The Xero Beautiful Business Fund is back for 2024, shining a spotlight on the innovative efforts of small businesses striving for excellence. One of the four award categories, ‘Innovating for environmental sustainability’, is helping entrepreneurs take the next steps towards a greener future.
We sat down with Tamara Somers, GM of Sustainability and Impact at Xero, to discuss how the fund can enable eco-friendly initiatives, while also sharing practical tips to help small businesses implement savvy sustainability measures.
Knowing where to start is one of the biggest challenges small businesses face when trying to become more sustainable.
“Our message is to start somewhere,” Somers says. “Start small. Start with something you can bite off. You don’t have to change the world by tomorrow.”
She adds that it’s an unfortunate reality that many business owners worry about making mistakes or being accused of ‘greenwashing’. But with incremental, manageable changes, measuring the impact of your efforts becomes more accessible.
Acknowledging your current environmental impact is an important step. For businesses already using Xero, Somers says you can integrate apps like Sumday, Greenly or Trace to make this process easier.
“Small businesses using Xero already have a big advantage because they can plug into a whole range of apps in the Xero App Store that allow them to measure their carbon footprint,” Somers says.
Using tools like these will help you identify any areas where sustainable changes are possible – benefitting not just the environment, but potentially your bottom line as well. Switching to renewable energy sources or upgrading to energy-efficient lighting, for example, might not be beyond the realms of possibility. Even reducing waste in some minor way can contribute to lowering your business’s carbon footprint.
Making your small business more environmentally sustainable through products and services is another area to look at, according to Somers. Whether it’s doing some research on using more sustainable materials or redesigning your packaging to reduce the overall environmental impact, there’s often huge potential to make greener switches.
“We had a fantastic customer that was our global winner in sustainability last year, called Constantia Food Club in South Africa,” Somers says. “They were bringing organic fruits and vegetables to people who would otherwise not have access to those fresh products. They wanted to expand their offering through a collective model, which was already doing a lot of good, and we thought that was a great idea that the fund could support.”
Somers is of the belief that working with advisors can help small businesses roll out sustainability practices much more effectively. They can provide essential insights into how your operations are running, and curate specific strategies that match your ambitions and financial capacity. If you are really committed to making a positive change for the long term, generating sustainability reports can also be invaluable.
“We have a great partnership with the Australian company Sumday. They provide audit-ready carbon accounting software for accountants and bookkeepers,” Somers says. She adds that whether it’s through an app or your own advisory team, getting third-party support will help you develop the most robust sustainability strategies for success.
Last year’s winner of the ‘Innovating for sustainability’ category in Australia is a standout example of what Xero is looking for. Suitcase Records is a family-run business in Brisbane that prints vinyl records – but not like anything you’ve seen before. They entered the competition with an idea to produce low-carbon PVC vinyl records, which would greatly reduce the environmental impact across their entire production process.
“Vinyl records have become a real collector’s item lately, so when they came to us with this low-carbon PVC idea, we just went ‘Wow!’” Somers says. “That’s the kind of idea that’s really hard to pitch to a bank manager, but it’s perfect for the Xero Beautiful Business Fund.”
Major players in the music industry soon caught wind of this innovative idea, including artists like Lime Cordiale.
“Lime Cordiale heard about what we were doing and came to us specifically because we could help them for their vinyl to be more sustainable,” says Kathy Wilson, co-owner of Suitcase Records. “They were one of our biggest orders that we’ve ever done.
“The fund came in and it enabled us to be the first in Australia to import this compound, to offer it to local musicians. It’s made a really substantial difference to our business.”
