It’s long been a cliché that profit and principles cannot go hand in hand. While it’s not difficult to think of examples where money has been made at the expense of principles, sustainability is an area where the two sometimes opposing forces are increasingly linked.

Supermarkets dabbling in zero-waste products, the growth of the timber construction market, the electric car revolution, the meteoric rise of renewable energy in recent years… any conviction that a certain market is immune from this global trend seems more and more fanciful.

It might be hard to pinpoint the exact moment when your customers actively start avoiding certain brands or products that have less sustainable credentials than rivals. If there are two boxes of screws of similar quality and price point, one of which is seen to be ‘greener’, then which will your customer choose?

Having sustainable products and practices can be a point of difference that can resonate with customers and sometimes innovations made in the quest to become greener can have unintended advantages for your bottom line.

One of the interviewees in this magazine discovered that by switching its screw range to recyclable cardboard packaging, thereby removing bulky plastic from its range, it was possible to fit more products on the shelf. If getting more value out of your square footage hasn’t got the euro/pound/dollar signs in your eyes yet, nothing will.