How Businesses Can Reduce Their Environmental Impact and Tackle Climate Change

By rethinking energy, resources, transport, and business models, companies of all sizes can be part of the solution – while creating value along the way.

The journey starts with understanding your footprint. Measuring your company’s emissions gives you a clear picture of where your climate impact comes from. That insight enables prioritizing the right actions and setting meaningful goals that drive real change.

1. Energy and fuels – tackle the lowest hanging fruit first

Energy use is the most common source of emissions for a company. Improving efficiency and switching to renewables are therefore among the most powerful early steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change.

Where to start:

• Boost efficiency: replace lighting with LEDs, install smart controls for heating and cooling, lower indoor temperatures by a few degrees, and consider solar panels.
• Switch to renewable electricity: tell your provider you want green sources like wind and solar. If you rely on district heating, push your provider to prioritize renewable sources or waste heat. Look into other providers if not possible for your current ones.
• Phase out fossil fuels: transition vehicles and machinery to electric alternatives.

Cutting energy use and shifting to renewables doesn’t just reduce emissions in line with the 1.5°C limit – it also lowers pressure on fossil fuel extraction, which often damages ecosystems and biodiversity.

2. Materials and products – design circular from the start

Materials and product design can shape much of a company’s environmental footprint. By designing for circularity, you save resources and reduce costs.

Practical actions:

• Choose smarter materials: replace virgin inputs with recycled or renewable alternatives.
• Design for durability: make products that can be reused, repaired, upgraded, and eventually recycled.
• Minimize waste: reuse by-products or ensure materials are recycled rather than incinerated.

Circular choices reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help protect biodiversity by lowering land use and resource extraction. Long-lasting products mean fewer new raw materials are needed – an essential part of staying within planetary boundaries.

Want to learn more? Check out our guide to sustainable textile materials as an example of how to apply it in industry.

3. Transport and travel – shrink the hidden footprint

Transport and business travel often fly under the radar, but they can make up a surprisingly large part of a company’s emissions.

How to reduce them:

• Streamline logistics: shorten routes and plan smarter to cut costs and emissions.
• Procure nearby products to reduce transport needs for your products. Find nearby alternatives that require fewer km travelled.
• Electrify your fleet: switch to electric vehicles.
• Travel less, connect more: encourage digital meetings and remote collaboration, and replace remaining short-distance flights with train travel.
• Choose greener freight and travel modes to your meetings: prioritize rail over air whenever possible.

Electrifying transport and choosing trains over flights helps bring emissions down faster, in line with the 1.5°C goal. It also reduces dependence on fossil fuels, protecting ecosystems along the way.

4. Make sustainability part of your business model

To achieve greater impact more easily, sustainability should be built into the core of your strategy – not treated as an add-on.

Key steps:

• Map your value chain: identify where emissions are highest and focus efforts where they matter most.
• Try service-based models: offering products as services enables take-back, reuse, and circular loops.
• Set ambitious climate targets: align with Science-Based Targets and identify where you have a better chance of reducing your emissions, and track progress regularly.
• Be transparent: share both successes and challenges – it builds trust and strengthens your brand.

Integrating climate goals into strategy isn’t just about cutting emissions. It’s also a chance to develop business models that benefit both the economy and the ecosystems we depend on. Companies that invest in biodiversity solutions, for example, also build resilience for the future.

Explore our platform for instant insights and data that make value chain analysis simple and fast.

Why business decisions matter

Businesses depend on the natural world to sustain their technology, infrastructure, supply chain, and, more importantly, their workforce. They rely on a constant influx of resources and the consistency of conditions to grow and achieve profitability. At the same time, a world that exceeds the 1,5°C increase mark, with low biodiversity and an excess of harmful chemicals, will face constant disruptions to supply chains, resources and its workforce. Natural disasters will become more frequent and unpredictable, food will become scarcer, and the population will be in constant motion, seeking safe places to reset. Businesses can act to prevent this.

Companies shape the climate and environment in many ways – directly and indirectly. Energy use, production processes, transport, and waste all drive greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming. To stay within the 1.5°C limit, businesses must act quickly and decisively.

At the same time, biodiversity is under threat. As ecosystems are exploited and resources extracted unsustainably, nature’s life-support systems – from pollination and water purification to climate adaptation – are being eroded.

Yet businesses can also be powerful agents of change. By investing in renewable energy, efficient technologies, low-carbon transport, and circular business models, they can lower their footprint while restoring ecosystems, opening new opportunities, and strengthening competitiveness.

Small steps, big difference

Cutting emissions can feel overwhelming, but many actions are simple and cost-effective. From energy and materials to logistics and business strategy, every step companies take not only reduces climate impact but also helps build a stronger, more sustainable economy.

Business as a driver of change

No single player can solve the climate and biodiversity crises alone. But business has a unique role to accelerate progress through investment, innovation, and influence across value chains.

By showing leadership – reducing emissions, embracing circular models, and restoring ecosystems – companies can help keep the world within the 1.5°C limit while creating new markets, building resilience, and earning customer trust.

The transition is not a burden – it’s an opportunity. When businesses act and collaborate with governments and civil society, climate action and biodiversity protection become not just survival strategies but engines of growth and future prosperity.

Get started with sustainability today – our platform provides automated insights and data to help you take action faster.

FAQs

What are four ways a business can be more sustainable?

• Measure your emissions – understand your carbon footprint.
• Switch to renewable energy – solar, wind, or green district heating.
• Reduce resource use – choose recycled materials and design for long-lasting, recyclable products.
• Make transport climate-smart – use electric vehicles, optimize logistics, and promote digital meetings instead of travel.

How do companies impact the environment – positively and negatively?

• Negative impacts: fossil fuel use, virgin resource extraction, the use of harmful chemicals, and short-lived products that create waste.
• Positive impacts: improving efficiency, choosing renewable inputs, developing circular models, and setting sustainability standards for suppliers.

How do businesses contribute to society?

• Creating jobs and economic opportunities.
• Delivering products and services that meet people’s needs.
• Driving innovation that addresses climate and social challenges.

When companies take responsibility for climate and biodiversity, they amplify their positive role in building a more sustainable society.

How can companies reduce their climate impact?

• Switch to renewable energy and efficient systems.
• Transition to low-carbon transport and cut unnecessary travel.
• Use recycled or renewable materials.
• Design products for durability, repair, and recycling.
• Reduce hazardous chemicals.
• Implement circular business models such as leasing and take-back.
• Set clear climate goals and track progress across the value chain.

How can companies improve efficiency in environmental and resource use?

• Map resource flows: identify where energy, water, and materials are most used.
• Set measurable targets: decide where you want to go, and continuously monitor energy and resource use.
• Digitalize and automate: smart technology can help you understand what you need to do in a low-resource matter while helping you to cut waste and maximize resources.
• Engage employees: training and everyday action make a big difference.