Going green seems to be all the rage with businesses recently, with everyone from Coca-Cola to SC Johnson launching widely publicized environmental initiatives. The shift towards this greener way of doing business is occurring because of consumer demand, increased environmental awareness and because it saves money.
If you’ve been wanting to green your business, but aren’t sure how to get started or looking for the next step in your environmental impact improvement process, keep reading. Here a few useful tips for making your business greener.
Get Educated
It can be difficult to operate in a more environmentally friendly way if you don’t know much about environmental issues. Luckily, there’s plenty of information out there. A host of websites, books, articles, and documentaries can help get you up to speed.
You should also take the time to explain your proposed environmental initiatives and reasoning to your employees. They may have some useful input and will be more enthusiastic about your plans if they’re more aware of what’s going on.
Conduct an Audit
In order to figure out where to start when making your business greener, conduct an environmental audit. Determine what areas you’re doing well in and what areas need improvement. You could even have your energy company tell you what you spend the most energy on.
Figure out your business’ current environmental impact before you create a plan to make it greener. This will help make your green initiatives more focused and will increase the chances that they’ll be successful.
Go Digital
Today’s businesses can use technology to help them go green by doing more things digitally. For instance, instead of printing that report, you could simply email it or upload it to the cloud where everyone can see it. You can even send forms to be signed electronically.
Meetings, too, can more frequently be digital. Instead of traveling to a meeting, simply hold a video conference online. This will eliminate the emissions from the fuel used to travel. It will save the company travel expenses and save employees time as well.
Check Your Supply Chain
Not all of your business’ environmental impact comes directly from you. Some of it also comes from the other companies you purchase from or contract with.
Check how environmentally friendly the companies you’re working with are. Do they get their materials from sustainable sources? What is their energy use like? Do they have green initiatives of their own? If not, consider switching to a more eco-conscious supplier.
Change Your Energy Usage
Energy usage makes up a big chunk of our environmental impact. You can start using energy more efficiently and change where your electricity comes from entirely.
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