How a Sustainability Professional Can Add Value To Your Business
It’s a common consideration that business value solely revolves around physical assets. However, business value weighs heavily upon anything that determines the health of the business for the long term, including intangible assets such as health, safety, environment, Performance and certification that ensures adherence to these areas. These intangible assets can lower impact, costs and create a workplace of more engaged employees who are returning home to their families each day. Considering this, it makes sense to dedicate time and resources to maintaining Environment and OHS certification in Australia.
You’re likely thinking, “That’s much easier said than done” and yes, you’re right. Implementing HSEQ systems takes dedication, know-how, structure, and not to mention, stress if it’s not your zone of genius. So what do you do if you’re itching to have your business certified so you can win more work and increase the value of your business? Why not consider a sustainability professional.
Sustainability concerns much more than the environment, it incorporates quality, safety, and environmental management systems with the focus of a business having a limited impact on social, economic, and ecological aspects of the community and the world. Here are some of the benefits your business can experience by engaging a sustainability professional.
Improved safety culture
When you hire a sustainability professional, also known as a safety consultant if you’re purely focusing on safety, you are on the road to improving the safety culture in your business. A sustainability consultant will dedicate themselves to helping your business reduce the impact poor safety practices have on the company, including- training, auditing, review of procedures and recommendations.
Where one employee may have been given the responsibility for safety on top of their current role, a sustainability professional will be 100% dedicated to safety.
Gain accreditation
One of the benefits of accreditation in Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) is that it can help you win more contracts, but getting the certification is the hard part. How do you split your time? That’s where a sustainability professional can help you gain your accreditation quickly and with less impact on your role.
Save money
A sustainability expert knows how to help you significantly reduce costs like water and non-renewable energy by cutting down usage. They can also help you increase the amount of renewable energy that’s delivered into your business. This is a particularly smart option for large manufacturing companies. In addition, consultants can help ensure your business has minimal impact on the environment, and they can ensure safety management systems are in place to reduce the incidence of lost time injuries. They can help increase morale and productivity, therefore increasing turnover.
Another money-saving benefit of hiring a sustainability expert is that because you will not need to hire a full-time permanent HSEQ Manager, allowing you to save on a full-time salary, benefits, leave and so on. You pay for what you need.
Become a trusted brand
Being a socially responsible business can do wonders for the reputation. Showing that your business not only understands the importance of HSEQ but that it responds to regulatory requirements, consumer demands around the environment and sustainability, is essential but it’s not easy.
Hiring a sustainability consultant shows leadership and emphasises your view on making a positive contribution to society and the environment. When you build trust with stakeholders, you’ll discover that more people are more willing to work with your business, particularly those organisations who have already achieved certifications.
Increase staff morale
Negative moods, poor work performance, poor work quality, broken lines of communication – they’re all signs of low staff morale and can be a complicated fix. With the assistance of a sustainability consultant, it is possible to improve morale. From identifying a lack of clarity surrounding expectations, and increased workload due to lost time injuries to lack of training and support, a sustainability consultant can assist management in identifying and implementing strategies for improvement.
Eliminate business waste
With the introduction of multi-disciplinary sustainability consultants, your business can significantly eliminate business waste using the lean thinking approach. A consultant will delve into the actions or processes that take place within your business to determine those that do not add any value to your customer. It’s all about starting with the end customer in mind. Whether you’re a commercial solar company seeking to improve solar installer efficiency or a manufacturing facility looking to address regular periods of idleness, a sustainability consultant can assist. They’ll use best practice international techniques to ensure that the safe and sustainable way, is also the fast, easy way.
If you want to grow your business quickly, safely, and with environmental impact in mind, a reputable sustainability professional is an excellent investment. They’ll set up your business for future success by putting the right frameworks in place that can be repeated and reviewed as necessary.
Edward Foord is a Sustainability Strategist at Brisbane’s You3. He has 14 years of national and international experience with large and small businesses.
We want to make Solar Installers as effective and efficient as possible using best practice international techniques to ensure that the safe and sustainable way, is also the fast, easy way.