Blueprint for Starting a Sustainability Program for SMBs

Implementing a sustainability program is one of the smartest ways for SMBs to bolster the resilience of their operations. This guide provides owners, business leaders, and sustainability champions with an actionable blueprint to take meaningful climate action while benefiting from cost savings, stronger branding, and better operational efficiency.

Green Business Benchmark°

Published

May 15, 2025

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Min

Blueprint for Starting a Sustainability Program for SMBs

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Headlines about sustainability progress are often dominated by large corporations, shouldering complex efforts to tackle climate challenges. But small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) have a unique and powerful opportunity to drive change as well. SMBs make up roughly 99.9% of all companies in the US and over 90% globally. With their agility, innovation, and direct role to communities, SMBs can adopt impactful practices, cut their emissions, and even inspire broader change across industries.

Implementing a sustainability program is one of the smartest ways for SMBs to bolster the resilience of their operations. It helps organizations understand risks and opportunities, identify areas of focus, and activate the workforce to improve. This guide provides owners, business leaders, and sustainability champions with an actionable blueprint to take meaningful climate action while benefiting from cost savings, stronger branding, and better operational efficiency.

Why Should SMBs Prioritize Sustainability?

Sustainability is more than just “going green”. It’s an opportunity to drive significant growth, reduce environmental risks, and align your business with customer and employee expectations.

Here’s why sustainability initiatives matter for SMBs:

Cost Savings: Increasing energy efficiency or reducing waste can help reduce operational expenses. Sustainable systems also help you run more efficiently with systems that often streamline your operations.
Enhanced Brand Image: Companies known for eco-friendly products, services, and business practices attract environmentally conscious customers (72% of global consumers would even pay more them)
Improved Employee Morale: Teams feel more motivated working for businesses that take meaningful action on important issues like climate change.
Attracting New Clients: Modern consumers and B2B clients increasingly expect brands to adopt green practices and reduce their carbon footprint.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching Your Sustainability Program

Starting small and being intentional when building your sustainability program will ensure real impact over time. Here’s your blueprint for success.

Step 1: Set Clear Goals and Prioritize Initiatives

Before beginning, evaluate what sustainability means in your industry and more specifically for your business. Collaborate with colleagues to establish realistic goals that align with your existing business strategy. To identify focus areas, ask yourself questions such as:

What is our carbon footprint?
Where do we source our materials? How sustainable is our supply chain?
How much energy do we consume?
What kind of waste do we generate? How much?
Are there current gaps that affect compliance with regulations, ESG goals, or global frameworks like ISO14001 and the GHG Protocol?

Once key areas are identified, prioritize initiatives by measuring their anticipated impact, investment requirements (both financial and operational), and ease of implementation. The GBB platform can help you organize your approach and serve as a framework for this step, prioritizing actions that drive meaningful results.

When ranking initiatives, consider tools with real-time updates to continually assess progress. Platforms like GBB offer powerful tracking systems to help you understand where your business stands and how to achieve the next milestone.

Step 2: Educate and Engage Your Team

A successful sustainability program involves more than actions at the organizational level. Employees play a crucial role in bringing climate action goals to life.

Start with these steps:

Educate Your Team on the “why” behind your goals, so they feel connected to the larger purpose.
Encourage Staff Participation in small changes, like reducing energy use at the office or switching to a paperless workflow.
Set Challenges or gamify tasks (think energy-saving or company-wide volunteer competitions) to keep the momentum alive.

Not only will engaged employees contribute to meeting your green goals, but they’ll also help embed eco-friendly practices into your company culture. The GBB platform can help you engage various departments and mobilize the workforce on specific sustainability efforts.

Step 3: Conduct a Sustainability Audit

Before implementing long-term changes, consider conducting an audit to fully grasp your company’s current environmental impact. An audit can uncover energy inefficiencies, wasteful processes, and opportunities to transition to more sustainable materials or suppliers.

SMBs frequently uncover insights like:

High energy consumption from outdated machinery.
Suppliers that don’t meet sustainability standards.
Overuse of single-use plastics in packaging.

Work with sustainability consultants or use online resources to guide the auditing process, targeting specific initiatives to drive the list of focus areas.

Step 4: Implement Sustainability Initiatives & Track Your Progress

Invest in Energy Efficiency

Energy-efficient initiatives are among the most effective ways SMBs can reduce their environmental footprint. Some examples include:

Switching to LED lighting.
Installing smart thermostats to regulate heating/cooling costs.
Investing in energy-efficient machinery or renewable energy sources like solar panels.

Not only do these changes reduce energy use, but they will also help lower operational costs in the long run.

Look into regional grants or incentives that support SMBs adopting eco-friendly upgrades.

Reduce Waste and Transition to the Circular Economy

Adopting a circular economy model ensures products, materials, and resources remain in use for as long as possible, thereby reducing waste and pollution.

Here’s how to get started:

Assess your supply chain for waste reduction opportunities.
Partner with suppliers committed to sustainability frameworks and renewable resources.
Replace single-use materials with sustainable alternatives, such as compostable packaging.
Find ways to repurpose scrap or byproducts (e.g., donating them or entering recycling programs).

By fully utilizing what you already have, your business reduces both costs and its environmental impact.

Step 5: Share Your Journey

Transparency is critical in sustainability efforts - not only for building trust with your customers but also for inspiring industry-wide action. When sharing your progress publicly, consider aligning communications with global frameworks like the UN SDGs. For example, if you’re switching to solar power, mention how this supports both climate action (SDG 13) and affordable/clean energy (SDG 7).

Start Building Today

Setting clear goals, engaging your team, and implementing practical initiatives can all support SMBs in achieving a legitimate competitive advantage while ensuring a greener, more sustainable future.

Looking for help along the way? Start easy and confidently with GBB’s science-backed tools aligned perfectly with frameworks like the UN SDGs.

Take the first step now to reduce your environmental impact while unlocking valuable growth opportunities.

Download now

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