Is having a Commitment to Sustainability document Important?
Hell yes! As a brand, if you are touting that you are sustainable, having a public “Commitment to Sustainability” is critical.
What is a Commitment to Sustainability?
A Commitment to Sustainability is an organization’s public commitment to being sustainable. This is where a brand screams out – how much they are committed to sustainability and in particular their commitments to environmental and social and ethical issues. So yes – simply – this is extremely important.
The Sustainability Commitment should bring together the sustainability vision of all key stakeholders including, employees, directors, partners, shareholders, customers, and suppliers.
A Commitment to Sustainability is the initial building block that is required to reducing an organization’s sustainability impacts. This commitment should outline as a brand, the areas you feel important in your journey of continued sustainability for your brand. Such things as governance of the brand, environmental issues, social and ethical considerations, transparency and circularity of the products you create.
When tackling this commitment, the brand should be prepared to be honest, critical and introspective about all of its operations, supply chains and their associated impacts. To become more sustainable a business should be ready to take risks, be vulnerable, creative and innovative as it moves to improve its sustainability objectives. Evaluation of where the brand is currently is required to determine the next steps. You can do this by completing a mini sustainability assessment to get started. Try our Mini Sustainability Assessment to see how your brand rates. After you know the areas where improvements can be made, it is easy to create your sustainability commitment.
Moving beyond the regular business comfort zone is required. The Commitment to Sustainability should be signed by the CEO of the company and be communicated with all staff and associated stakeholders.
Things to consider
There are a lot of areas to consider when it comes to your commitment to sustainability.
Here are a few areas:
- Training – do you provide sustainability training to your employees
- Low environmental impact fabrics and materials
- Other environmental considerations: energy, water use, wastewater, waste and recycling etc.
- Packaging considerations
- Circularity of your products – consider end of life for your products. Ex. reuse, takeback programs etc.
- What your manufacturing partners and suppliers are doing as it pertains to sustainability
- Social and Ethical issues of your supply chain
- How transparent you want to be
If you would like to learn how to write your own Commitment to Sustainability for your own brand, check out the following link.
Commitment to Sustainability and How to Guide
If you have any questions along the way, please do not hesitate in reaching out to Moda Circolare at modacirc@gmail.com, or fill out the contact form below.
modacirc@gmail.com
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