Community

What it is

Your business doesn’t operate in a bubble. Every business has an impact on its community, either negatively or positively. It might be noise, traffic, dust or affecting local heritage. Alternatively it could mean jobs, local pride, and new opportunities.

Whether you're making products, constructing homes, guiding tourists or running events, your decisions shape the place you're in. Addressing community impact means considering how your operations might affect others, building ties, respecting land and culture, and finding ways to contribute positively.

Why it matters

Healthy, inclusive communities are essential for a fair, functioning society. But many are struggling, with jobs becoming harder to find, the resources they depend on being overused, and local traditions and services disappearing. The real impacts are felt through lost livelihoods, rising costs, and weakened community connections.

A community is a collection of individuals, so the decisions of each individual affect the whole, and influence the decisions of others. Whether it's disrupting other businesses and residents with noise or traffic, or purchasing from those businesses and supporting community events, your choices make a difference.

Even small businesses can have a big impact. A single venue, for example, can cause nuisance and shift traffic away from existing businesses, or alternatively bring new jobs and opportunities to an area.

Doing right by your community also helps your business. It avoids the pain of angry neighbours, builds trust, and earns you goodwill that money can’t buy.

Sources: Trucost 2013; UN Water 2025; Institute for Local Self-Reliance; U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2022

Who it matters most for

This issue matters most for businesses that cause short-term disruption, like construction and events; cause ongoing nuisances, like manufacturing, logistics and tourism; or affect access to shared resources, like farming, forestry and fishing.

If you’re developing property, hosting guests, harvesting natural resources or manufacturing goods, your impact on the community may be direct and visible. But even quiet or office-based businesses can make a difference, from who you hire to how you support local initiatives. Every action adds up.

What you can do

Here are some practical and impactful ways you can address the impact you have on your community in your business.

Minimise environmental and physical impacts

Respect land, culture and local resources

Understand your obligations

Employ and buy locally

Support the community beyond business

Minimise environmental and physical impacts

Noise from heavy equipment, dust from dirt roads or stockpiles, odour from processing, deliveries that block roads, or disturbed soil washing into local waterways can quickly turn into big frustrations for your neighbours. Even the timing of your work or how tidy your site looks can affect how you're perceived in the local area.

If your business causes noise, odours, dust, water runoff or heavy traffic, take steps to reduce the impact. Minimise site clearing, limit activities to appropriate hours, maintain your equipment, and use screens or barriers to control dust or sound. You can learn more about preventing pollution in the how-to guide on chemicals and pollution.

It's also critical to inform and consult your neighbours about disruptive work or changes. Some advance warning helps them prepare, whether it's a road closure or a noisy repair job, and for larger disruptions, seek their input on how to manage it to everyone's satisfaction. Provide a clear way for them to raise any concerns with you directly. Open communication helps build trust and prevents small frustrations from turning into formal complaints.

Source: EPA Victoria

Quick actions you can take:

• Take a site walk looking for things that might concern neighbours, like loud equipment, an unsightly dumping area or blocked footpaths, and identify solutions
• If work will affect your neighbours, post clear signage or do a letter drop; even a simple “Thanks for your patience’ sign can help
• Shift noisy or dusty activities to mid-morning or early afternoon, and movement of trucks away from peak traffic times

Respect land, culture and local resources

Some places hold deep cultural, spiritual or historic meaning. Others are tied to local livelihoods or ecosystems. Whether you’re building, fishing, running tours or harvesting natural materials, make sure you’re not damaging something irreplaceable.

Avoid overusing shared resources like fresh water, marine life, access roads or public spaces. Learn whether the area is significant to local or indigenous communities, for example by checking with your local council, and seek the input of traditional custodians or local tribes if they might be affected. You’ll build stronger relationships and often gain valuable knowledge in return.

In tourism, help your guests to appreciate local culture and history so they behave respectfully to sacred places, traditions and nature, and encourage them to buy from local businesses.

