In today’s fast-paced world, sustainability is not just a trend or a nice to have it is essential and imperative for any SME that wants to stay competitive. Consumers, partners, and even investors are seeking out businesses that show a real commitment to social responsibility and environmental impacts.
For your marketing communications, this is a game-changer. By embracing sustainability, you are not only future-proofing your business but also creating a powerful message that resonates with conscious consumers and stakeholders.
It is not just about doing the right thing—it is about making your brand stand out and drive meaningful connections in an evolving marketplace now and for the future.
Claire Best and Alex Hughes have joined forces on this initial blog as they are both passionate about telling your sustainability story to enhance your brand and grow your business. We recognise that everyone is at different stages in their journey but there is always something that you can do to start, enhance, and ultimately stand out with sustainability accreditations.
For SMEs, focusing on sustainability means integrating practices that are both environmentally responsible and strategically aligned with their business goals.
Key sustainability areas for a SME to focus on include:
Energy Efficiency & Waste Reduction
Sustainable Supply Chain
Product or Service Innovation
Flexible and caring workplace initiatives
Social Responsibility & Community Engagement
Accreditations, Certifications & Standards
Transparent Reporting & Storytelling
Donations of time and money to good causes
By embedding sustainability into their operations and messaging, SMEs can enhance their brand reputation, attract eco-conscious consumers, and stay competitive in an evolving market.
Sustainability must be at the core of every activity permeating through each function, department, and the entire operation of your SME top-down bottom-up no matter how small. It must no longer be seen as a nice to have but an essential way of doing business now and for the future. It must be the beating heart of the business and the culture and be the foundation for all decision-making.
With a directed focus, and allocated champions & resources, sustainability will be easy to implement daily tasks. This creates the capacity to make changes and decisions faster and more effectively seeing the changes clearly and the drive to ensure sustainability is at the core so that you are seen as a sustainable small business.
Sustainability means different things to different people and SMEs are in different industries and are at different stages of their journey, but the following benefits are essential for all SMEs to implement and prioritise.
“Sustainability MUST be at the core of every activity permeating through each function, department and area of the entire operation of your small business, top down bottom up. It MUST be the beating heart of the business and the culture and be the foundation for all decision-making. ”
Alex’s key attributes to help you build a sustainable small business
Transparent Reporting & Storytelling: Sharing your sustainability journey through impact reports, case studies, or even social media helps to engage your audience. Authentic storytelling around your environmental and social efforts fosters loyalty and positions your brand as a leader in your industry.
Sustainable Supply Chain: Ensuring that your suppliers adhere to ethical and sustainable practices can enhance your credibility. Highlighting this in your marketing communications builds trust with stakeholders who value transparency and ethical sourcing.
Product or Service Innovation: Offering sustainable products or services whether through eco-friendly materials, reducing packaging, or extending product lifecycles creates your competitive edge. Highlighting these innovations in your marketing attracts customers, clients, employees, and stakeholders who are looking for responsible choices.
Social Responsibility & Community Engagement: SMEs that give back to the community or champion social causes not only improve their public image but also create deeper emotional connections with their audience. Communicate these efforts in your marketing efforts to resonate with socially conscious consumers.
Energy Efficiency & Waste Reduction: SMEs can cut operational costs and environmental impact by reducing energy consumption, minimizing waste, and adopting resource-efficient technologies and well as many other initiatives. Marketing this commitment demonstrates responsibility and aligns your brand with eco-conscious consumers.
Certifications & Standards: Obtaining recognised sustainability certifications (such as CSR-A B Corp, Fair Trade, or ISO 14001etc) adds credibility to your marketing claims. Feature these in campaigns to differentiate your brand as genuinely committed to sustainability.
Claire’s benefits of sustainability for your small business
Meeting your customers' expectations: There has been a shift in consumer demands, as they prioritise sustainability in their purchasing decisions. 87% of buyers will purchase a product because the business advocated for an issue they care about.
Attracting new customers: According to McKinsey, products and services marketed as sustainable are growing 3 x faster than ones that are not. By offering sustainable options not only will you meet the demands of your current customer, but you will attract a whole new audience to your business.
Retaining customers: The Capgemini Report found that 77% of consumer organisations found that sustainability leads to increases in customer loyalty. By implementing sustainable practices and communicating these to your customers, you will retain those customers, who will then become advocates for your business.
