A number of months in the past, I introduced an enormous aim publicly: my firm, Seattle Chocolate, can be carbon unfavorable by 2024. It was formidable, daring, and seemingly out of attain—which is exactly how I knew it was the correct aim to set.

Sustainability is a key focus for my enterprise at present, nevertheless it wasn’t at all times the case. Like most entrepreneurs, I spent the primary years specializing in survival. I had a imaginative and prescient to make the world a greater place by means of chocolate—however to ensure that any of that to occur, the corporate needed to be financially sustainable.

It took 10 years to get our enterprise worthwhile and steady. Slowly, I started shifting my focus to utilizing the corporate as a automobile to make a mark on the earth—one that will outlive me.

I’ve at all times been a “tree hugger” at coronary heart. Spending the final 36 years within the Pacific Northwest amongst outstanding landscapes created a connection to the planet. Sustainability grew to become a pure alternative: it could be a method I would go away a legacy by means of chocolate.

Whether or not you’re eager about legacy or not, our companies are unimaginable autos we are able to use to make an affect on the world round us.

Listed here are among the practices I’ve leveraged to encourage our firm’s sustainability affect.

Inspire with hope, not worry

Years in the past, I attended the Pure Product Expo (a cornerstone commerce present within the pure client packaged items world). I sat in a crowd and listened to a incredible keynote speaker. One sentence resonated with me: “We now have 100 months left earlier than the harm from international warming is irreversible.”

These details and statistics might be sobering. Many individuals typically have a visceral response to them, virtually feeling burdened with guilt and worry concerning the present state of the surroundings. A fear that the earth goes to implode and develop into uninhabitable shortly units in.

Coming back from that commerce present, I used to be crammed with a way of urgency—however I additionally felt a way of hope.

“Not less than we’ve got 100 months,” is what I stored telling myself.

When the issue feels massive, a way of helplessness can shortly overcome us—and it’s not an excellent place for anybody to be in. Main with hope was the one means ahead.

My workforce and I broke the “large drawback” down into smaller steps: we leveraged GreenFeet to audit our carbon footprint, analyzed every space of our enterprise, set KPIs and milestones, assigned accountabilities, and constructed a roadmap to changing into carbon impartial (after which, ultimately, carbon unfavorable).

Within the course of, I realized that hope will at all times be the best motivator and the best software within the entrepreneurial toolkit. Inspire with hope, not worry.

At this level, we’re now all the way down to about 87 months – and but I really feel simply as hopeful as ever.

Effort goes a good distance

Inside 90 days of listening to that there have been 100 months earlier than the planet suffered irreversible harm, Seattle Chocolate grew to become carbon impartial.

How did we truly obtain this in such a brief time frame?

Effort.

We reached out to all of our distributors, together with the first vendor from whom we buy chocolate. We researched. We requested our distributors onerous questions. We challenged them and ourselves.

Within the course of, we realized there have been many areas of our provide chain which we had missed from a sustainability perspective. For instance, the plastic baggage we had been utilizing (and throwing away) for years had been recyclable. Distributors by no means instructed us as a result of we by no means requested.

Now, we recycle these baggage.

A part of the hassle got here all the way down to setting out inner processes. We carried out a coverage to look to different distributors if the seller we’re presently working with isn’t keen to implement sustainable practices. Until they determine the right way to work inside our parameters, we is not going to work with them.

Typically it’s the smallest efforts, whether or not or not it’s asking onerous questions of your current distributors or implementing new processes that set off transformation, which have the biggest affect. My finest studying: put in small efforts and let the modifications carry you ahead towards larger efforts.

Lead by listening

Six years in the past, I obtained a letter from a girl named Betty from Oregon. Within the letter, she enclosed certainly one of our Seattle Chocolate wrappers and a word that mentioned: “That is rubbish.”

Betty, who had labored for a recycling firm in Oregon, claimed the packaging that we used to wrap our chocolate was not recyclable; the one technique of disposal was tossing it within the trash.

I had been assured that our packaging was recyclable, but I checked once more with our packaging vendor. The seller reconfirmed that the packaging we had bought from them was completely recyclable. I nonetheless questioned, “Why did Betty say that?”

My workforce and I dug deeper. It didn’t take lengthy to make an attention-grabbing discovery: whereas the paper and the plastic that we used had been every recyclable, the bonding of the 2 of them collectively rendered the packaging now not recyclable. Betty from Oregon was proper.

It took us six months to trial and error a brand new wrap that wouldn’t tear at retail and can be completely recyclable. As soon as we completed it, I wrote Betty a letter again saying, “I did it. And thanks for caring sufficient to level it out!”

One of the best leaders hear greater than they converse. Typically meaning listening to prospects, like Betty from Oregon, in an actual means. The result’s a constructive suggestions loop: when folks really feel like they’re being listened to, they are going to really feel extra motivated to assist and take part within the large aim you are attempting to realize.

Entrepreneurs are the changemakers the world wants. We will transfer quick, tackle formidable tasks, and create change that may ripple out far past the boundaries of our corporations. Why shouldn’t we take the lead on sustainability, essentially the most urgent subject that each one human beings are dealing with proper now?

My journey tackling sustainability jogs my memory that we’ve got a alternative once we take a look at an enormous mountain earlier than us: both we really feel empowered to take it one step ahead, or we really feel hopeless concerning the measurement and scope of it, by no means taking a step ahead and by no means making any progress.

Hope creates momentum—and as soon as momentum happens, who is aware of what legacy you’ll depart behind on the earth lengthy after you’re gone?

Contributed to EO by Jean Thompson, the CEO of Seattle Chocolate and jcoco. After delivering an acclaimed TEDx Discuss in 2017 titled “Think about a World With out Chocolate,” Jean has been on a mission to unfold the chocolate revolution.

For extra insights and inspiration from at present’s main entrepreneurs, try EO on Inc. and extra articles from the EO weblog.