Source: IUCN 2025

Quick actions you can take:

• Find out from your local council or tourism board if any nearby areas have cultural or heritage importance
• Review your use of surface or ground water, access roads, public spaces or resources like fish: is your use affecting availability for others?
• Highlight the local ecosystem, traditions and history to your guests and remind them to stay on paths, avoid sensitive areas and respect local customs
• Invite conversation and initiate consultations with traditional custodians of the area where you’re operating

Understand your obligations

Many community impacts are regulated by local councils or environmental laws. You might need permits to clear land, run an event, renovate a building, or change traffic flow.

Even if your work seems small, it can cause real issues, like blocked driveways, stormwater pollution, or increased congestion. Check planning rules before you start and speak to neighbours where needed.

By knowing your responsibilities up front, you’ll avoid fines, delays or complaints. You’ll also show your community that you care.

Source: UK Gov Planning Data, 2022

Quick actions you can take:

• Check your local council's website or give them a call to see if permits or approvals are needed for your activities
• Read the conditions on any licence, lease or permit you already hold and make sure your team knows what’s expected

Employ and buy locally

Hiring people from the local area and working with local suppliers helps money stay circulating locally. It also builds stronger relationships since customers and the community know they're sharing in your success.

If you use contractors, try to choose small, local operators over large, distant ones. Buy supplies – from your IT service to locally made furniture – from nearby retailers, producers or service providers when you can. Aim to make your hiring and purchasing reflect the diversity of the local population, including minority groups, so the benefits are widely shared.

In tourism or events, it's especially important to make sure the local area shares in the benefits, so include local guides, artists or food providers. For product makers, it might mean sourcing ingredients or parts from nearby farms or manufacturers. Sometimes, this might be slightly more expensive, but it reaps rewards.

Further guidance on choosing suppliers including diverse suppliers and social procurement is covered in the how-to guide about products and sourcing.

Source: Civic Economics, 2012

Quick actions you can take:

• Seek out local producers for your food or product ingredient
• Look at one regular office purchase (like coffee, merchandise or uniforms) and find out if there's a local provider available
• Post vacant roles on your door or local jobs boards to attract people living in the area

Support your local community beyond business

There are lots of ways you can get involved and support your local community, but we probably don’t need to tell you that, as small business owners already have some of the highest rates of volunteering and charitable giving compared to the general public.

You don’t even need to give money to make a difference. Let your team volunteer during work hours. Offer pro bono services or mentor local youth. Contribute to a community event or cleanup. Offer your venue for a fundraiser or spare office space to a community initiative. Provide discounts or free access to people in need. These are just some ideas; pick one and start there!

You could also find out what's happening in your local area and how to get involved by joining your local business network, chamber of commerce or precinct association. Even offering a pin-up notice board in your café or shop can provide an invaluable community service.

You can find more information on giving back to both people and the planet more broadly in the how-to guide on governance.

Learn more about Xero For Good and the Know Your Numbers programme

Quick actions you can take:

• Offer your meeting room or space for a local group to use after hours
• Identify some local opportunities to volunteer and organise a paid day for your team to volunteer together
• Reach out to your local council, chamber of commerce, or community center and ask them about current community projects, specific needs, fundraising opportunities, or upcoming events that you can get involved in

How to know if it's working

Community impact can be harder to measure than visible things like waste, but it's still useful to keep track where you can.

Some common examples include:

• Number of community complaints received and resolved: Track how often neighbours or locals raise concerns about noise, disruption, parking or other issues. Note: The number of complaints can also reflect that the community is willing to raise them, which is a good thing, so doesn’t necessarily reflect good or bad performance.
• Local purchasing spend: Track how much of your business spend goes to suppliers, contractors or services based in your region.
• Number or value of community partnerships: Keep a record of local events, charities or programs you contribute to each year.
• Hours of volunteering or in-kind support: Log staff time or resources donated to community groups.

Common targets might include all complaints resolved, increasing local purchasing by a set percentage, or contributing to at least one community initiative per quarter. Targets will depend on your size and location.

For a business with just a few people, you might opt for an action target like swapping one key ingredient to a local supplier or holding a volunteering day. The key is to find what's relevant for your business and set a goal to keep doing better over time.