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In a world consumed by climate change, making your business more Eco-friendly is one of the most important things your company can do. Customers are increasingly looking for brands with green credentials and a commitment to sustainability.
Creating a sustainable work environment may not be as difficult as you might think. There are now endless options to integrate green thinking into almost every aspect of your business, from operations to your company’s entire culture.
In this practical guide, you will find a few key strategies and ideas to help improve your business sustainability practices and take better care of your people, operations, customers and the environment.
Review Your Current Policies
The first essential step is to review your current environmental policies. For instance, think about the raw materials you source. Consider the environmental impact of acquiring or creating these materials. You can also look at the technology you use on a daily basis.
There might be areas where you can switch to less energy-intensive equipment, which can result in bigger energy savings. In addition, you shouldn’t forget to evaluate the environmental impact of your own products or services. If you operate from an office, remember to look at your energy use statistics.
Educate Yourself and Staff on Sustainability
The internet and most educational institutions offer diverse courses on sustainability. These can provide business leaders with the tools and knowledge they need to run sustainable businesses.
For example, this business and climate change online short course can help you gain key skills and learn how to mitigate the business risks of climate change. As a result, you will be able to develop a low carbon transition action plan and start leading change within your organisation to achieve decarbonization goals.
Work With A Local Charity
Another fantastic way to demonstrate your sustainability commitment is to partner with a local environmental charity. This enhances your reputation among customers and helps promote the charity’s work at the same time.
You might want to reach out to different environmental organisations to find out what type of support you can offer. Moreover, allowing employees to take a day off work to volunteer with environmental organisations can boost their engagement and motivation.
However, consider your objectives and expectations before forming this partnership, so that both sides can benefit from the project.
Set Printing Guidelines
Although you might do your best to avoid printing documents, sometimes this cannot be avoided. It might be useful to create company-wide guidelines in terms of printing to minimize paper and ink wastage.
For example, you can start by always printing on both sides of the paper. Also, set standard font size and type, promoting the use of a thinner font to save on some of your ink costs. These practices are free to implement and they can have a quick positive impact on your business and the environment.
Encourage Eco-Friendly Driving
Consider educating your employees on the benefits of practicing Eco-friendly driving and choosing a sustainable car. Not only will this be better for the environment, but it is also a safer way of driving and reducing fuel bills.
Some key points you can mention include sticking to speed limits and ensuring that tyres are optimally inflated. Also, remind your employees to ensure their cars are serviced regularly to prevent unexpected problems. You can even encourage your staff to switch to electric vehicles or even consider carpooling to decarbonize their commutes.
Cut Down On Single-Use Items
Single-use items can wreak havoc on the environment, as they produce a ton of plastic waste every year. However, it is easy to replace most single-use items with their reusable counterparts. For example, if you run a coffee shop or a restaurant, consider recyclable plates and cutlery for takeaway and delivery orders.
You can also ask employees to bring their own reusable mugs and water bottles to work. Also, if you tend to buy a lot of fruit in your office, it is better to buy from a local fruit provider, as you will typically find it packaged in plastic in supermarkets.
Switch to Sustainable Materials
Focus on sourcing sustainable goods and services from local suppliers who use environmentally conscious practices. You might need extra research to find out who you can partner with.
When looking for suppliers, consider whether their products are manufactured in a sustainable manner. To help you make a more informed decision, check if their products are recyclable or compostable. Also, ensure their products don’t contain toxic ingredients and there is no excessive packaging involved.
Partnering with local businesses also means that you don’t need to rely on shaky supply chains.
Minimise Water Usage
Even if you are a small business, minimising water usage can have a considerable impact on the environment. This is because a ton of energy is used during cleaning, pumping, and distributing water. As a result, this strategy saves your company some money.
The first step in reducing your water usage is to identify any leaks in your facilities. Although you may think that a leaky faucet is not a big problem, over time, they can lead to a significant waste of water that you are paying for.
Invest In Digital Marketing
While many businesses use direct marketing to promote their products and services, this might not be the best approach to improving sustainability. If you are regularly printing out hundreds of flyers and leaflets, you may want to consider investing in digital marketing instead.
For instance, sending out marketing emails or running social media campaigns won’t have the same environmental impact. Digital marketing strategies will also allow you to track progress more easily and determine how you can improve your marketing strategy.
In comparison, with direct marketing, you may never learn who has read your flyers or leaflets.
Donate Old Items
When it is time to replace appliances, equipment, furniture, or electronics, donating them to local charitable organisations is the best option instead of sending them to a landfill. Not only will you have to pay a lot more to drop off large items, but these pieces of equipment create more waste in the environment and contribute to air pollution.
In addition, poorly disposed electronics can release heavy metal toxins, such as arsenic, mercury, or lead. Donating your old items can help local organisations and community members who can make use of these pieces of equipment.
Incentivise Employees
There are many ways you can incentivise your employees to make a positive environmental impact. For example, offer them rewards for using public transport or working from home, as this reduces the number of cars on the road and saves money. Recent studies have indicated that most employees detest their morning commutes.
You may also want to install a bike rack outside of your office to encourage employees and customers to switch to biking. It might also be helpful to set challenges for your team to help come up with creative decarbonization ideas and improve their understanding of how to live a greener life and get more people involved in sustainability.
The idea of working from home sounds great. If you want to completely switch to remote work, a virtual office can be a green alternative to a traditional office. With a virtual office, you can get all the features of physical office space at a much lower price and less harm to the environment.
Thanks for bringing this up and sharing such great ideas.
To make your business more sustainable, you can also consider buying used equipment. This way, you reduce CO2 emissions and save materials and energy. Also, by buying used equipment, you save money. You’d be surprised how much you can save on items that are as good as new just because someone else has owned that product before you.