How to Make 2025 the Start of Your Sustainability Journey

As we enter 2025, many businesses, including those in the professional cleaning industry, will begin their sustainability practices. This guide outlines a four-step approach to help those companies begin.

It breaks down the process into four manageable stages, allowing businesses to implement sustainability-focused changes smoothly, minimizing disruptions to their core operations. Once sustainability benefits become evident, organizations will quickly realize that taking these steps is well-rewarded in a variety of ways.

Here are the four steps:

Step 1: Setting Realistic Sustainability Goals

Understanding your organization's underlying goals and motivations for sustainability is crucial. This clarity serves as a baseline to measure your progress and ensures your goals are in line with your organization's capabilities and strategic objectives.

Defining clear and achievable goals, understanding the 'why' behind your sustainability initiatives, securing top-level support for the project, and ensuring that adequate resources are allocated, all help ensure the success of a sustainability program.

Pick a goal, make a realistic plan to reach that goal, work through each step of the plan, and repeat. ~~ Charles St. Pierre, one of the greatest mixed martial artists in history.

Step 2: Conduct a "Materiality" Assessment

A materiality assessment is a fancy term for identifying what is most impactful for your organization. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to materiality and sustainability. Further, not all sustainability goals and objectives are the same for all organizations.

Identifying the most relevant and impactful areas in your sustainability initiatives helps ensure the success of your efforts and safeguards that the initiative stays focused and effective.

Your focus determines your reality. ~~ Qui-Gon Jinn, a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise.

Step 3: The Key Roles of Learning and Education

Education is a foundational step for launching a winning sustainability initiative. Learning about and understanding sustainability best practices can help your organization avoid potential pitfalls and common mistakes.

Attending workshops and conferences, utilizing online resources, and studying sustainability cases can help improve your sustainability process tremendously.

For jansan companies, joining industry-specific committees like ISSA's Sustainability Committee can also provide a sense of community, peer support, and ongoing group learning opportunities.

Alone, we are smart. Together, we are brilliant. ~~ Author Steven W. Anderson.

Step 4: The Importance of the Team

Twenty-five years ago, when I started working with organizations transferring to Green Cleaning, I learned that a successful program requires a committed and diverse team. This team drives the initiative forward and helps ensure that all sectors of an organization participate in the process.

Start by selecting key players in your organization. They will be essential for gathering data, adding more team players, defining everyone's roles and responsibilities, and, very significantly, securing leadership support.

As to the team members, I've also learned that choosing members based solely on their work titles and hierarchy in the organization is not always the best policy. Instead, consider personalities and look for people willing to put in time and are comfortable working with others.

Also, make sure everyone understands each team member's value and importance, especially when it comes to sustainability.

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference. ~~Jane Goodall

Happy, healthy, successful New Year

-Steve