As consumers become more aware of climate change and environmental issues, they’re actively seeking out businesses that adopt eco-friendly processes. By modifying your operations, you can ensure that you’re catering to current demand. What’s more – becoming more environmentally friendly could reduce your operating costs too. To get started, take a look at these five ways to make your business green.
1. Conduct an Audit
You might be used to carrying out financial audits, but why not undertake an energy audit too? Commercial energy audits allow you to determine exactly how much energy is used by different business functions, such as lighting, plumbing etc. When you can identify energy usage patterns, you can begin to take steps to reduce energy consumption and monitor results.
2. Partner with Green Suppliers
No matter what type of business you run, changes are you work with B2B suppliers in one way or another. From stock to professional services, there are a multitude of ways your company interacts with other businesses. By choosing to partner with green vendors and suppliers, you can reduce your own carbon emissions and make your business greener. Similarly, working with partners in your local area enables you to reduce the harmful impact your operations have on the environment.
3. Provide Recycling Facilities
The behavior of your staff has a big impact on how eco-friendly your business is, so you’ll need to get employee buy-in if you want to make meaningful changes. Providing recycling facilities is a simple yet effective way to encourage staff to adopt more eco-friendly processes. The majority of people are eager to do their bit, providing they can do so easily. By ensuring that it’s quick and simple to recycle on site, you can reduce the amount of waste your company sends to landfills and become more environmentally friendly.
4. Implement Remote Working
When staff are able to work from home, they don’t need to commute to your premises. As a result, there will be less traffic on the roads and less pollution. In addition to helping protect the environment, hiring staff on a remote basis could enable you to operate from smaller premises. If so, you can substantially cut your operating costs and increase your profitability at the same time.
5. Cut Water Consumption
As well as focusing on energy usage, it’s important to reduce your water consumption if you want to become a greener business. Installing low flow faucets, toilets and showers is a great way to start, but switching to a water-efficient HVAC system, using faucet aerators and fixing leaks quickly can also be effective.
Becoming a Green Brand
When you’ve conducted an audit, made changes to your operations and become more environmentally friendly, be sure to tell people about it! When your target audience are aware of the changes you’re making, you can appeal to customers or clients who are keen to engage with eco-friendly businesses. By becoming a green brand, you can be confident that you’re protecting the environment, as well as responding to a shift in consumer behavior.
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