Q&A: Sustainability for Small Businesses
Why small businesses are prioritizing sustainability, a 3-min interview with RyeStrategy CEO, Cooper Wechkin.
RyeStrategy Founder and CEO was able to discuss the case for small business sustainability with the host of the Asking for a Friend show, Karin Hurt. In this interview Cooper explains the evidence supporting the implementation of sustainability practices, what the process looks like, and a few decarbonization strategies.
I’m a small business owner, why should I prioritize sustainability?
Karin: Hey Karin, you know I know it's Earth month and I really ought to be thinking about sustainability, but I am a small business owner and quite frankly the whole thing is overwhelming. Where should I start? Where do I even begin thinking about this and can my little business really make any impact at all, asking for a friend?
Cooper: I think the first thing to really recognize is that we're seeing a pivot from nice to have to need to have for a lot of companies. Historically we think about our emissions and our impact maybe not mattering too much as a small company, but when you look at the statistics, over 50% of the emissions that come from the business sector are actually from smaller companies. So there's a huge impact there.
Do consumers care about sustainability? What about employees?
Cooper: What we're starting to see is that actually 80% of consumers expect businesses to do something about climate change and 50% are willing to shift their purchasing to the more environmentally friendly options. Beyond all of that we're also seeing from an employee perspective 2/3 of employees care about the sustainability initiatives that their companies have and 84% of those people don't think that their businesses are doing enough.
Why have the businesses I sell to started asking me to report and reduce my carbon emissions?
Cooper: So we're seeing it on this employee side, this customer side if you work within the B2B space, and you're servicing larger enterprises. If you ever see those Net Zero commitments that they're making, 80% of those emissions come from their suppliers. If they ever want to hit that goal they need their suppliers to be taking action as well right. There's a big business case here in terms of taking action.
Where do small businesses start and what does the process look like?
Cooper: The first step is you have to figure out what your emissions are, so what does that look like from a company perspective. We recommend looking into and what we do a lot of our work around is the greenhouse gas protocol. You can think of this as the generally accepted accounting principles for carbon accounting. Within that you'll figure out what your total emissions are. It can be a really straightforward process. You got to get the right help, the right resources.
Cooper: From there, start to think about what you can do within your business to actually reduce those emissions. Is it maybe flying a little bit less? Is it the electricity that your office uses or is it the HVAC that you're leaving on in the office or at home? Really going through that and figuring out what you can do to reduce those emissions.
What does RyeStrategy do?
Cooper: At RyeStrategy, our experts help support small businesses navigating corporate sustainability. That's why we specialize in providing tailored decarbonization solutions to help companies create actionable timelines and initiatives. From identifying key emission hotspots to fulfilling climate disclosure requests, our team is dedicated to guiding you every step of the way. Schedule a consultation with us today to learn how we can help you make sustainability a reality for your small business.
Read more about the Asking for a Friend show and interview featuring Cooper Wechkin here.
Learn about our affordable carbon footprint solutions for small and medium-sized businesses
Book a free strategy session to discuss your climate goals with a sustainability manager.
Check out our blogs about small business sustainability below:
About RyeStrategy
Based in Seattle, RyeStrategy is a CDP-accredited, mission-oriented company specialized in carbon accounting, mitigation coaching, and climate disclosure solutions for organizations at any point in their sustainability journey. Learn how RyeStrategy helped Salesforce, Ideascale, and Wazoku achieve their sustainability goals.
From exhaustive carbon footprinting and mitigation coaching, to setting science-based targets and reporting climate data to CDP, SBTi or custom reporting platforms, RyeStrategy acts as a hands-on extension of the team, custom-tailoring services to fulfill climate disclosure requirements easily and accurately.
Meet with a sustainability specialist to learn more about RyeStrategy solutions.
