What I Learned from Starting My Own Sustainable Business

One of the most common questions I’m asked is, “How did you get into doing this kind of work?” Professors often ask me to speak to their classes or send their students my way to interview me about creating a sustainable business.

I love how many students and young professionals are interested in channeling their passion into a job with purpose — because that’s exactly what I wanted when I was in their shoes (and still do)! To celebrate the five-year anniversary of my business, I wanted to lay out the story of how I got to be where I am today. I hope my story provides inspiration and guidance to those seeking a more meaningful career, especially those considering creating their own business or role.

Where the idea came from

Before I was a sustainability consultant, I was a graphic designer. The company I worked for held multiple events throughout the year, and one of my jobs was to design materials for those events, including invitations, signs, promotional items, hats, and more.

Our team redesigned the events every year because my boss thought it would be fun for us as designers and fun for the guests — and honestly, it was. It was what the department had always done, and I didn’t question it for a long time.

But ultimately, my eyes opened to all the waste our events were producing, from extra food on-site to the lunchboxes, hats, and signs we ordered that we could only use for a single event because we constantly changed our event themes.

It finally dawned on me that the waste my team created at work (and I was definitely part of it) wasn’t consistent with my values. In my personal life, I avoided waste whenever possible. I hated wasting food, I shopped secondhand, and I learned how to repair and alter my clothes to make them last longer. Plus, I was editor-in-chief of a blog about living a more conscious, ethical, and sustainable life. My personal values and my paid work just didn’t add up.

I also realized that if this one relatively small company, producing relatively small events, was generating a significant amount of event waste, a lot of other companies in Indiana probably were too. This problem probably wasn’t isolated to this one company, which meant there might be a bigger need for someone to help demonstrate a better way.

That was the inspiration for my business: a consulting firm that would help event organizers reduce the negative environmental impact of their events.

Getting started

I began building my business on the side while still working at my design job. I initially had a broad vision for my business and wanted to help organizers of any type of event tackle any type of sustainability challenge, from waste to energy to water to carbon emissions. I don’t have any formal training in sustainability, so I delved into research to make sure I understood what would be sustainable choices for events, and why.

However, after several months networking in the events industry and sharing what I could offer, I realized that my vision was too broad for people to really grasp what I could help them with. The people I wanted to help weren’t thinking about sustainability on a daily basis like I was, and some of the concepts that I was excited about weren’t even on their radar. I needed to take a step back and figure out how to meet this audience where they were.

I ultimately narrowed my focus to what most event professionals could tangibly identify as a sustainability issue at their event, which was waste. I also decided to offer on-site waste diversion services in addition to consulting, and that’s where the business really took off.

I started out creating the waste diversion program for Indy VegFest in 2017. In 2018, I worked with Visit Indy to provide a waste diversion program at a 4-day conference of more than 2,000 meeting planners from Meeting Professionals International. That’s when I knew I was ready for prime time, and I made the leap and left my design job, and I’ve been working full time for my own business ever since.

How my business has changed

In the last five years, I’ve provided waste diversion services for the Indianapolis Zoo, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the Indiana Sports Corporation, Cummins, Gen Con, and the FFA Convention. I’ve also provided waste consulting services for Newfields, Live Nation, and event professionals in Nashville and Washington, D.C.

In 2019, my team and I kept more than 22,000 pounds of waste out of landfills and incinerators. Since 2017, we’ve diverted nearly 50,000 pounds of waste!

From my experience with these programs, I developed an online course called “How to Plan Zero Waste Events” to teach other event professionals how to do what I was doing. I converted that course into a live educational session that I’ve presented to meeting professionals across the country.

I’ve now developed multiple presentations to educate event professionals about sustainability issues and strategies to improve their events. I now consider education just as an important arm of my business as providing on-site services.

So even though I initially narrowed my focus to get started and prove the concept of my services, I’m now able to help with a wider variety of sustainability problems: I get up close and personal with trash at events, I help event organizers create sustainability plans, and I teach event professionals across the country how to get engaged in sustainability.

This year, like for most of the events industry, things have been different for me. While my work directly with live events has slowed down, I’m still speaking and educating the industry, especially about how sustainability can safely continue during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

My biggest lessons learned

1. Specialize. Sustainability is a broad field, and it’s hard to be an expert in every aspect. What specific areas of sustainability are you most passionate or knowledgeable about? Is there a particular audience or industry that needs help and expertise in that area? Find the intersection of your passion and knowledge to find where you can be the most helpful.
2. Meet people where they are. When you’re passionate about sustainability, it can be frustrating when others don’t share your passion or don’t perceive the risks to be as urgent as you do. Remember that you didn’t always know what you know now. Help people understand the changes they need to make and why, without condemning them for not having done it already.
3. Be flexible. I tried a lot of different business models and approaches before finding what worked for me and my target audience. Be prepared to try a lot of things, and for some of those things to fall flat. This is one of the reasons why it’s helpful to have another job while you develop your business. You’ll have more freedom to wait to find what actually works, instead of feeling pressure to force your first idea to work.

What other questions do you have about starting a sustainable business? Leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer!