From big businesses to small operators, it seems all companies today want to make their products more sustainable — and many consumers desire to purchase eco-friendly versions of their favorite products. The steps to move your business toward a more sustainable model are similar to other goals you may set for your company.
Here’s a look at a few ideas to make your soapmaking business more environmentally-friendly.
Minimize the Use of Plastic
By moving away from plastic packaging to alternatives like
glass or
metal, you’ll be using materials that can be more easily recycled and more often reused. Or in the case of
paperboard, your packaging would decompose hundreds of years sooner than a typical plastic bottle.
Change Your Product's Form
One significant trend in sustainability is the shift from traditional liquid shampoos, conditioners and lotions to their bar counterparts. Creating your products in bar form lets you ditch the plastic bottles in favor of minimal packaging, like paper wrapping. In addition to the eco-friendly aspect, customers will appreciate that
shampoo bars and
lotion bars are also travel-friendly and space-saving.
Switch to Natural Ingredients
Reducing or eliminating the use of synthetic ingredients and choosing more natural options is another way to increase your company’s sustainability. This means swapping petroleum-based products and synthetic perfumes for
safer ingredients and
natural fragrance oils.
Reduce Water Use
Save water, one of the planet’s most valuable resources, by using less when making your soap. As an added bonus, in the case of bar soap, using less water will result in your soap hardening more quickly, meaning you can unmold it earlier and it will take less time to cure.
Go Digital
Reduce the use of paper by switching to email receipts, PDF versions of invoices and other alternatives to traditional paperwork.
Internal Initiatives
In addition to producing more eco-friendly products, you can “green” your internal operations by making small changes, such as purchasing recycled paper, using bamboo paper towels, biking to work and using reusable water bottles.
How to Achieve Sustainability Goals
Sustainability can apply to multiple aspects of your business — in fact, the more areas in which you work to increase these practices, the more impactful the shift will be.
Start your shift to sustainability by making a list of all the ways you’d like to adapt your business. Then, apply the popular goal-achievement acronym SMART — which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-framed — to transform your ideas into actionable initiatives.
Specific: Create a roadmap for how you plan to get from point A to point Z. Research other companies in the handmade industry that have an eco-friendly model you’d like to emulate. Connect with the founders of those companies to learn how they incorporated sustainability into their own businesses.
Measurable: For each goal on your sustainability list, establish quantifiable objectives that can be measured over time.
Attainable: Avoid setting yourself up for failure by setting reasonable goals. For example, in the case of packaging, a first step may be to use 10 percent fewer materials in the shipping process.
Realistic: While you can become more aggressive with your goals over time, set a realistic starting place and a defined end point. Over time, findings from all of your “mini-goals” empower you to move deeper into implementing your vision of a sustainable business model.
Time-Framed: Establish deadlines to ensure success. Even small adjustments like sourcing at least one item you purchase regularly from a local supplier by March 1, or moving 30 percent of your accounting processes from paper to digital files by the third quarter can contribute to improved sustainability.
Embrace sustainability as part of your business’ culture and mission, and eventually it will become a guiding principle behind all your decisions, strategies and new pursuits.
