Actionable Tips for Making Your Business Eco-Friendly

According to The Guardian, if we continue exploiting our planet at this rate, we will be forced to colonize at least two more planets within the next 50 years. While some may believe that 50 years is plenty of time (after all, the space race did begin merely 60 years ago), others are completely aware of just how serious this problem is. However, increasing the amount of time and money we allocate to the space program is not the only course of action we can take. By reducing the amount of resources we waste and becoming more environmental, we could potentially buy some more time.

The greatest problem here is that people seldom take a moment to think about the solution. Sure, stricter government regulations and Eco-friendly policies could help but this simply won’t work unless everyone does their part. With this in mind, here are a few actionable tips for making your business Eco-friendly and thus pulling your weight.

Better Management of Consumables

Believe it or not, an average U.S. office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of paper every year. This alone is quite alarming and is on its own enough to explain the rapid pace of deforestation we are currently seeing all around the world. Aside from paper, printing on such a scale also requires huge amounts of ink, which is yet another thing to keep in mind.

Luckily, these problems have simple and straightforward solutions. First of all, in the digital era, you really need to be selective when it comes to what you should print and which documents can serve you just as well in the digital form. As for those sheets that simply have to be printed, you might want to turn to recycled paper. Finally, instead of discarding your old toner cartridges, you could just refill and reuse them. This can be done with a basic kit containing syringe, a couple of needles and some newspapers to protect the surface from staining.

Turn to Greener Marketing

The next segment of your business that should definitely be turned Eco-friendlier is marketing. You can start from your digital marketing. While some may assume that digital marketing is already Eco-friendly, due to the fact that it doesn’t consume physical resources, there is a way to go one step further. Some hosts offer green hosting options, which means that they run their servers on renewable energy and even modify them to save power. This could also become a part of your marketing campaign, seeing as how just labeling yourself green might draw in more audience. Speaking of drawing more audience, you can make sure your business website has content that implies your sustainable approach. If you’re just starting the website, think about the Eco-friendly image you would like to present to the audience and the ways to achieve that. Quikclicks created a useful resource on the topic in an article devoted to crucial questions to answer before starting a website.

As for the traditional marketing, you could try printing flyers and business cards on recycled paper. With the current level of recycling technology, you might not even be able to tell the difference. Furthermore, going for eco-friendly promotional products will not only reduce your environmental impact but also show your audience just how serious you are about preserving the planet.

Reduce the Energy Consumption

Another major issue when it comes to the overall eco-friendliness is the one of the energy consumed. While ideally, your company should switch to a renewable energy source, sometimes you don’t have this option due to your geographic location or even the inability to afford this transition. This mostly leaves you with two options A) switching to low-power appliances and B) enforcing stricter power-conservation policies in the office.

As for the low-power appliances, there is a great variety to choose from and although they might seem a bit expensive at the moment, keep in mind that buying them is bound to pay off sooner or later. When it comes to power-saving policies, the most popular choice is adjusting your work-hours to the time of the year (trying to utilize as much natural light in the office as possible). Aside from this, you could also encourage everyone to turn off the light in the rooms they leave, as well as turn off the appliance after using it. It might even be a good idea to display posts all over the office, just to remind them.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, while there are numerous technical issues you could work towards improving, the main change needs to come from within. This is why you need to invest extra effort towards raising awareness of these pressing issues amongst your staff, clients and partners. Furthermore, if you are using automatic labeling systems, you have to ensure that they are well-maintained too.

Sure, this may seem somewhat distracting and time-consuming. But if we fail to act now, we might see the imminent crisis (discussed in the introduction) in our lifetime. Any effort towards preventing this can certainly be considered an effort well invested.

Emma Miller
Emma Miller
Emma Miller is a Sydney based writer with a degree in marketing. Interested in digital marketing, social media, start-ups and latest trends. She’s a contributor at Bizzmark blog and a mother of two.

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