Sustainability and circularity as they relate to procurement and the consumption of goods and services has, for urgent reasons, emerged as an increasingly critical issue facing corporations.

At Fine Tune, we have focused our efforts on participating in practical, sustainable engagements that reflect our internal beliefs and ambitions. Of course, putting ambition into action is often easier said than done, as the landscape of sustainability seems to be ever-changing and evolving, rising to the challenges faced by the global business community.

Fortunately, there are outlets and organizations whose purpose is to help businesses drive meaningful behavioral changes and ensure positive, long-term impacts.

We have recently engaged with two noteworthy players in that role and are already seeing actionable results as well as promising opportunities on the horizon; we hope that by detailing our sustainability efforts, we encourage others to either begin or expand their own sustainability endeavors.

Our sustainable efforts

One sustainability-focused organization with which we recently engaged is B Lab, the group behind B Corp certifications.

Through a rigorous program known as the “B Impact Assessment,” B Lab helps verify credible leaders in the business community. The assessment is an interactive online application that, through a series of questions and responses, helps companies gain a better understanding of the impact they have on their employees, customers, communities, and environment.

Questions during a B Lab “B Impact Assessment” cover a broad range of topics, such as employee satisfaction, social and environmental performance, charitable giving, product impacts, hazardous waste disposal, hiring practices and pay scale equity, etc. To prove the assertions made, hard documentation must back responses provided in the assessment.

From Fine Tune’s experience, at the end of the “B Impact Assessment"–taking process, we found ourselves in a vastly better position to enhance policies and practices pertaining to our mission, ethics, accountability, and transparency.

With an end goal of B-Corp Certification, Fine Tune further seeks to join a community of business leaders who share our belief that businesses can solve social and environmental problems while improving the value created for clients.

On the topic of community, we have also recently joined the United States Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD).

The goal of this organization is to promote teamwork across businesses and industries to design, implement, and scale solutions for the challenges of circular economics, carbon emissions, energy, and water across North America.

One noteworthy project under the US BCSD is the “Materials Marketplace,” a market-driven resource that links individuals and businesses for the development and scaling of new and reusable materials and products. From thousands of tons of lime to hundreds of reusable 55-gallon drums, and from pallets to ceramic tower packing saddles, the “Materials Marketplace” provides a unique outlet, enabling the reuse of hard-to-recycle products.

To start, Fine Tune will be actively engaging in US BCSD’s “Materials Marketplace” as well as their “Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative,” which will aid that region’s economic growth while helping to protect it from the physical and regulatory risks posed by climate change and the control of greenhouse gas emissions.

We will periodically provide updates into 2022 as we act on our commitment to conduct business in the most sustainable manner.