment:
Green investment pairs the ability to attract investment with the embedding of sustainability as a core business goal. This is already happening, and the more startups realise that they can access a wider pool of funding by focusing on sustainability, the more incentives will shift to consider sustainability early in the process.“Open-source Toolkits:
Open-source toolkits can help startups achieve “quick wins” in the sustainability arena by helping new business leaders to tackle sustainability in a way that is suited to their business model. The challenge so many startups face is that sustainability can be an overwhelming topic, and many of the tools available are geared towards large, mature organisations. Many of the existing tools are too generic to be applied across a range of business types. Open-source toolkits that are modular, practical, and tailored to different types of business design and different types of products can help founders take the first step in a sustainability journey, which is usually the hardest part.”
— Katie Tamblin | Founder at EcoDove
“Today’s action will pave the road for the future, with technology at the forefront and driving force for innovation and sustainability. Here are some ideas for how entrepreneurs and business owners can use technology to innovate and become more sustainable:
Adoption of Circular Economy Practice:
Entrepreneurs design with the end in mind, considering how a product will be reused through cycling and recycling materials to reduce waste and boost the sustainability of their business operations.Data Analytics as a Tool:
Utilise data analytics to analyse and assess areas of your business’s energy consumption and design a plan to reduce and adapt energy consumption.Take advantage of Blockchain Technology:
Blockchain can assist business owners in tracking and verifying the sustainability of their supply chains, ensuring that items are ethically and sustainably obtained, enhancing supply chain management, and minimising the risk of fraud.Given the uncertainty of today and the future, technology can provide business leaders with the tools they need to innovate and create a responsive business environment. This increases their business value, and revenues, and ensures a more sustainable future.”
— Seyi Babajide | University of Warwick — Warwick Business School
“I personally do think sustainability has become one of the leading drivers when it comes to new startups or entrepreneurial ventures securing funding and even VCs/angels looking to invest in new projects. Weaving a sustainable framework throughout a business model is important. My biggest takeaway would be that it’s always best practice for a startup to find mentors or leaders in the sustainability space (in which can join their board or can be a sounding board for new sustainable ideas) when assessing or implementing new practices.”
— Steffany Photopoulos | Startup Ecosystem Expert & Innovation Change Maker
“Clients tell us refreshingly that it’s a new mindset required & our clients have been so impressive in their brave approach — especially the SME’s. This is possibly because the smaller you are the more dynamic you can be in the market and adapt quicker… less hoops to jump through to get sign off essentially.
The transition to net zero is actually more a transition from prioritising just profit & growth to bringing the environment & workforce up front and centre stage TOO.
Trust, transparency, performance, cost & credibility are huge drivers when ‘pressing go’ on investing in projects that reduce carbon from the atmosphere (carbon offsets) & those that pay it forward to future generations. It’s important to understand and align the difference; carbon offset projects invest in & remove carbon from the atmosphere now and in the future and planting trees we don’t consider as offsets because trees only start to meaningfully sequester carbon after about 10 years.
Sustainability strategies need to look at the now AND build for the future, it’s a journey and as companies learn more about their carbon footprint as measuring tools get more reliable and in depth, we can enable an ever more realistic & efficient impact to reduce climate change & maintain a healthy planet.”
—Ian Ormerod | CEO & Co-Founder at Switch2Zero
A few things we’re doing to be more innovative and sustainable
B Corp:
We are in the process of applying for our B Corp Certification, and the B Corp’s Impact Assessment (BIA) was an integral part of mapping out the areas we needed to improve. We highly recommend you reference this when starting your journey.
Ecologi:
At Metta, our first priority is to reduce our emissions but, for what we haven’t, we use Ecologi. For last year’s emissions, we offset double what we emitted by supporting 3 projects and planting more than 250 trees 🙌
Planet Mark:
Planet Mark is a sustainability certification for every type of organisation and real estate. The certification recognises continuous improvement, encourages action and builds an empowered community of like-minded individuals who make a world of difference. Here at Metta, we are proud to have attained our Planet Mark certification.
“Businesses have a huge opportunity and responsibility to play more of an active role in helping us address climate and these broader sustainability challenges that we’re facing. I think the appetite for sustainability and ESG of businesses and organisations has accelerated beyond recognition.”— Jonathan Withey, Director of Transformation and ESG at Planet Mark
Some other ideas:
- 💻 Switch off electronic devices when not in use
- 💡 Make the switch to #renewable energy suppliers
- 💰 Green your Pension
- 💚 Implement quick wins to reduce home energy consumption by minimising drafts, using the thermostat effectively, wearing warmer clothes and only heating the rooms that you are in
- 🗑️ Never throw electronic waste or batteries into the bin
- 📄 Reduce paper usage
- 🛍️ Buy less of everything but especially clothing. Repair, buy vintage or second hand, do clothing swaps and always be aware of where your clothes came from
- 🧴 Use environmentally friendly cleaning products
- ⚡ Use energy efficient lighting in as many appliances as possible
“…The cool thing is that when you start looking at it, it seems like there’s no pattern. But then you realise the pattern is all of these are kind of positive and awesome people that are bridging the gap between that crazy idea and actually solving the climate problem.” — Hampus Jakobsson, General Partner at Pale Blue Dot
“Climate change isn’t a choice. It’s billions of them.” — Ben Combes, Net Zero Strategy & Climate Tech at Deloitte
For more information about Metta and the work we do, head to our website. Check out our podcast Metta Talks to hear the latest about startups, innovation, and sustainability. The team is also on Twitter — reach out to us @mettatalks.
Want to learn more about Metta? Let’s talk 🗣
Nicole Whitelaw — nicole@metta.partners | linkedin.com/in/nicolewhitelaw
