Sustainability and environmental awareness should, by now, be high on the list of priorities for any business. But for home improvement and construction companies — which require high energy and raw material resources — these responsibilities should already be comprehensively understood and systematically improved upon year-on-year. By Coral Pearce-Mariner at Evander If it’s not already your company policy to favour sustainable solutions over more traditional but wasteful methods and materials, then you may struggle to uphold your place in the market as we move into a new era of environmental and social responsibility. We all know that customers generally prefer to do business with companies who are mindful of their impact upon the planet. A survey conducted by The Natural Marketing Institute found that consumers are 58% more likely to buy products or services from environmentally aware businesses, and they’re also willing to spend up to 20% more for a product or service which is ‘environmentally sound’. The benefits of improved sustainability can be felt across all areas of a business if implemented in the right way. For instance, a more sustainable building material may be more expensive initially, but as long as supply is managed well and the known benefits are communicated to customers effectively, improved profit and higher customer approval ratings are likely. Managing waste is a huge part of how a business can improve their sustainability. This doesn’t just mean recycling where possible — it means working smarter to ensure you order and use the minimum resources possible for each aspect of every job. This not only saves costs in the long run, but also ensures your company is not creating demand for environmentally sensitive resources and then not using them, or even worse — throwing them away. While this is often difficult to manage, especially in the construction and home improvement sector, it’s worth spending time and money getting this right, as it has a knock-on effect for the majority of departments within any business. A further incentive to implement more eco-conscious policies comes from the future of regulations and governance in this area. It’s likely that government and business regulatory bodies will impose stricter environmental impact limits as the years go on. Ensuring that your company is already ahead of the game, or at least has the foundations built for less-wasteful and more environmentally aware working practices, could save a lot of time and money, not to mention helping your business deal with the inevitable red tape much more easily. If you’re not sure where to begin, enlisting the help of the NQA (National Quality Assurance) and working towards your ISO 14001 Environmental Certification with their guidance is a good start. This will not only help you understand your environmental responsibilities and impacts better, but it will also send a loud and clear message to your customers and clients.