Green-Launching
A TOOLKIT TO CONNECT GROWTH & SUSTAINABILITY
Last Earth Day, we wanted to inspire entrepreneurs to think of sustainability as a driver for growth. We released Green-Launching, 7 Principles to Connect Growth & Sustainability. Here’s the backstory.
Engaging Entrepreneurs
As we prepared to start Standard Deviation, we reached out to as many people as possible, trying to understand where businesses were at, what was needed, and how we might contribute the most. Since perhaps half of our network is made up of entrepreneurs, our conversations turned naturally toward the challenges of growing more sustainable businesses. What we heard was both motivating and concerning.
Sustainability? Yes, definitely. But right now, we can’t.
As individuals, they understood that they needed to shop, eat, commute and live more conscientiously across the board, and were already shifting their behaviors. However, as business leaders, the puzzle was a lot more complex.
Many expressed steep challenges, along the lines of, “everybody says they want sustainability, but nobody’s ready to pay for it.” Or more broadly, “how can I prioritize sustainability when I’m not even sure my business model is viable?”. Or even “If you’re not ‘green’ in your DNA, isn’t it greenwashing?”
Others, on the other hand, were finding ways to align their ambitions for both sustainability and growth — finding opportunity in the challenges that were discouraging others. We began to outline the mindset shift those companies were embracing, made possible by the pent-up demand of the ‘sustainability gap’. Here’s our latest list:
Green-Launching: 7 Principles to Connect Growth & Sustainability
This Earth Days, we release the first version of a toolkit to help teams think of sustainability as a driver for growth rather than a complex nice-to-have. Our goal is to provide a framework that connects sustainability principles with startup priorities — growth, customer experience and talent retention.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the scope and complexity of sustainability and all of the information around it. To combat our own overwhelm, and to facilitate our conversations with founders and their teams, we’ve distilled our learnings to seven principles.
1. Fight Overconsumption
2. Turn Circular
3. Source For Good
4. Be Radically Transparent
5. Build Community
6. Bring All Your Power
7. Balance Your Business
We’ve built the toolkit to help small, medium & growing businesses have productive and strategic conversations about sustainability. We also included many of the workshop materials we use in our own work to empower teams to run and custom their own working session. Our hope is that you find it to be is accessible, actionable and energizing.
This toolkit is for you, if you are:
1. A startup with sustainability embedded in its DNA
The toolkit can help you refine your storytelling and build a growth strategy that genuinely brings your DNA to life. From fundraising, to hiring, to partnerships and marketing, the toolkit will support you in connecting your purpose with your business objectives.
2. A startup in need of a strategic sustainability roadmap
The toolkit can help you and your team address sustainability as a strategic challenge & opportunity. It will help you define actionable next steps that are grounded in business reality.
3. A sustainability-leader-to-be
No matter what your role, if you are personally convinced that now is the time to go green, and you’re done with being schizophrenic at work — this is for you. Use this toolkit to host a conversation. You’ll find you’re not alone.
You can preview & download the full toolkit & templates here.
Calling All Entrepreneurs
It’s true that we can’t tackle climate change without massive political action and industry-leading companies owning their roles and responsibilities. That said, small and scaling businesses have an irreplaceable role to play. We’ve always worked alongside entrepreneurs, and know that your boldness and ability to redefine standards will help us shape a more sustainable world.
Please share your thoughts with us. Your feedback will help us continue to revise and augment the toolkit with additional case studies, resources and partners. More than ever, we need compelling inspiration and models for building responsible, sustainable businesses.
We look forward to hearing from you.