There is nothing wrong with a bamboo pen.
Let’s establish that before we go any further.
If you need a pen and you can choose one made from more responsible materials, brilliant.
But buying the bamboo pen doesn’t suddenly make a business sustainable.
Neither does putting recycling bins in the office.
Or ordering reusable water bottles with your logo on them.
Or changing the disposable cups at your next company event.
These choices can all be positive.
But conscious business is about something much bigger.
It’s about pausing long enough to consider the impact of the choices we make – on people, communities and the planet – and then deciding whether there might be a better way.
What Is a Conscious Business Choice?
Every business makes hundreds, perhaps thousands, of decisions.
Some are enormous.
Who should we employ?
Where should we invest?
Which supplier should we use?
How should we treat someone who’s struggling?
Others seem almost insignificant.
Where should we order lunch from?
Do we need to print this?
Do we really need another piece of branded merchandise?
Should this meeting be online or in person?
Individually, many of these decisions seem tiny.
Collectively, they shape the impact of an organisation.
That’s why conscious business doesn’t necessarily begin with an enormous sustainability strategy.
Sometimes it begins with a pause.
Why are we doing this?
Who does this decision affect?
Is there a better option?
Conscious Doesn’t Mean Perfect
This is important.
Conscious living and conscious business aren’t about perfection.
If they were, most of us would give up before lunchtime.
Every choice has consequences and sometimes there isn’t an obvious perfect answer.
A local product might cost more.
A sustainable alternative might not be available.
People still need to travel.
Businesses still need to make money.
Sometimes practical reality wins.
Being conscious simply means not operating entirely on autopilot.
It means noticing our choices.
Questioning them occasionally.
And changing them when a better alternative becomes possible.
The Problem With Visible Sustainability
Some sustainable choices are wonderfully visible.
Reusable bottles.
Electric vehicles.
Solar panels.
Recycled packaging.
And yes, bamboo pens.
They’re easy to photograph and easy to communicate.
But some of the most important choices a business makes aren’t particularly Instagrammable.
Paying suppliers fairly isn’t very exciting to photograph.
Supporting an employee through a difficult period doesn’t make a great LinkedIn graphic.
Choosing a responsible supplier might go completely unnoticed by customers.
Reducing unnecessary consumption doesn’t produce anything new to show people at all.
But these decisions matter.
Conscious business is as much about how an organisation behaves when nobody is watching as the sustainability initiatives it promotes publicly.
Ask Where Your Money Goes
One of the simplest conscious actions any organisation can take is to think more carefully about where it spends money.
Every purchase supports another business.
So who are we supporting?
Could we buy locally?
Could we use an independent supplier?
Does the organisation we’re buying from share some of our values?
How are its products made?
How does it treat people?
Do we even need to buy the thing in the first place?
You won’t always be able to investigate every purchase.
Nobody has enough hours in the day for that.
But applying these questions to larger or regular purchases can begin to change where money flows.
And that can have an impact far beyond your own organisation.
Events Are a Great Example
Business events demonstrate this perfectly.
A company might be trying to improve its environmental and social impact, but when it comes to organising an away day or conference, decisions can quickly revert to price, convenience and habit.
Yet an event involves an entire chain of choices.
The venue.
Food.
Travel.
Suppliers.
Activities.
Waste.
Gifts.
Energy.
Even the businesses receiving the money.
Choosing a venue that shares your values can make the event itself part of your organisation’s responsible-business strategy.
The Wellbeing Farm is a good example of this approach. As a B Corp™ Certified business, sustainability and positive impact are considered as part of the wider way the organisation operates rather than being treated as an event-day add-on.
Its approach to sustainable events looks beyond individual green products towards the overall impact of the experience.
People Are Part of Sustainability Too
Sustainability is often associated almost exclusively with the environment.
But conscious business also asks us to think about people.
How do people experience our workplace?
Are employees listened to?
Do they feel valued?
Do we create environments where people can contribute ideas?
Are we building businesses that improve people’s lives or simply extract as much productivity as possible from them?
A business could eliminate every plastic cup in the building and still have an unhealthy culture.
That’s why conscious action needs to look at the whole picture.
People matter too.
Community Matters
Businesses don’t exist in isolation.
They operate in towns, villages and cities.
They employ local people.
They use infrastructure.
They buy from suppliers.
They have knowledge, resources, spaces and connections.
Imagine if every organisation asked:
“How can our business leave our community slightly better because we’re here?”
The answer doesn’t need to involve a huge corporate social responsibility programme.
Perhaps you can support a local organisation.
Volunteer expertise.
Buy from another local business.
Open a space to the community.
Mentor someone.
Share resources.
Introduce two people who could help one another.
Small actions multiplied across thousands of businesses become significant.
That’s the thinking behind our Conscious Communities action area.
What About Profit?
Businesses need to make money.
Conscious Day isn’t about pretending otherwise.
Without sustainable profit, organisations can’t employ people, invest, pay suppliers or continue creating impact.
The interesting question isn’t whether profit is good or bad.
It’s:
Can we create profitable businesses while also making decisions that are better for people and planet?
Celia Gaze writes extensively about this intersection between business, purpose and leadership on celiagaze.com.
Her approach to purpose-led and conscious leadership asks businesses to think beyond what they say they value and consider whether those values are actually reflected in everyday decisions.
That’s exactly the sort of conversation Conscious Day exists to encourage.
One Conscious Decision Can Lead to Another
One of the reasons Conscious Day focuses on practical action is that change rarely happens all at once.
One question leads to another.
Perhaps you start by reviewing your event suppliers.
That makes you think about your everyday suppliers.
Then somebody asks about waste.
That leads to a conversation about consumption.
Someone else suggests supporting a local organisation.
Before long, people are looking at the organisation differently.
Not because somebody produced a 74-page sustainability strategy.
But because people started noticing.
Try This With Your Team
Choose one area of your organisation.
It could be:
- Purchasing
- Events
- Food
- Waste
- Employee wellbeing
- Travel
- Energy
- Community
- Suppliers
- Meetings
Then ask three questions:
What are we doing now?
Why are we doing it that way?
Could we make one better choice?
That’s it.
You don’t have to solve climate change before Friday.
Just identify one action.
Then do it.
Conscious Action Is About Progress
We don’t need millions of people or businesses being perfectly sustainable.
We need millions making more conscious decisions.
Some will be tiny.
Some will be transformative.
Some won’t work.
Some will lead somewhere completely unexpected.
The important thing is that we start noticing the impact of our choices.
That’s what Conscious Day is really about.
Creating a pause.
Thinking.
Then acting.
So yes, choose the bamboo pen if it’s the better option.
But while you’re holding it, ask yourself a bigger question:
What else could we do differently?
That’s where conscious action really begins.
