Today small businesses and entrepreneurships represent over half of all United States employment.  This number continues to grow domestically and around the globe as more individuals seek self-employment in these economic times.  With more individuals looking to become self-starters, small businesses sustainability leaders are positioning themselves to play a much more significant role in our economic future. 

 

In our professional consulting, we find that small business is often, by design, perfectly suited for sustainability implementation.  Direct interactions over the years with these organizations reveal that small enterprises are typically more intimately connected to their stakeholders.  By this, we mean that small businesses are:

 

•    More in-touch with employees: engaging and actively managing employees on an individual level.

 

•    More in-touch with investors: closely working business relationships to meet the expectations of its stakeholders and investors.

 

•    More in-touch with customers: working directly with consumers and business customers to deliver products that meet specific requirements and delivery expectations.

 

•    More in-touch with suppliers: directly communicating with smaller set of business partnerships often directly integrated into the business operations. 

 

Companies that experience difficulties with business sustainability implementation often cite the challenges of business visibility, stakeholder engagement, change management, or overall goal alignment.  Our sustainability consulting experience has shown that through increased eco awareness and stakeholder engagement, business sustainability implementations have a much higher rate of success than forced action.

 

With small businesses having closer and a more direct line of communication with key business stakeholders, the potential for an aligned business sustainability understanding is available.  We find that progressive small businesses are working with stakeholders to create a business case for sustainability and leveraging small business resources already available within the organization.  These companies are defining opportunities for improvement, linking them to specific business metrics, and creating scorecards to evaluate success. 

 

Julie Urlaub is the founder and managing partner of Taiga Company, a Houston based sustainability consulting firm.   Read more blog post connect on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.