Environmental Plans
Creating a roadmap to improve your impacts on land, water and air.
What is an environmental plan?
The environmental strategy and plan is a critical element of any sustainability effort. You cannot authentically talk about being a sustainable business without knowing and addressing you environmental impacts.
Every organisation is unique and therefore needs to assess its respective impacts and how to address them. Seemingly identical organisations could have different business models, for example one could hire fleet and plant where another buys their own.
Carbon footprint is an important element of any environmental plan, however waste, biodiversity, water management and use of natural resources are example of other impact areas that may be important for organisations.
Why do I need an environmental plan?
There are many organisational benefits associated with a strong environmental strategy, some driven by managing risks and others from taking opportunities:
- Cost savings: reduction of resource use, energy use and waste management can lead to direct cost savings.
- Compliance: reducing the risk of fines or penalties.
- Reputation and trust: reinforcing your reputation as a good corporate citizen can help retain and attract customers, employees and investors.
- Innovation: applying an environmental lens to your business model frequently generates innovation ideas.
- Resilience: addressing impacts and measuring performance helps prepare organisations for future regulation; it also enables consideration of longer term challenges like finding alternative / renewable material sources.