DEQ Home > BizHelp > Business Sense > Tools > Sustainability
Key Steps: Adopting a Sustainability Program
Step 4:
Identify Opportunities for Improvement, Prioritizing Efforts,
and Setting Long-Term Strategies
Once you have identified your company's key environmental issues and determined your stakeholder opinions, then you can identify opportunities for improvement and begin to prioritize your sustainability initiatives. Use your sustainability initiatives as a key driver of innovation and market advantage. Remember your sustainability program can be a key marketing strategy.
Prioritize your sustainability efforts by starting with small, manageable projects. Look for sustainable business practices that will deliver results quickly and save money, such as increasing energy efficiency and reducing waste. Don't be accused of greenwashing, be sure you are honest about your environmental improvements.
Expand your program little by little over a period of time, such as three to five years, or even longer, depending on resources and other company goals. Try to set goals that are specific, measurable, and can be completed in a specific time period.
For example:
- Increase purchase of cleaning products, paints, and other chemicals that are less toxic than competing products by 25% in the next contract.
- Increase purchase of products that use less packaging by 20% in 12 months.
- Increase purchase of recycled content products or reusable products by 25% by the next fiscal year. By purchasing recycled content products, you are helping to "close the loop" by providing markets for recovered materials.
Contact Paul Harding (801-536-4108) or Frances Bernards (801-536-0086) for further information on the content of this page.
