Before I improve my business’ sustainability plan, I need to assess what I’m doing right so far.

Tool

I used the B Impact Assessment, a free, confidential tool that measures a company’s social and environmental impact on the community and its consumers. The tool looks at five areas:

Governance: assesses the company’s structure, policies, and practices
Customers: assesses the positive and/or negative impacts of the company’s products/services and practices on the customers
Community: assesses the positive and/or negative impacts of the company’s products/services and practices on the community
Environment: assesses the positive and/or negative impacts of the company’s products/services and practices on the environment
Disclosures: assesses the various industries and products that are inherently harmful

Results

I started this assessment thinking that I wouldn’t do too badly, but I had a terrible score. It’s not that I dump toxic chemicals in the river or anything like that; I fall short on transparency and tracking.

Governance

I don’t have a formal code of ethics policy, I don’t display my mission statement (yet), and I don’t engage stakeholders (e.g., clients) much to discuss my impact. The two big things that I need to start doing are focusing on creating a positive impact and tracking my efforts to make sure I make my goals.

Community

I happen to have a better score in this area because my work benefits underserved populations by its very nature: I help people whose rights are being violated by translating and editing studies and information on inequity, people with disabilities, and marginalized communities. People who are immigrating to the US or having immigration issues are also served by my services, paid or pro-bono. Volunteering my services to the underserved community and volunteering my time to the translator community helped boost my score a bit.

Some things I should work on are buying from diverse, local, or underserved suppliers; tracking my volunteer hours and charity donations; and creating policy to improve society or the environment.

Customers

Alright, this looks bad, but customer satisfaction is actually what saved me, or at least gave me a score. I got a bad score because I don’t track how my services and practices impact my clients (and their beneficiaries) and don’t have formal policies on client satisfaction (e.g., setting specific targets). I aim to deliver a perfect project every time to every client; I just don’t write it down, but it wouldn’t hurt to do so.

I also don’t have a formal privacy policy in place because most of my clients have me sign their NDA anyways. Again, it couldn’t hurt to write down a formal policy for myself.

Environment

I don’t have a score here because I don’t monitor my energy and water usage, nor do I monitor my waste disposal. I work at home, where three other people live, so it’s hard to accurately track that. Perhaps I could try recording how much water and electricity I personally use during the day.

I also don’t investigate the environmental impact that my suppliers make; most of my work is digital, so I didn’t really think that there would be much of an impact. However, digital services have a significant impact on the environment (see Resources below).

Action Items

A lot of the measurement questions are geared more towards big companies rather than a sole proprietorship like mine, but the B Impact Assessment does make me think of things I could do to be more transparent and organized.

Here are some things that would be achievable and help me have a more positive impact:

Put my mission statement on my website
Create a company-specific code of ethics
Buy from local, diverse, or underserved suppliers whenever possible
Track my efforts (i.e., volunteering, donating)
Create a plan for making a positive social and environmental impact
Set specific client satisfaction targets
Monitor how my services impact society and the environment
Record my water and energy usage during working hours
Investigate the environmental impact of the digital services of my suppliers and tools

Solopreneur Sustainable Business Challenge: Conducting an Impact Assessment

Tool