sourcing sustainably for SMEs - how? what do you do?

[Simon C McManus]

So I'm going to make a wild assumption that many intersecting young professionals are also working in small businesses. (We're only two and a half in my marketing co. )

Without having huge resources to research all day or significant power to influence, How do you make the best purchase decisions and influence change through our small demand.

Ie. how do you decide about office supplies, computer software and hardware, services such as telcos/internet, electricity suppliers, business services (accountants etc), courier companies, transport and (eek) even petrol.

We certainly try to make responsible decisions but know we're not perfect and often we don't know if we've chosen the best. What and where are the resources to help businesses like us?

[Jasmine Cargill]

Hi Simon, I work for the Sustainable Business Network (SBN) www.sustainable.org.nz

The SBN has loads of resources and contacts to help with SMEs with sourcing sustainably. Check out the website and send me an email if you like: northern[at]sustainable.org.nz

[Simon C McManus]

Thanks Jasmine, we just renewed our SBN membership, albeit still pretty unfamiliar with all the SBN resources. I've just applied for a getsust passcode for benchmarking test and will get into that as it seems like a great sustainability tool for small operations. Don't be shy, why not tell us about some of the key member resources you're proud of, I'm sure others will be keen to know too.