3 Tips on How to Reduce the Environmental Footprint of Your Business
The preservation and well-being of our planet has become a broadly discussed subject nowadays, not just in our everyday lives but also particularly within the business sector. Increasing pressure has been placed upon businesses and their management systems to ensure sustainability in corporations and that eco-friendly choices are being made company-wide. Plus, the general public’s opinions, media, and governing bodies are constantly changing, causing companies with less stringent environmental policies to be subjected to criticism and lose support. Companies that address the issue at hand and implement forward-thinking, constantly improving environmental policies receive praise and retain the most customers.
In doing so, sustainable corporations create a divide between themselves and rival companies and construct a positive reputation for their products/services with both their customers and potential collaborators. Implementing eco-friendly business practises is crucial, so we’ve created this article listing a few tips to help you reduce and manage the environmental footprint of your business so that you can demonstrate an ethical approach to future consumers and customers.
Become A Paperless Company
One way your business can receive environmental recognition and reduce your carbon footprint is by going paperless. Moving away from paper storage can help you reduce your business’s environmental footprint, but it can also help save your organisation time and increase the privacy of documents. Printing and keeping papers can lead to excessive waste, which can worsen if original documents get lost or misplaced. Plus, it is estimated that roughly 20% of print jobs are never collected from printers, which contributes further to business waste issues and can also lead to privacy invasions if files are left around for anyone to read.
Become paperless by implementing cloud servers such as Dropbox, IDrive, and Microsoft One Drive, which allows companies to upload and store hundreds of documents without the threat of losing anything and allows sensitive information to remain private. As well as boasting environmental positives, the use of cloud servers can help save the business money on printing materials and save the time spent trying to find documents, as everything is kept digitally in one place.
Encourage Working From Home
Remote working isn’t just a tool for employee satisfaction; it also boasts environmental positives and can be an eco-friendly choice for your company, provided that the option is viable. Suppose that you implement paperless tactics within your office, like the ones detailed above; you can easily facilitate remote working. Employees can access everything they need via your chosen cloud server and eliminate the need for office-based working. Less and less staff commuting to work means fewer cars on the road, thereby reducing fuel emissions and the pollution caused as a result.
Alternatively, if working from home isn’t an option for your business, you could look at implementing government-backed schemes such as cycling to work or encouraging employees to share lifts or take public transport wherever possible. On the contrary, if you’re finding it challenging to implement a corporate sustainability program, you could consider studying a corporate sustainability course that would help you identify the issues within your business and recognise ways in which you could remedy these problems. You can complete most courses within a few weeks and find programmes from reputable institutions online, so it’ll be more feasible to gain new knowledge while you’re working.
Think About The Businesses Energy Usage
Provided that your business has a physical office, you could reduce the company’s environmental footprint by implementing some small, energy-efficient changes around the premises. For instance, you could consider switching all the lights in the office for energy-efficient alternatives or ones that are motion-sensored, which will help reduce the businesses’ energy consumption,carbon footprint and energy bills. You could also consider using laptops instead of desktop computers, as they use less energy.
In regards to heating, you should follow the temperature legislations set in place by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and make sure that it doesn’t exceed or drop below these recommendations. You could also enforce this by ensuring that thermostats are not located near radiators or windows and display the correct time and date. Endeavour to keep warmth in and the cold out by making sure that the areas more susceptible to the cold are insulated. Plus, make sure to look at the pipework and see that draughts are sealed up wherever possible. In addition to this, use accessories like draught excluders, make use of blinds or curtains, and ensure that staff shut doors behind them.