Self-audits on Environmetal Impact

At Arpin International Group, we are asked by clients to perform an audit of our environmental impact. And that is a pretty comprehensive analysis for us: Our energy use, policies with employees and suppliers, waste, partnerships that improved our overall performance, and much more. Generally, we hold up well. One of our core strategies is, in fact, to do more with less. Give back to our communities much more than we take out.

It got me thinking about how individually, we need to do the same. An an honest and insightful appraisal of how we conduct our lives–or don’t–around ecological balance. If we expect it from companies, and we do, than we should equally demand a solid ESG performance from ourselves.

The starting point is the “as is”: At what level do we look for good standards and innovation in how we manage our resources, transportation, purchasing; do we buy into smart growth or simply chose cheap prices and over consumption?

There is a tragic stat on how quickly our goods, bought with such fanfare, end up in the landfill. The percentage, and how fast it gets carted off as trash, is horrifying. Something like 90 percent or more gets thrown out in about 6 months.

I encourage you to do an inventory right now, as the year ends, and set some aggressive goals for improvements in 2023. There’s plenty of sites that can help you with this. It is like good health and medicine. If you don’t check the numbers and monitor your performance, you will end up sick and dying and wonder what happened. Do we want that for the world and others around us?

Good companies put their money where their social-media mouth is. Time for us to do the same.