While everyone agrees that making your business greener is a great course of action, motives behind such a decision vary greatly. Some do it out of pure altruism and concern for the future of the planet, while others are mostly profit-oriented. You see, not only does being green greatly contribute to your brand, but it also saves you a small fortune in the long run. Seeing as how these green trends require less energy, fewer materials and produce less waste, they also stand to increase the profit of your company by quite a bit. So, without further ado, here are four simple and inexpensive ways to make your business considerably greener.
Reduce the consumption of paper
The first thing you need to keep in mind is that an average office worker prints about 10,000 sheets of paper per year. While some may deem this figure as necessary, others tend to disagree. In the digital world of the 21st century, it is highly unlikely that you need to have a physical copy of every single file. By playing this just a bit smarter, you can drastically reduce your carbon footprint and at the same time, save a small fortune on the acquisition of printing paper. Furthermore, just by printing double-sided whenever you can, you could make a noticeable difference.
Choose a green host
In 2017, every serious business out there needs to have a formidable online presence. This is why the choice of one’s host becomes an essential issue for the future of your company. Still, the features they offer are not the only difference here. Some of them are known to go full green, which usually implies switching to renewable sources of energy to run their servers on. Simply going with a green host could make the world a bit better, without you even noticing the difference.
Encourage a greener commute
The next thing you could do is encourage your employees to take greener means of commuting to work. Those closest to work could try walking or cycling but then it is your job as an employer to provide them with secure bicycle racks at the parking or even offer some benefits to the most conscientious of your employees. Others should be encouraged to take public transportation or even carpool to work. In fact, you could even draw a map of all your employees’ locations and draw these carpool routes on your own. Either way, you would start making a huge difference with the minimal amount of effort invested.
Smarter light management
When it comes to conserving energy in your office, there are more than a few things you can do. The easiest approach to this issue, however, rests on the idea of smarter light management. What this means is that you should first replace all your incandescent light-bulbs with LED ones. This is mostly because LED bulbs have a four times better Watt-to-lumen ratio, which means that they give you the same illumination with four times smaller energy consumption. Another thing you could do is utilize natural light as best as you can. This goes from leasing an office with huge mirror walls to installing skylights. Remember, natural light is not only completely free but also much better for the overall work environment.
Enforcing some of these trends may only start making a difference after a while but others are capable of giving you some immediate results. Still, there is no denying that going green with your business is always positive, and regardless of what your motives behind it are, you are doing the right thing.