Stage 2: Prioritise your efforts
As a small business owner, your time is limited and you can’t do everything! So it’s important to focus your efforts on what matters most.
What you’ll learn in this section
Why you don’t actually have to do it all
A simple explanation of what ‘materiality’ means
A tool to identify what matters most for your business
Why you don’t have to do it all
It’s likely that not every topic matters or is relevant to your business, so it’s important to consider, “Where in my business do I have the biggest impact on people or the planet?” or ”Can these issues impact the success of my business?”
Materiality = Knowing what’s important
A key concept you’ll come across in sustainability is the idea of the ‘materiality’ of an impact or issue. This idea basically reflects whether a topic is significant or important enough to affect your decisions and actions when it comes to sustainability.
How this looks in practice
These examples illustrate how different types of small businesses have different focus areas based on what’s ‘material’ or relevant to them.
Where should you focus? Find out with this tool
Not sure what sustainability looks like for your business? Xero has created this quick quiz in partnership with Sustainable Choice Group to help you identify the ESG issues that matter most for your industry, activities and size, plus practical steps to get started.
Find your focus with our quick sustainability quiz