Each and every one of us has a responsibility to reduce their carbon footprints. With overflowing landfill sites, an increase in deforestation to make way for more shops, factories and homes, and accidental chemical and oil spillages across the world, something needs to be done to counteract the damage. For business owners, it’s a moral choice each entrepreneur needs to make, but also to a degree a financially responsible route to take. For ideas on how to take steps toward an environmentally friendly business to help save the environment, here’s how.
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Energy Source
What do all businesses use almost continuously – energy. From switching on the lights to the PCs the coffee machines to powering the assembly lines, and the 24-hour CCTV to survey your premises – your business can’t survive without energy. And so, to reduce your business’s carbon footprint in this area, consider renewable energy sources such as hydropower, wind power, and solar power. These alternative energy outlets will create environmentally friendly power, and in some cases, they are more cost-effective for your business in the long-run too.
Waste Management
Part of creating an environmentally friendly business is being conscious of the amount of waste you need to dispose of daily. From packaging to expired goods, chemical waste, old furniture, paper and so forth, when you begin to add up the amount of garbage you dispose of, you’ll probably be amazed. By adopting a waste management process, you can establish how much you are wasting and what you can do to reduce it. Whether implementing an ultrasonic flow meter on the pipes that wash away the water/waste, to weighing the bins of paper, your office has disposed of there are multiple ways you can monitor your company’s waste. Once you have an idea of how much rubbish you’re disposing of, here are some suggestions to manage your current waste levels:
- Create partnerships with businesses that provide products in reusable packaging.
- Purchase and recycle reusable packaging where possible.
- Sell or donate old furniture and equipment as opposed to sending it to the landfill.
- Gradually transfer all correspondence to digital form to reduce the amount of paper waste.
This is a non-exhaustive list of the ways you can make steps towards an environmentally friendly business. By measuring the amount of waste as you go along, coupled with initiating waste reduction plans, you will be able to see if your waste management process is working.
Give Back to The Environment
Although you may be preventing further damage to the environment by purchasing renewable energy sources and managing your existing waste in an eco-friendly way, this doesn’t take away from the suffering that the world has already endured. Because of this, if you have the means and resources to do so, try giving back to the world. Whether planting new seeds for trees around your business premises or setting up volunteering programs for you and your workforce to clean up rubbish in the local forest. Or even choose to invest in one of the many campaigns to protect the earth and promote environmentally friendly behavior.
Protecting the environment from further damage shall; provide a better world for the future, shall be kinder to your business finances, and it shall also create you an ethical reputation as a business that cares about the world, we live in.