Today’s climate change has altered how businesses conduct their activities. The need for businesses to embrace a more caring and ethical environmental approach in their operations.
As national and international policies and public opinion constantly change towards operations that target to reduce ecological impact, your business needs to do the same. Your business will be ahead of competitors while saving financial resources by embracing environmentally friendly practices. More importantly, your clients will develop positive perceptions of your brand.
Here are five methods your business can leverage to minimize its environmental impact.
1. Going Paperless
Using paper documentation can impact the environment negatively since the paper is made using trees as raw materials. Therefore, by going paperless, your business will move a step towards reducing its ecological impact. You can adopt cloud storage technology and Document Management Software (DMS) to shift fully to paperless documentation.
Apart from shifting your documentation to cloud storage, you can also consider recording notes during meetings electronically and avoid unnecessary photocopying and printing. Additionally, you can encourage your team to share internal documents without making physical copies.
2. Consider What Your Staff Use for Drinking Water, Juice, and Coffee
Your office work environment isn’t like families, particularly in bigger offices, and your staff don’t prefer sharing or cleaning others’ cups/dishes. Thus, you may resort to single-serving cups for drinking water, coffee, juice, etc.
However, these single-use solutions aren’t always the best as they pose a major problem by contributing to plastic waste. That’s why you should consider replacing plastic coffee pods with reusable ones. Likewise, avoid buying bottled drinking water. Instead, invest in a water cooler to supply fresh and clean drinking water to your staff at the office.
3. Efficient Use of Energy
As a company interested in reducing its environmental footprint, your business should put measures to ensure efficient energy use. For instance, your company can opt for a magnetic bearing chiller that can significantly increase energy efficiency without any compromise.
Additionally, taking simple measures, including insulation of your air conditioning piping and energy-efficient lighting, can reduce energy wastage.
If your company wishes to take environmental conservation further, you can invest in renewable solar energy sources or wind power generators. After all, striving to become more energy efficient will reduce the environmental impact of your business and save you money.
4. Avoid Disposables and Opt for Reusables Instead
Even though convenient, the contemporary lifestyle of preferring disposables to reusables contributes immensely to environmental degradation. Modern society is used to single-use paper and plastic cutlery, cups, plates, and bottles. Consequently, your staff expects you to stock all those “essentials” for use anytime they need to.
However, your company needs to gradually shift away from these disposables and encourage workers to embrace reusable cups, plates, and coffee pods. You can offer incentives, such as reusable water bottles, gift cards, and free lunch to workers who avoid using disposables to make the change interesting and fun. Eventually, your staff will get used to using reusables instead of disposables, which will reduce your company’s environmental impact.
5. Offer Remote Working Alternatives
With the advancement of technology and the pandemic outbreak, working from home has become popular and widely acceptable by employers and employees alike. You can leverage this new norm to offer remote working opportunities to your staff to prevent them from commuting twice each day. This will reduce their carbon emission footprint and reduce your company’s environmental impact.
Alternatively, if remote working can’t be possible with your business, you can consider setting up smaller satellite offices. This way, your employees can walk or cycle to and from work, reducing their carbon footprint. Furthermore, you can establish hubs that spread your business geographically, allowing you to attract high-end workers globally. Ultimately, offering flexible and diverse work options can keep your staff motivated and efficient.
Concluding Remarks
Overall, there are many approaches your business can take to reduce its environmental impact while increasing internal efficiency and profitability. These ways include offering remote working options, using energy efficiently, going paperless, and avoiding disposables. Try these approaches, and your business will position itself as an environmentally caring company. By doing so, you’ll attract today’s environmentally-keen customers.
