How to Make Your Business More Green and Save Money

Whether you’ve come to the conclusion to research into greener business performance through “doing your bit” soul searching or via a more economical savvy mind-set, environmental best practices can really help save your business money.  It’s a fine balance between investing here and there to see whether you are shaving pennies or pounds off your business practice overhaul.  Perhaps you want to start off small, or you might be thinking you want a complete green overhaul and need to know where to start. Here’s some example ideas to get you kick-started, all using a 3 ‘R’ approach – “Recycle, Reduce, and Replace.”

Recycling the Waste

Small business policy changes in this area can make a bit of difference. The clear choice here would be paper management. It’s likely you’ve thought about your paper, paper products and packaging. Putting reminders on emails to only print out if necessary, using both sides of a sheet of paper… or getting rid of waste like paper cups entirely in favour of a more reusable option, are all good options. To push your knew found green business further, think about where everything you buy comes from. Have a look to see how much packaging they are using, and whether what you buy has already been recycled. Supporting the recycling system will help further improve recycling management in general, eventually lowering costs for the future.

Reducing Your Business’ Carbon Footprint

Buying only what you really need may seem like an obvious statement, but take a look at your business dustbins at the end of the week. Unpleasant a task it may be, but it can help you identify where you and your business could improve. For instance, if it’s full of disposable cutlery, think about investing in some knives and forks! Another suggestion here would be to switch your cleaning product brands. There are many affordable cheap alternatives to the toxic (and expensive) cleaning fluids you can buy, you’ll be amazed how much lemon juice or brown sauce can do with a little research. If you own the property of your business workplace, look into how you can make your bricks and mortar that little bit more eco-friendly. Saving on heating is one of the best ways to save your business money, and there are now grants available out there to make that happen for you.

Out with the Old

It’s fair to say that twenty, or even ten years ago society was not so focused on whether the materials and design processes it used was environmentally friendly. These days it’s a huge factor for products such as electricals to be as efficient as they can be. It could be an initial large cost to replace your computers, kitchen equipment or machinery. But think of the long term goal – your output will not only be faster, more up to date and green, you will be saving money not having to use power draining out dated sources. Researching into services such as palletizer provider Ehcolo show what leaps and bounds technology has come to make your business more green efficient.
Can you think of any other ways to improve the eco-friendliness of your business?  Let us know in the comments.