Sustainability Matters Whatever the Size

I had a dream when I started Meantime in 2008.

I mean, I had the business dream we all have when we start something new – but there was more.

I wanted this business to be a great place to work – by that I meant, of course, an exciting, creative, dynamic environment, but it had to come hand-in-hand with a socially responsible, environmentally conscious, pioneering SME workplace.

I thought the toughest part would be the business plan.

Don’t get me wrong, that was tough.

I thought the hippie part would be easy enough – who doesn’t love Bob Dylan, tree hugging, and saving whales?

It turned out the hippie part would be a little more complicated than I had anticipated.

It’s true, the business world was starting to understand that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was important, but it was mainly a box-ticking exercise and there was no access for an SME.

Carbon neutral?

Sure – try spending thousands on a certification and going through a time-consuming, irrelevant survey.

So, I started small.

I bought toilet rolls from Who Gives a Crap, who donate half of their proceeds to building toilets in places in the world where there aren’t toilets.

I bought tea from teapigs – biodegradable tea bags ethically sourced ingredients.

As I grew, I was able to invest in training underpinned by a trade association membership.

Honestly – there was no clear path to tread for an SME, so I was making it up as I went along.

But Dylan was right, the times were a changing.

Start-ups were being started by a new generation. A generation that was not willing to compromise when it came to sustainability.

And by then sustainability meant more than tree hugging and saving whales – it was a business model – people, planet, profit.

Couple that with the rise of innovative, sustainably focused tech start-ups harnessing the power of cloud tech, and the sustainability landscape has become, not only completely different, but also relevant and tangibly so.

Thank goodness for it.

As an SME I am now able to offer my brilliant team all sorts of benefits, from 24/hour access to a GP, to paid volunteering time.

Being sustainable does matter, whatever the size of your company. It matters to the people who work for your company and the people they work for.

And so it should – let’s get out of the new road if we can’t lend a hand.

With thanks to my hero Bob Dylan and a happy 80th birthday to you.