Everything is Made for the Big Guys | How do we give the little guys a chance to catch up?

We try to stay involved in the relevant realm of sustainability and up to date with the latest trends, discoveries, patterns, and more. Working isn't enough; we need to make sure we are constantly learning to offer the greatest services to our clients, not just of what we know but of everything there is out there to know. I find myself reading more than twenty articles, listening in on at least one webinar, trying to squeeze in one informational interview a week. The discussions include trends in corporate social responsibility reporting, sustainability data tracking software, tools for embedding sustainability in your organizations...the list goes on and on.

One thing that struck me in the last couple articles I read and webinar I attended was how much the new tools and services and standards available are all catered to the largest market players. While this is good because the Wal-Mart's of the world can alter proportionally much more of the industry with a switch in sourcing standards than the bottom 80% all banding together to push for change, it does make it hard for thousands of small and medium companies to utilize some of the amazing new techniques that will help with sustainable practices and standards within their organizations.

Unfortunately, standards and protocols aren't as "one size fits all" as they are presented to be.
Software can be prohibitively expensive for smaller companies. Small and medium size companies lack the resources and financial support from leadership to put sustainability protocols into place. Most often, smaller organizations lack manpower, and shift the entire burden of CSR and sustainability compliance and efforts onto one small team or even one person.

This is not just a shameless plug, as we here at Sustainability in Review specialize in helping smaller players implement sustainability strategies and understand how to meet policy and consumer expectations in a quickly evolving environment. We do and want to help because it makes the world a better place, and never have we come across an organization that didn't have people that cared deeply in its midst but arming these people with the proper skills, power, and support is the struggle we take joy in overcoming.

I am not suggesting we redesign a new set of standards or tools for small and medium sized companies; there are already too many overlaps and repeats on the market. But how about focusing on creating a subset of standards that helps small/medium companies catch up? Maybe looking to release cheaper versions of simplified software for companies that have less than thousands of people or hundreds of locations to track? How can we use economiese of scale and scope as well as collaboration to benefit everyone?

Sustainability is not some place we need to create competitive advantage. Sustainability is something we need to do if we not only want to be doing business, but even living as we live now 100, 50, even 25 years in the future. On the back of giants of industry and through the power of numbers in smaller organizations: we have to make this happen. Got ideas? Share them with us at admin@sustainabilityinreview.com


Thank you