Business benefits from the triple bottom line – and so does the team

I listened to Matt Perry last week implore his audience of entrepreneurs at an EO event in Sydney that “it is up to us” to make the world a better place. No matter how small, each of us has the opportunity to make a profound difference to “looking after” the planet.

He said that we could be the hero!

A ‘hero’ is someone who solves a problem too big for the rest of us; hence, by definition, a ‘hero brand’ is a business that makes a problem go away. Doing the right thing, being a great corporate citizen is good for the bottom line too, he outlined. To be a hero is not to let others bully you, to stick to the status quo, or to give up.

Businesses, however, are made up of people – lots of them. Sometimes the leaders of the business believe in sustainability or the ‘triple bottom line’ but many times they don’t. This does not mean that we should give up – or leave it to someone else.

One by one we change the world. It just takes one person doing something and then the idea catches on.

Handy hints you can do for your personal triple bottom line:

Wash your clothes less! You won’t smell, don’t worry!

We have become paranoid about washing and every time we do a load it impacts the planet. I know my son can wear three t-shirts in a day – and because they are on the floor they get washed. Try it. One of the benefits is that your clothes will last longer. (If 100,000 people do one less load of washing per week, we would save lots of power, water, and reduce the detergents, etc.)

Use it all before you buy another one!

My daughter has endless potions and lotions in her bathroom (way more than me) so we are playing a game of using what we have – before we buy a new one. This might sound odd, but she has endless half used bottles that she stopped using just because she got something new. They are perfectly good – and she will save a lot of her pocket money. (What does your kitchen pantry look like?)

Clean up! Re-use, recycle, or remove! And do it this weekend!

You could clean your room, the house, the backyard, the local park – but for this you will not be alone. So one by one nearly 600,000 people will join you, so one person can have a massive impact. If Ian Kiernan had not decided 30 years ago to start Clean Up the world would be a far dirtier place.

Every year, dedicated individuals all over Australia prepare to do battle for a cleaner Australia. These selfless individuals come from all sections of society to take part in the annual Clean Up Australia Day to clean up, fix up and conserve our prized Australian environment. Last year 591,400 volunteers together cleaned up over 16,199 tonnes of rubbish at 7,363 registered sites across Australia.

Will you be part of the team for Clean Up Australia Day 2013? Register here.

What other things can you do to leave the planet a better place than when you found it?

Walk instead of drive? Don’t eat meat for a week? Give an experience instead of stuff? All these things make the world a better place.

Every single soul has the power of choice – choose to make a difference.

One of Australia’s outstanding entrepreneurs, Naomi Simson has received many accolades and awards for the business she founded, RedBalloon.com.au including the 2011 Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year – Industry.