Sustainable business is the future

Jocelijn Geurts from Axudo is an expert in corporate social responsibility. She helps companies to establish long-term relationships with customers, suppliers and employees alike. Jocelijn explains why this can be a game changer for companies.

Corporate social responsibility or CSR for short is the same as sustainable business. For many, this term is a bit vague, but actually it is very simple: you look at how you can build long-term relationships with your company. This can be about customer relationships, but equally about attracting young talent or your relationship as CEO with your own employees.

Sustainable business is a cross-section of the three P's: People, Planet and Profit. You want to make a profit, but with respect for people and the environment. As a CEO or company, you can go as far as you want in this, but keep your ultimate goal in mind.

Personal vision

In sustainable business, everything starts with mapping out your vision. Decide where your priorities and those of your company lie and what you want to achieve. Ask yourself why you want to make the change and where you currently stand with your company. What can corporate social responsibility contribute to your business?

Once you have identified these issues, you can further consider which steps you want to take first. For example, if you want to attract young talent, it's important to first focus on issues that young employees currently care about such as the climate or a good work-life balance. If you're looking to make your customer base more sustainable, make sure you know what values your customers care about and capitalize that. This way you will ensure that they will commit to you for the long term, which in turn will benefit your business.

If you notice along the way that certain customers or some new employees are not open to your way of doing business, then you decide how much energy you want to put into that relationship. Our experience shows that those relationships are often less successful in the long run.

Involve the entire company

If your company is ready for the switch to sustainable business, it is best to start small. It is tempting to go all out right away, but too many changes at once can cause you to lose the support of your employees. So first convince them with a few quick wins that often already have a big impact, such as environmentally friendly office materials or ecologically responsible gifts at Christmas and Easter.

What we do is to work with the companies to see what they want to focus on and how they can achieve that goal. For SMEs, we recommend involving the whole company in the plans to become more sustainable. In a session with employees and management we discuss the vision, policy and possible solutions. This way everyone has a say in the final result. In larger companies, it is good to put forward a few representatives who can in turn inspire the rest of the employees. This bottom-up approach is very important and works well. As CEO, you avoid making sustainability an imposed number and give your employees a chance to get involved in the debate.

A good CSR policy not only has an effect on your customer relations and environment, but will also make your company and employees grow. Via the bottom-up strategy you ensure that the idea of sustainable business gradually spreads to everyone who comes into contact with you and your company. In this way, it can in turn inspire others to also do business in a socially responsible way.