Making the necessary changes to ensure your operations are sustainable for the environment is not all that simple, but it certainly is essential
These days, being a smart leader and cultivating a successful enterprise has a lot to do with being sustainable, not only in terms of business practices or culture but also in impact on the environment.
We talk to four Gen.T honourees from the Philippines to find out how they have made their businesses more environmentally friendly over the years and their sustainability goals for the near future.
Anne Arcenas Gonzalez
What practices does your business adopt to be more eco-friendly?
As a retail business, more efficient packaging is a priority. Purchases on havaianas.ph are stripped of excess material like hangers, polybags and boxes, and shipped in plant-based compostable packaging. Roughly 90 percent of items sold in our CommonThread stores utilise cassava bags. Our aim is to use this type of compostable packaging in a majority of our stores, both online and offline. Though it costs us 30 percent more to do so, we believe it’s a necessary step to reduce waste.
Our commitment to using more sustainable packaging prompted us to recently invest in Sachi Group, a local startup by three dynamic entrepreneurs specialising in the development and production of innovative flexible packaging made from renewable materials.
How has adopting these changes impacted you or the way your company operates?
Admittedly, changing our secondary packaging is such a tiny step, but it’s a springboard to examine our business practices, engage members of all departments to be part of the conversation and hold everyone accountable. We are now tasked to come up with clear and achievable sustainability goals that we must work towards as a company and ensure that we actually make an impact.