Eco-conscious customers love eco-friendly businesses and your business can tap into this growing market by championing the environment in practical ways…
As climate change worsens each passing day, dangerous weather events are becoming the norm globally. Frequent heat waves bombard most cities and towns, coastal storms, rising sea levels, warming oceans, melting glaciers, wildfires, intense drought, and flooding.
The shifting weather patterns create a crucial need for your business to go green by adopting sustainable business practices. Nasa suggests that 95% of human activity is responsible for global warming as it relies on land, resources, fossil fuels, and non-stop production and consumption.
The good news is you do not have to lower production, rather will save money as you reduce your carbon footprint and help the planet. This article is dedicated to enlightening you on adjustments you can make to your business through using resources and energy more efficiently and reducing excessive waste.
Sit back, relax and discover how to attract more customers to your business and employees willing to work for you to go green.
1. Pay Bills Online
The digital world keeps evolving, making it more convenient for your business to eliminate your paper trail by paying your bills online. You not only save the trees but minimize fuel consumption and avoid unnecessary carbon dioxide-emitting vehicle trips to the bank on payday.
The beauty of playing online is you will save your company time and money and increase production. Your company can automatically go digital and green by depositing your employee’s paychecks directly to their bank account instead of paying in cash.
2. Use Eco-Friendly Packaging and Reusable Bags
The use of plastic material for packaging poses negative environmental dangers for humans and animals. Plastic bags take many years to decompose, and if they are burned, a toxic substance is released into the air leading to ambient air pollution.
Since most clients are aware of the negative effects caused by the use of plastic bags, they would be willing to pay more and sustainably receive their purchases.
You adapt reusable bags in your business, giving you an added advantage of walking advertisement. Avoid dyes and inks when imprinting logos on your customer’s reusable bags; instead, use environmentally friendly water-based ink.
Thanks to technology, you can create high-quality, professional packaging and reusable bags using 100% biodegradable materials like vegetable oils and fats. Next time you are thinking of introducing customized packaging bags to your clients, go eco-friendly and help save the environment.
3. Help the Less Fortunate and the environment
Due to the ever-increasing competition in the business world, most companies constantly remodel and renovate their offices. Unfortunately, after demolishing the building, they send their usable materials to landfills rather than recycle them.
Your business can go green by turning the usable material into a charitable donation, allowing you to save the money you could have played to the landfill. some of the negative impacts caused by landfills include: –
- Emitting harmful greenhouse gas like methane absorbs heat leading to climate change.
- Distortion of soil fertility and activity that affects plant life
- The production of harmful liquid leachate is responsible for water pollution in lakes, streams, and ponds.
Therefore, if you plan to upgrade and redesign your office, explore various opportunities to salvage, recycle, and purchase used materials for your makeover project.
4. Conduct an Energy Audit
The best way to increase sustainability and decrease costs is to determine how and where your business uses energy. The survey and analysis will enable you to discern areas of efficiency and waste and act accordingly to conserve energy and save money.
During an energy audit, you want to focus on lighting, heating, air conditioning, electrical devices, and water usage. Since natural resources are depleting at an alarming rate, your business must efficiently conserve energy.
Although an audit can reduce the energy input in your organization, it will not have an impact on the output. For example, switching to using LED lights since they emit less carbon than ordinary incandescent bulbs can help you save the environment and take strides towards a greener future.
5. Recycle Your Electronics
The world is likely facing an epidemic of electronic waste, with 48.5 million tonnes produced in 2018. Instead of tossing your electronic equipment into landfills, you can save the environment and help people in need.
Do you have smartphones, computers, or printers you no longer use in your business? You can recycle them by donating them to schools and organizations that can put them to better use.
When you recycle electronics, you help conserve natural resources and minimize air and water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions released during manufacturing virgin materials.
An effective way your business can recycle electronics is by upgrading the hardware and software of laptops or computers instead of buying new ones. Your business will not go green overnight, but the simple yet small steps you take will benefit our beautiful planet and attract more customers.
6. Reduce Water Usage
When most businesses decide to go eco-friendly, they think of adapting activities that involve combusting fossil fuels, like minimizing power plant emissions and car exhaust. However, did you know that reducing water usage can positively impact global warming?
Every household uses water to clean dishes, baths, laundry, and hose down their vehicles without noticing its impact on climate change. It takes lots of energy to pump water running through the pipes to your business and homes, and wastage of this precious commodity will mean more energy consumption.
You can go green with your business by educating employees to report any water leakages and close running taps immediately after use. Additionally, you can invest in cash wash stations or machines that use less water to clean the company’s automobiles.
The drought in Western North America that has ravaged the area for the last 10 years underscores the need for water preservation. Municipalities in this region have adopted stringent water rationing measures for households and businesses. Nevertheless, you do not need to operate in drought-hit areas to take practical steps to reduce your water usage and save money.
Below are some practical measures to reduce water usage in your business:
- Fix any dripping taps and leaks.
- Install faucet aerators and low-flow toilets in your washrooms
- Move to a drought-tolerant landscape with drip irrigation
- Invest in a high-efficiency pressure washer to help with your cleaning job.
7. Purchase Recycled Paper
Your business can go green by adopting recycled paper to help minimize greenhouse gas emissions that impact climate change. Moreover, you will help save the environment and natural resources because manufacturing new paper consumes more energy and water.
Some of the healthy practices you can adopt in your green business include: –
- Aim at reducing paper consumption in the office by setting all your printers to double-sided printing and eliminating the use of paper cups from the coffee machine.
- Outsource professional shredding services for secure document destruction.
- Create Eco-friendly workshops to enlighten your employees on the environmental and financial benefits of recycling.
- Ensure that every department in your business adheres to the recycling policies.
8. Get your Team Involved
You can work with your employees to take baby steps to help you overcome everyday habits that hinder your business from going green. Begin by installing water filters in the office to discourage the use of bottled water.
You can create a policy that bans all plastic utensils in the corporate cafeteria and instead ask your staff to bring their reusable utensils. Establish standard operating procedures for recycling paper within your organization.
Encourage your employees to support organizations that manufacture eco-conscious products to help save the environment and improve the world.
9. Encourage Remote Working
During the Covid-19 pandemic, most businesses were disrupted by the social distancing restrictions forcing them to adopt remote working. Besides, most organizations aiming to go green are implanting the technology, thus, allowing their employees to work remotely or share workspace once a week than commute daily.
When your employees work remotely, you will require less office space, saving up on rental costs. The energy used in the office for lighting and heating is greatly reduced, bringing your operational cost down.
Employees working from home benefit the environment by minimizing carbon dioxide emissions produced when driving to work. Are you wondering if your staff will produce effectively working remotely? Worry not; most employees who work remotely are eager to work hard to prove their success and maintain their relevance.
10. Utilize crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing makes it possible for many volunteers worldwide to create awareness of the impact of global warming to help fight climate change. You can request your staff and vendors to give an opinion on how your business can go green.
Ensure to have a team among your staff to evaluate the crowdsourced ideas and determine what is feasible. Your business should implement the ideas that are impactful and practical to help you go green progressively.
Final Thoughts
The best and simple way for a business to go green is by making a concerted effort to minimize its negative environmental impacts. You can begin with paying bills online, using reusable bags, recycling, remote working, and crowdsourcing to help you kickstart your journey to a green world.
One thing is clear your business will not go green overnight; however, you can progressively adopt sustainable practices meant to reduce energy consumption, cut waste and eliminate harmful environmental habits.
What sustainable strategies has your business taken to go green, and are there benefits you have received?
