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SUSTAINABILITY AWARENESS DRIVE

A drive to raise awareness and understanding among SMEs of the benefits of sustainable business practices is being coordinated by South East Business Link Providers (BLPs) and SEEDA.

According to the South East Business Monitor, the quarterly survey of business owners conducted by the region's BLPs, over half of businesses interviewed did not give a response or recognise the term 'sustainable business practice'. A third of the respondents said that sustainable business practice means 'ensuring future business profitability', less than 12% of businesses made references to environmental or other sustainable business practices. However, when prompted on specific sustainable practices 70% or more recognised what was meant by this term.

One definition is that 'a sustainable business is a successful and profitable business. It is one that continuously improves its productivity by taking action on the economic, social and environmental impacts of its business.'

In practical terms this means adopting a sustainable approach to what a business produces, how it buys and sells, how it affects the environment, where it invests, how it recruits, trains and operates and how it respects the rights of people.

Sustainable business practices are just good business sense, offering ways to not only secure our future but also small businesses' bottom line performance. They offer businesses the opportunity to reduce their costs by using fewer resources, manage their risk and find new sales possibilities by meeting increasing customer demand for sustainable products and services.

Business Link has assembled a team of dedicated advisers who will consider sustainability when reviewing all aspects of a company's business and seeking to broker an introduction to appropriate partners.

The aim is to significantly increase the number of businesses implementing sustainable business practices in the South East. For Business Link's sustainable business partners, such as Envirowise and the Carbon Trust, this provides an opportunity for major growth in the companies they reach.

These initiatives dovetail with the government's Securing the Future strategy which has identified four priority areas: sustainable consumption and production; climate change and energy; natural resource protection and environmental enhancement; and sustainable communities.

It is deemed vital to raise awareness amongst businesses of the bottom line as well as environmental benefits of sustainability. The advantages associated with responsible working practices, such as motivated staff, goodwill, new business and other opportunities, which stem from supporting the local community, are already recognised by successful companies. The findings of the research revealed that 45% of SMEs would contact Business Link for advice on sustainable business practice.

Paul Dracott, manager of a new sustainable business service for the South East said: "Business Link will continue to build on the database of public and private sector service providers, such as the Carbon Trust, Envirowise, Sustainable Business Partnerships, NetRegs, the Environment Agency and the NISP, so that SMEs can use them to help implement responsible business practices or seek further information."

Check out the website www.businesslink.gov.uk/southeast for more information.