Running an eco-friendly business isn’t as challenging as it was decades ago. And, as more and more industries turn “green,” it becomes easier to do so. It also makes eco-friendly businesses have broader consumer appeal.
There are a range of benefits to making your business eco-friendly. Those benefits include improved employee morale, broadening your brand appeal, and attracting younger, socially conscious, and environmentally-minded talent.
As more and more companies are taking a socially conscious approach to their business and making eco-friendly decisions, if you’re on the fence, know that it is easier than it may appear. Examine your office operations for inefficiencies and perform an audit of your office. The data from the audit will allow you to set out a plan to convert your business toward an eco-friendly model. What’s more, there is a sneaky hidden benefit that making such a decision will provide.
Office Operations
Audit Your Office: Perform an environmental audit to see where areas of waste are occurring and what needs to be reduced and eliminated. Look at and analyze everything about the office, from how warm or cool you keep the office, the type of lights you use, and even the effectiveness of your windows.
Energy Use: After your office audit, focus your efforts on reducing the energy used in your office. That includes switching out all light bulbs to be more energy-efficient and keeping office temperatures around 70 degrees, and turning off lights in rooms not in use is another good idea.
Greening the Break Room: One area with a heavier carbon footprint than almost any other is the employee break room. Making little changes such as using compostable or reusable silverware and dishes can significantly reduce the amount of trash in the office. Another suggestion is to move from individual K-cups for coffee to large pots of coffee.
Use Energy Efficient Appliances: One of the most significant changes you can make is ensuring that all your appliances are energy efficient, from the refrigerator in the break room to computers and printers in each office.
Cutting Down on Paper Waste: Cut down on overall paper use in the office and utilize cloud-based software such as Quickbooks for accounting, inventory management software for your warehouse and logistic needs. Also, look to move away from plastic and paper packaging for consumers. For example, consider compostable bags and eating utensils instead of using paper products with all to-go food if you’re a restaurant.
Benefits of Remote Work Options: Another thing to consider is moving your office from regular in-person office work to a combination of hybrid or fully remote. During the pandemic years, remote work became much more acceptable, and continuing this type of office setting can serve a few benefits.
First, you will save on office space and utility costs. Second, by keeping employees remote, they are driving less, which has a secondary impact on the environment. Finally, one hidden benefit is that studies show that employees are also happier and tend to be more productive by working remotely.
Furthermore, there are tax advantages to being more eco-friendly. From federal programs and local tax incentives, whether it’s making your office utilize energy renewables like solar to encouraging ride-share and remote work, there are programs to help businesses make the transition to being energy efficient.
As you make the transition to a more eco-friendly business model, remember to be vocal. One of the most underlooked things is that businesses aren’t promoting and raising awareness of those changes in behavior to the general public.
Disclose Your Eco-Friendly Operations
One of the benefits of becoming more eco-friendly as a business is that you become more attractive to like-minded consumers. So announce your efforts! Highlight the fact that you are an organization striving to limit the carbon footprint and have a green philosophy.
In addition to making a more socially conscious decision to become a more “green” business, you are also expanding your company’s attractiveness to people with environmental concerns. Consider getting certified as a green business to show that you’re focusing your business on eco-friendly operations and options. You can then share that certification on your company web pages, social media posts, and printed material.
Another option is to consider partnerships with like-minded companies. Working in partnerships and collaborations with other eco-friendly businesses will expand your brand’s awareness with their customers as you share your customers with your collaborators. It’s an efficient way to grow your brand awareness while making a minimal environmental impact at the same time.
In 2022, making your company more energy-efficient and eco-friendly has a variety of hard money benefits, such as taxes and lowered operational costs, to soft money benefits, such as improved consumer perception, which can turn into further business down the road.
