Going green is very important in order to stay compliant with government regulations on environmental concerns. However, apart from being compliant, going green can offer businesses many financial benefits such as long-term reduction in costs. More importantly, going green can improve your business image and branding and it can make consumers become more passionate about patronizing your business.
The results of a study by Cone Communications revealed that the number of Americans that consider the environment when they shop increased from 66% in 2008 to 71% in 2013. As at 2014, the results of a global study showed that 55% of consumers don’t mind paying more money to shop from businesses that have verifiable environmentally-friendly practices. Hence, you need to ensure that your greening efforts are honest and not an effort to mislead consumers. Here are four tips for making your business green.
Cut the commute for yourself and your workers
Cars and trucks are some of the biggest culprits behind emissions and you’ll be doing the environment great good if you reduce the number of times you and your workers take your cars to work. Walking or cycling to work is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and it also does wonders for your health. If the distance to be covered is too long to walk or cycle, you may want to consider carpooling or taking the public transit. You can encourage your workers to cut their commute by setting up shop close to bike lanes, creating bike locks, and offering transit passes to your employees.
Switch to alternative power sources
You can improve the odds of your business success by making the switch to power your business with an alternative power source. For instance, some utility providers already have “green power” offerings that you can purchase. If you’d rather be independent, you can get solar panel quotes in order to know how much it will cost you to install a solar power system in your business. If switching to an alternative power source is not practical, you should consider doing an energy audit in your business to know potential fault lines in which you can improve energy efficiency or go green.
Proactively reduce the garbage output from your business
You might reduce your commute and switch to energy efficient systems but still have a large carbon footprint through the seemingly harmless waste you generate at work. Waste products being generated in office environments is responsible for a large amount of garbage that ends up in landfills. You should start by making your business paperless in the real sense of the word. You should consider composting your kitchen waste for pickup by local growers. You may want to encourage your employees to use refillable water bottles instead of the disposable paper cups and plastic bottle water.
Be charitable when you upgrade and renovate
As your business grows and expands profitably, you’ll have reasons to tear-down, rebuild, and replace some system during business renovation projects. Unfortunately, many perfectly usable materials end up in landfills because the business owners have too much money and the contractor is not committed to greening initiatives. Instead of sending your appliances, cabinets, and fixtures to the landfill, you may want to consider finding a ways to send those materials to charities or organizations that need them. Such building systems can be sold and the proceeds used for charity and some of the systems can even find they ways to low-income housing projects to end someone’s homelessness.
