Webinar insights: Officeworks’ secret sustainability weapons

Sustainability is now a contributing factor in consumer purchasing decisions, which means businesses need to embrace a more proactive outlook or risk losing market share to their eco-friendly competitors. Indeed, 90% of Australian consumers are more likely to buy products that are ethical and sustainable, and 85% want brands to be more transparent about their sustainability efforts.

In our webinar Why sustainability is good for business, Ryan Swenson, head of ESG & corporate affairs at Officeworks, discussed how the company is incorporating sustainability into every aspect of their operations — and how even the smallest business can use it to their advantage.

Getting buy-in from your stakeholders

While the first wave of sustainability efforts took a tactical approach by encouraging people to do the right thing, it quickly evolved into a strategic approach where long-term targets were needed to drive real change. At Officeworks, Swenson says the brand is taking a more integrated approach.

“We’ve got our commitment to put people and the planet at the heart of our decision-making,” he says. “Ultimately we’re saying that it’s on every team member to think about how their decisions are impacting other people and the planet.”

Swenson says getting the right approach requires you to listen to your stakeholders. What are the pain points for your customers, and what are the steps they want to see you take for a more positive future?

“The common theme we’ve seen in a short amount of time is that people have gone from thinking of sustainability as putting the right thing in the right bin, to more of a regenerative outlook — like how they can make a positive impact on the environment. It’s not just about using less, it’s about contributing. And that’s a pretty significant shift.”

“Everyone also recognises it’s a shared effort. So yes, people will do their part, but they expect businesses to play their role as well. So at Officeworks we’ve set up our programs and initiatives to actually exceed customer expectations, because that’s how we can make a longer-lasting impact and build brand loyalty.”

You can watch the full webinar, Why sustainability is good for business, on demand for even more insights.

Understanding the ‘why’

What sustainability gives organisations is an opportunity for everyone — both brands and customers — to rally around a common purpose. Any business can have an organisational purpose, but defining a sustainability purpose brings everyone on board.

“We’re all human,” Swenson says. “If we’re asked to do something and we don’t understand the why, we’re not going to be all-in. So investing the time to ensure your team understands what they are here for and why they are doing it — that’s really powerful. It gives you an opportunity to build stronger teams.”

There’s a wealth of ways you can do exactly that, from volunteer days spent picking up rubbish in a park to regular tree-planting efforts. At Officeworks, Swenson is most proud of the initiatives that are designed to change people’s mindsets around how they deal with waste.

“We took teams from about 50 stores to conduct different waste audits,” he says. “They had their large bins taken off-site and tipped upside-down so they could sort everything into what could and couldn’t be recycled. Everyone was a bit sceptical at the start of the day, but by the end I was hearing comments like, ‘We used to go to the pub for team-building days, and now we’re sorting through rubbish!’”

“From that initiative, we can see our team has gone back to work and made sure they are treating waste differently. When you look at the hard numbers, our recycling rates rose from 70% to 90% across the business. It’s a powerful way to bring people along on the sustainability journey in a practical way.”

What’s good for business is good for people

Swenson advises that businesses, particularly in the private sector, need to get comfortable with linking sustainability outcomes to good business outcomes.

“If we want to address the big issues of climate and inequality, then we have to mobilise the private sector. So it’s about saying, ‘Yes, it’s good for the planet and it’s good for people, but it’s also really good for my business.’”

Reducing costs, he says, is one of the easiest ways to convince business owners to take their sustainability efforts more seriously.

“When you look at waste holistically, it’s often a hidden cost,” he says. “It can be what’s going in the bin, but it can also be printing receipts that customers aren’t using. We found we were spending unnecessary amounts just on receipt waste because they were printed by default and then went straight in the bin. But all it took was for someone in the IT department to flip a switch so that printing receipts was no longer the default.”

“At the same time as we lifted our recycling levels to 90%, we reduced our yearly landfill contributions from 2500 tonnes to just under 500 tonnes. And in that time we nearly doubled our business. So we actually turned one of our largest expense lines into a revenue stream. While that’s not going to be the same for every small business, it’s a good starting point.”

Encourage sustainability champions

Swenson has one piece of advice for business owners who may not be doing as much as they could on the sustainability front: get your people involved.

“Talk to your team and understand the role they can play,” he says. “Let them champion some of those initiatives because there are lots of free, simple ways you can start making a change. It might be that someone wants to collect pens or batteries and take them to Officeworks, or someone else might want to collect the soft plastics and drop them off at Coles. Those things don’t cost anything, but they give everyone a small way to start playing their part.”

Read now: Webinar recap: Sustainability is the secret weapon for business success