By Jo Holmes, Genee
Making sustainability business as usual.
There’s something about September that feels like a fresh start. The holidays are over, children return to school, diaries begin to fill up again and businesses regain their rhythm – a time to refocus, reset and look ahead.
As we settle back into our routines, it’s worth asking ourselves one simple question: if we’re already resetting the way we work, why not reset some of our business habits too?
Too often, sustainability is viewed as something separate from the day job, as another policy to write, another report to complete or another box to tick. It can feel like an additional responsibility on an already full to-do list. Yet the organisations making the greatest progress aren’t necessarily doing more; they’re doing things differently.
When sustainability stops being an initiative and starts becoming part of the everyday, it becomes less of a burden, and just a way we do business.
Every organisation has routines. The way meetings are held, how purchases are made, how suppliers are chosen, how staff travel, how resources are managed and even the conversations that take place around the office all shape an organisation’s environmental impact. These decisions may seem small in isolation, but together they define the culture of a business.
When sustainability becomes part of those habits, it no longer feels like an extra task. It becomes the way decisions are made – considering environmental impact alongside cost, questioning whether a journey is really necessary, repairing before replacing equipment, reducing waste as a matter of course or choosing suppliers whose values align with your own. Individually, these actions may appear modest. Collectively, they can have a significant impact, not only on the environment but also on efficiency, resilience and long-term business performance.
This is one of the reasons we believe in the Investors in the Environment (iiE) framework. iiE isn’t simply about achieving an accreditation; it’s about helping organisations embed sustainability into the fabric of their business. The framework encourages businesses to understand their environmental impacts, set meaningful objectives, engage employees, measure progress and, importantly, build a culture of continuous improvement.
Rather than sustainability being something that sits in a separate strategy document, iiE helps make it part of everyday decision-making. It provides a practical structure that supports organisations to turn good intentions into lasting habits, ensuring sustainability becomes ‘the way we do things around here’ rather than a project with a beginning and an end.
That matters because the challenges businesses face today – from rising costs and changing customer expectations to climate risks and evolving legislation – aren’t temporary. Embedding sustainable thinking into everyday operations doesn’t just reduce environmental impact; it helps organisations become more efficient, more resilient and better prepared for the future.
September offers the perfect opportunity to take stock. Not necessarily by launching another initiative or setting ambitious new targets, but by looking at the routines that shape your organisation every day. Which habits are serving you well? Which could be improved? What small changes could become part of the way your business operates?
The biggest changes rarely happen overnight. They’re built through hundreds of small decisions, repeated consistently until they simply become the norm.
As businesses settle back into the rhythm of a new season, perhaps this September isn’t about adding sustainability to the to-do list. Perhaps it’s about making sustainability part of the way we do business every day.
Get in touch at jo@genee.org.uk to discuss how we can help your business embrace sustainability.