Your small business can have a big impact on the environment. It is important to know how to make your small business more environmentally friendly, as you might not believe that it could, but the changes you make to protect the environment can have a knockdown effect with your employees and their families as well as the future of your business.
Being green with your business practices will help you make a good impression with your customers as well, helping many of them to feel more at ease with choosing you when they make purchases. Here is how you can change and do your part.
Analyse Your Environment Impact
Before you make any changes to your company, start by looking what you are doing that could be hurting the environment and assess how big that impact is. You can have your business professionally analysed or try to make the analysis yourself. It is important to take in the scope of your effect on the environment, though, so that you can better plan what changes to make and how far you want to take them.
Your company is different from other small businesses, so your approach to environmental friendliness may differ from that of another company. A personalized plan for change is needed.
Give Employees Remote Work Opportunities
Much of our carbon footprint is caused by travel. Going to and from work each day will add up. That means more vehicles on the road and more harmful fumes being released into the air. If you can cut down a fraction of that, you can do your part to conserve energy and protect the environment from dangerous fumes. Give your employees the flexibility to work at home sometimes or consider which positions would work as stay-at-home positions. Anytime you can keep your employees from having to travel to work, you will be doing something to help the environment, and your employees will likely greatly appreciate it.
Encourage Carpooling and Public Transport
Another way to cut down on energy produced and the number of cars on the road is to get your employees to travel together or to take public transport. Many of them would likely go for this, if they knew that the option was available. Once you float the idea of carpooling, some of your employees may get on board and enjoy their time traveling together. They will likely be happy to save gas money as well.
Many of them might take public transport, if they know how to do that. Those who have never tried it in their area may be hesitant at first because they are not familiar with the routes, but if you can show them how to travel from home to work on public transport, they might be willing to give it a try. Of course, if you set the example in these areas, that will help a lot.
Clean Sustainably
What kind of cleaning products and cleaning methods does your company use to keep the workplace tidy? Have you considered whether these are environmentally friendly cleaning practices? They might not be.
Many industrial and household cleaners are not very sustainable and are not earth friendly. They may contain toxic fumes or leave behind harmful particles. They might damage the ozone layer or be composed of non-biodegradable materials. It is important that companies use eco cleaning products and hire cleaning services that do the same. These are products that are safe for the environment and that will degrade naturally and not leave behind toxic residue. These are cleaning methods that don’t create a lot of waste and that use biodegradable containers or reusable materials.
With these practices, you can transform the way your business is cleaned and do your part to conserve valuable resources. Examine every aspect of your business and ensure that the methods used and the products used are sustainable, reusable, and environmentally friendly. If you do that, you will have a big impact, despite being a small business.
Using sustainable cleaning products saves you money, since you will be buying cleaning supplies less often. When you apply that same standard to all of your buying practices, you will save money for your company over time. You will focus on buying products that last and that can be used over and over again instead of paying for cheap, disposable items that need to be constantly replaced.
Use Scondhand Items
What kind of cleaning products and cleaning methods does your company use to keep the workplace tidy? Have you considered whether these are environmentally friendly cleaning practices? They might not be.
Many industrial and household cleaners are not very sustainable and are not earth friendly. They may contain toxic fumes or leave behind harmful particles. They might damage the ozone layer or be composed of non-biodegradable materials. It is important that companies use eco cleaning products and hire cleaning services that do the same. These are products that are safe for the environment and that will degrade naturally and not leave behind toxic residue. These are cleaning methods that don’t create a lot of waste and that use biodegradable containers or reusable materials.
With these practices, you can transform the way your business is cleaned and do your part to conserve valuable resources. Examine every aspect of your business and ensure that the methods used and the products used are sustainable, reusable, and environmentally friendly. If you do that, you will have a big impact, despite being a small business.
Using sustainable cleaning products saves you money, since you will be buying cleaning supplies less often. When you apply that same standard to all of your buying practices, you will save money for your company over time. You will focus on buying products that last and that can be used over and over again instead of paying for cheap, disposable items that need to be constantly replaced.
Use Scondhand Items
Any company that insists on buying everything new for its offices and work areas will pay more in the long and will contribute to environmental waste. On the other hand, those companies that try to find second-hand products to put in the workplace will have a positive impact on the environment.
Why buy new office furniture and building materials when there are perfectly good second-hand materials available? You don’t have to pay top dollar for high quality, name brand furniture and office materials when you could pay less and still get decent quality products. Go green by reusing older items and by making them beautiful again after they have experienced some wear. Instead of replacing items that break, try fixing them up and continue to use them. This cuts down on waste and keeps your company environmentally friendly, and it is also good for your profit margins.
Cut Waste Out
Where is your company being wasteful? Is it in the area of consumable products? Are you throwing away items that could be used again? Are you trying to recycle materials rather than tossing them out?
Consider your day-to-day business practices and see if there are changes you could make that would be more environmentally friendly. Change how much waste you create by limiting the use of consumables. Look for ways to cut down on how much paper wastage there is by encouraging digital memos and messages. If it can be turned into a digital product, why not do that rather than create more paper and material waste?
If you implement these practices in our business, you can reduce waste and improve your environmental impact, making a difference for now and in the future.
