Sustainable Business in Start-Up Community
What do you think about sustainability? Is it something hard to understand or actually down-to-Earth? You may wonder how we can cultivate a sustainable culture in our daily lives, or even in business sector. But in fact, it is not that difficult.
Sustainable business has currently become one of the most important models in the market. A growing number of enterprises have integrated this concept into their business strategies. By definition, sustainability refers to doing business without negatively impacting the environment, community, or society as a whole. It is generally categorized into two areas: (1) the effect business has on the environment, and (2) the effect business has on society (Spiliakos, 2018).
Factories emit a large amount of carbon dioxide per year, which leads to a serious air pollution problem in long term.
[Photo Source: Unsplash / Patrick Hendry]
In the traditional market, it is easy to put “business” and “environment” onto opposite – factories emitting a large amount of carbon dioxide which negatively affects the global environment. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, it is estimated that the total emissions of greenhouse gas in 2019 is 6,558 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent in the United States, where factories account for the second top contributor among all of the economic sectors (EPA, 2019).
Invisible – Hong Kong Start-Up Company Serves as Sustainability Driver
However, in recent years, start-up companies could make a better balance between environment and business. Without polluting the environment, the business further promotes environmental protection to help our nature. A green business is committed to the principles of environmental sustainability in its operations and strives to use renewable resources.
Invisible Company, organized by avid hikers, is a start-up company established in 2020 in Hong Kong. Their co-founders would regularly come across trash all over beautiful mountains and that is the reason why they launch this start-up company in order to protect mother nature.
“We aim to create a community based on authenticity and fairness, built upon our sustainable and innovative products.” This is the distinctive mission of Invisible Company.
“We use biodegradable and water-soluble materials to make an invisible bag”, said Devana Ng, one of the co-founders of Invisible Company, ‘this invisible bag can be used in many different ways such as mailing bags used in e-commerce platforms, or even little baggies for the dogs’ poop.”
“The idea comes from hiking. We saw that there’re too much packagings like tissue bags, food packaging which are all non-biodegradable products. It seriously affects the environment like polluting the ocean and creating a large amount of rubbish”, added Devana.
Devana Ng, co-founder of Invisible Company
When she was asked about the view on sustainability, she responded, ‘sustainability isn’t a slogan only, but it is a trend, and an action, which can sustain both the finance and environment. This is a type of circular economy which takes the production processes into consideration and outlines how to recycle, or reuse the items, in order for the increase of sustainable manufacturing.”
“To promote the sustainability, only Invisible is far not enough, while every enterprise needs to have this sense as well. Action can be taken anywhere, from individual, home, to school, and company. It is a movement. Don’t underestimate every action but
Lastly, she also suggested that reducing waste at source is the most practical way to protect the environment, “producing at least at possible and eliminate the waste before it is created. If really can’t, just think of recycling or reusing are also best ways.”
Reference
Hendry, P. (n.d.). Factories. Unsplash. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/6xeDIZgoPaw.
Spiliakos, A. (2018). What Does “Sustainability” Mean in Business. Harvard Business School Online [Photo Source]. Retrieved from https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-sustainability-in-business.
United States Environmental Protection Agency (2019). Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#:~:text=Industry%20Sector%20Emissions,100%25%20due%20to%20independent%20rounding
