After doing a bit of research on my own I have realized that the environmental issue is an ongoing concern since the 80s. Sadly, not much has been done about it and the carbon footprint has been increasing ever since. Interestingly, the largest corporations in the world have in total the lowest impact on our environment. Their extensive usage of mass media makes them seem like the prime suspect. Over years this has put a huge shadow on Small and Medium Enterprises/Businesses (SME/SMB) causing them to be ignored. It turns out that SMEs account for 95% of the businesses world wide, which equals to 40%-50% GDP. Indeed, a small firm doesn’t seem to create much damage, however when you add all of these firms up, they do. Therefore, everyone has to do something in order to lower their environmental footprint.

It turns out that the main reasons why SMEs don’t implement environmental management systems is because of their lack of financial resources, knowledge and time. Frankly, there are many companies out there that feel responsible towards the environment and not knowing how to help they instead sponsor NGOs which will put the funding to a good use. Unfortunately, most organizations aren’t doing anything about it either.

Personally, I have noticed that organizations which are undertaking sustainable business practices tend to keep the information to themselves in order to gain a competitive advantage among the other firms in their industry rather than sharing it.

Most people don’t realize what kind of side effects the CO2 emissions will have on our future. Despite the fact that our life expectancy is increasing, it turns out that the current generation of our society will be the one most affected throughout history.

If we are to save the planet, we must realize one thing, that in order to do so an emphasis must be placed on dissemination of information and cooperation with governments to promote awareness. It’s the only way if we want to create a sustainable future. To drive change we must work as a team and force businesses to adjust their services/products to their prime stakeholders needs.

Last month the Sustainable Business Performance (SBP) released a publication (authored by Jonathan T. Scott) which will show SMEs how they can reduce their waste, thus lowering their environmental impact. This initiative will be supported by many organizations on a international level and hopefully find its way to key decision makers.
Our mission is to communicate the message of sustainability to help businesses minimize waste, reduce costs, and create jobs. By launching this document we are hoping that managers will do something towards this issue, and share their findings with us and the members of our network.

The publication can be found under this adress:
http://www.sustainbusper.com/new-standards-long-term-business-survival