If you are in business, you want to make a profit. If you are reading this page, you are probably also wondering how your business can help look after the environment. These days many businesses are doing both quite successfully. In this section you will find advice on how to care for the environment and how you can make your business more sustainable.

Greater Wellington is committed to helping businesses increase their sustainability and do well in the market place. Currently there are two business programmes that Greater Wellington supports.

• eMission - a 1yr programme focusing on helping businesses achieve environmental accreditation and reducing their carbon footprint.
  
• Take Charge – a GW programme to help you with pollution prevention on your site.

If you are a business in the Wellington region and want to improve your environmental performance contact 

Roger Archibald
Ph: (04) 801 1061
Email: roger.archibald@gw.govt.nz

OR

Michelle Hayward
Ph: (04) 801 1083
Email: michelle.hayward@gw.govt.nz

More and more businesses are adopting the principles of sustainability and applying them to their operations. What is sustainability? There are many definitions but, in a business sense, sustainability means doing business without undermining or downgrading the resources needed by society to provide for itself in the future. A “sustainable business” is one which uses a minimum of natural resources and puts as little waste as possible into the environment. For many people, it means a business that is concerned as much for the social and environmental consequences of its actions, as for its profitability (what has been termed the “triple bottom line”)

You don’t have to go the whole hog or become a “sustainable business” overnight! The important thing is to get started. Every business is different. The opportunities and benefits for your business will become apparent as you work through the options.

There are many benefits to adopting more environmentally friendly practices and becoming a more sustainable business. These include:

• Saving money by reducing your operating costs (e.g., using less energy, water).  
• Reducing your environmental impact and associated costs (e.g., waste disposal costs)
• Increasing your competitiveness in the marketplace through innovation and by leading the way in environmental performance.
• Increasing customer sales and loyalty.
• Strengthening supplier commitment.
• Creating value through an improved public image and brand.
• Identifying and managing risks associated with the environmental impacts of your business (e.g, avoiding spills and contamination on your site). 
• Being seen as a responsible employer who people want to work for.
  

There are many examples of businesses benefiting from becoming sustainable. See the case studies to find out more about these businesses.