Step-by-step plan

Sustainable enterprise is good for the environment and for your image. It is also being anchored into legal requirements more and more often, so it’s how we have to operate. However, it also requires that you strike balance between what you do and what you don’t. Finding that balance is not easy. If the costs of sustainable choices get so high that you go bankrupt, that is hardly something you could call “socially responsible”. 

Small steps will take you a long way, though. Step 1: Be sure that you clearly formulate your definition of “sustainable enterprise”. Step 2: Take concrete, feasible measures to achieve your goals.

It’s a constant search: because many measures will call for some minor notes. Palm oil is a good example: it is much healthier to fry with than solid fats. A lot has been done to make palm oil more sustainable, but it continues to be shipped over miles of sea. Should we forget about our fish and chips? These are not easy decisions!

Our air treatment system was due for replacement, which was a good time to choose a more sustainable solution. Of the multiple closed systems, we chose a single energy-efficient, complete system, which we also use for heat reclamation. Another element of our sustainability policy is to ask local business owners to be a part of our business. The project developer, the catering, the maintenance: it all comes from nearby. That is substantially fewer kilometres being driven. 

Sustainable enterprise is not just about what you do: we have to take it on together—and many small steps ultimately become a big one.

Pieter Vos
Director Nutrilab

www.nutrilab.nl