Making Sustainable Attainable for Your Industry
Want to make your business more sustainable but don’t know where to start? Here at TSS we have employed Sustainable START™, a five-pronged protocol to ensure sustainability from initial product development through market activation.
TSS Thermalist
January 9, 2023 | Sustainable Leadership
The Three Pillars of a Sustainable Industry: Earth, Employees, and Economy
Want to make your business more sustainable but don’t know where to start? Here at TSS we have employed Sustainable START™, a five-pronged protocol to ensure sustainability from initial product development through market activation.
To START you need a sustainable objective that is Solvable through your practices.
Test out your brand or business, and compare your self-regulating tactics to others in your industry or marketing area. Take a close look at your research and the most cost-effective way to improve it. Make sure your goal is Attainable. There’s no shame in starting small by finding ways your business can reduce waste and energy consumption. Once you have a few sustainable practices in place, focus on what is working, and readjust what isn’t. Your sustainability plan should be Renewable and continuously changing. Once your company has been re-envisioned with sustainability in mind, Transfer that knowledge to the community, your customers, and leadership. What’s good locally, is great globally.
There are three types of sustainability that can benefit your company, the Earth and your employees.
Environmental sustainability often gets the most attention. Environmental sustainability involves lowering your business’s carbon footprint, using recyclable packing, and lowering water usage. Environmental sustainability can benefit a company financially as less waste means lower overall costs. At TSS we are proud to boast many environmentally sustainable products , made with socially sustainable practices. For example, our RenewMailer is the world’s first (and only) curbside recyclable thermal mailer, made using material extracted from the current waste stream, this product goes toe to toe with Styrofoam on every metric while being far more sustainable. All TSS mailers and liners, such as our Kangaroo Mailer and Renewliner, are made in the USA with materials removed from the current waste stream.
If and when your company makes changes to become more environmentally conscious, it is important to compile research on your environment-friendly tactics to avoid greenwashing.
Greenwashing is the act of making unsubstantiated claims about the environment-friendliness of certain products or company policies within the sustainable industry. Examples of greenwashing include, environmental imagery on packaging that gives the illusion of the company being eco-friendly, labels that claim “100% Organic” or “Certified” without any supportive information, or a company adopting more eco-friendly practices that in turn exploit workers. Greenwashing is not only misleading to consumers and investors, but can be damaging to a company’s reputation when discovered.
Another equally important type of sustainability is social sustainability. In order for a business to be successful, it needs the support of its employees, stakeholders, and the community it operates in. Social sustainability means treating your employees with dignity and respect and being a good neighbor to your community. This could look like better maternity and family benefits, and learning and development opportunities, as well as, community engagement, such as scholarships, and investment in local projects.
The TSS (r) value is our philanthropic programming and initiatives supporting our mission of sustaining stewardship. It recognizes organizations who have illustrated, through advocacy, advancement and action, the unique alignment of two pedigrees: environmental conservancy and entrepreneurial efficacy. Read more on givebacks here.
Social sustainability also means thinking globally as well. How is your supply chain being filled? Are the workers being paid fairly? Is the work environment safe? Often sourcing from the lowest-cost supplier means risking public outrage over unsafe work conditions.
Lastly is economic sustainability. Economic sustainability means a company is profitable, but also includes proper compliance, risk-management, and administration. Strong economic sustainability means being transparent with investors and ensuring company values are felt in every aspect of the business. TSS embraces economic sustainability by having manufacturing locations throughout the state to cut down on freight emissions, and therefore lower our overall carbon footprint.