Enhancing your brand reputation: Brands perceived as sustainable can differentiate themselves in crowded markets, as consumers are more likely to support businesses that align with their values. Implementing sustainable measures into your business enhances your story; how and what you do and what is important. It gives you so much more to talk to customers about. Take Leon, for example, they have built their whole communications strategy on sustainability. – seasonal produce, reduced meat etc.
Increased competitive advantage: Sustainability gives you a point of differentiation. Brands that successfully communicate their commitment to sustainability can stand out from their competitors. Take Patagonia, who have built their brand around sustainability, attracting a loyal customer base that values their mission. Focusing on sustainability can also sharpen your ability to innovate which in turn also brings about competitive advantages.
“Sustainability is not just a trend; it is a strategic necessity for businesses looking to build brand loyalty, differentiate in the marketplace, and meet changing customer demands.
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Three Quick Wins to Implement In Your Business
Alex
Start where you are now making notes on what you have done, are doing & planning to do, covering environmental, workplace, community, and philanthropic efforts. You will be surprised at how much you are already doing. Seeing it in this way will drive you to do more and build up this information to share in your marketing efforts.
Involve employees, clients, and suppliers in conversations about sustainability. You will be surprised how many impacts you are collectively making already and potentially could collaborate on to raise awareness in your marketing efforts.
Choose some areas to make changes now. This might be changing your utility supplier to a greener option, making your office paperless, cutting down on the number of emails, cc and bcc’s you are sending, unsubscribing from emails, decluttering your inbox, making sure your marketing efforts are digital and not in paper print ( use QR codes and digital badges ), reducing giveaways and packaging at events, making sure your website is optimised for energy efficiency on every page, green hosted and SEO friendly and promoting sustainable practices on all your marketing messaging to encourage others and being consistently transparent about your efforts.
Claire Best
Start to talk about sustainability. Even if you are just starting out, talk about your journey. Let customers follow you on socials talking about the changes you are making, the struggles you might face, even ask customers to give you some ideas. Then make sure you add this content to your other marketing materials - pitches, your website, your mission and values, your story.
Look at your customers through a sustainability lens. Break current and potential customers into 3 pots - those who place a premium on sustainability (greens), those who value it moderately (blues), and those who do not care much about it (greys). Which customers do you have? Which ones do you want to go after?
Collaborate with a local business that is ahead of the curve on sustainability. This will amplify your reach and impact, but also give you a chance to see how others are doing things, gain new ideas and challenge you to go further in your own efforts.
How can we help?
Alex
I can help provide focus, clarity & resources, that are easy to implement and that will enable changes and decisions to be made faster and more effectively, and bringing sustainability to the core of your small business and being seen as a sustainable small business.
Claire
I will seamlessly integrate your sustainability efforts into your marketing, aligning your mission and values with product pricing and promotional messages. This approach will enhance your online visibility, attract new customers, retain existing ones, and differentiate you from the competition
Auxilium Business Consulting Ltd
Alex Hughes is a small business consultant helping service-based business owners integrate sustainability as a core business requirement, driving meaningful impact through strategic, goal-oriented actions across their operations.
Alex has been through this process with Auxilium and is now accredited by CSR-A, so she is well-versed with the challenges that you face.
The Auxilium SOW programme provides a step-by-step approach to help clients develop sustainability statements and roadmaps, demonstrating progress to stakeholders and guiding internal strategy and gaining accreditations.
Auxilium’s mission is to educate, support and help SMEs to share their CSR efforts with the world, from the wildness of knowing nothing about sustainability to fully impacting and standing out from the crowd.
Alex Hughes – Auxilium Business Consulting Ltd
alex@auxiliumconsulting .co.uk
Book a chat with Alex here
Claire Best Marketing Ltd
Having worked for many years for some of the UK's largest brands, Claire now works with SMEs, supporting their growth with thought-out, cohesive marketing activity.
She transitions SMEs from short-term tactics that drain your resources to a well-defined marketing strategy that boosts their visibility and attracts their target audience.
From half day intense one-off sessions to ongoing support, you choose what works for you. With no agency overheads, you can access my team of trusted marketing experts from graphic designers to web developers, from SEO specialists to Facebook Ad experts paying for them only when you need them.
ClaireBest – Claire Best Marketing Ltd
claire@clairebestmarketing.com
Book a free 30 min discovery session with Claire