Embracing sustainability is becoming increasingly critical for businesses across all industries. There is mounting pressure from governments, regulators and consumers on businesses to become more sustainable and environmentally conscious in their operations – and studies suggest that sustainable business practices are not only good for people and the planet but also create long-term value for businesses.

However, while there are many tools and frameworks available that support medium-to-large sized business and multinational corporations to advance their sustainability agendas, there are few resources that help micro and small businesses to incorporate sustainability from the very beginning of their business journey. This toolkit was developed because we believe it is critical that businesses - no matter their size - are working together toward a more sustainable world and we know that they need the tools and resources that will help them do so.

In 2022, a group of five YBI members - Hatch Enterprise (UK), Fetola (South Africa), Positive Planet (France), KIZ (Germany) and Youth Business Spain supported by SoJo, an impact entrepreneurship consultancy, and YBI’s Head of Social and Green Entrepreneurship, Anna Chojnicka - came together to co-create a practical toolkit to support young and underserved entrepreneurs in integrating sustainable practices into their businesses as part of YBI’s programme supported by JPMorgan Chase.

The initial working group focused on the co-design of the overall toolkit framework, identifying the key needs and gaps the toolkit should fill based on their experience working with diverse young entrerpeneurs around the world. Working group members also led the development of an initial set of 12 tools focused primarily on environmental sustainability practices. A second working group of an additional five YBI members - Youth Business Poland (Poland), Youth Business Trindad & Tobago (YBTT), Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust: BYST (India), Jinishian Memorial Foundation: JMF (Armenia) and Mebala Youth Studios (Botswana), supported by Accenture, designed a second set of tools focused on social and governance practices.

These initial tools were piloted with over 150 young entrepreneurs across 10 countries and feedback from the pilots were used to improve the tools as well as inform the recommendations for ESOs who may want to use the toolkit with entrepreneurs in the future. The second version of the toolkit was released in early 2024.