Sustainability is becoming an important part of business ethics. Increasingly, customers are looking to do business with ethical companies and employees want to work for those same companies too. An article on Fox Business stated that ‘social responsibility was no longer optional’ for businesses.
By implementing sustainable practices, you’ll not only be helping the environment but potentially saving your business money by reducing waste and costs.
Recycle (and buy recycled)
One of the easiest ways to reduce environmental impact is to recycle. Make sure there are facilities in place to recycle paper, batteries, soda cans and other waste.
When buying office supplies or equipment, try to buy recycled products to reduce waste even further.
Go Paperless
A completely paperless office is just not practical for some businesses but needless printing can cost you unnecessary expenditure and take up a huge amount of space. All that paper needs to be stored somewhere.
Review your internal processes and see if you can determine what needs to be printed and what can be generated and stored electronically. Keep this at the forefront of your mind when upgrading technology and software.
Look at switching paper printed marketing materials in favor of online advertising or move to a print on demand model. You may think you’re getting extra value by buying in bulk but a new product, logo change or office move will make them immediately obsolete and you’ll end up throwing them all in the garbage.
Switch to Reusable Promotional Products
Everybody loves collecting freebies at tradeshows. It’s one of the perks. You visit all of the stands, listen to the sales pitches and by the end of the day, you’re laden with leaflets, brochures, USB flash drives, plastic bags, and pens.
Most of these promotional items are not very sustainable. Instead of plastic bags, look at sites like 4allpromos.com or Eco Promotional Products for branded reusable totes. You could also have branded bamboo travel cups or recycled paper notebooks.
You’ll likely get much better brand exposure as people use your items over and over again.
Save Energy
Recently, Microsoft pledged to make itself carbon negative by the year 2030. While that kind of goal isn’t achievable for every company, it is certainly something to strive towards.
Simple acts such as making sure equipment and lights are turned off can go a long way to reducing costs.
Switch energy suppliers to those such as First Solar, who derive their energy from renewable sources.
Good For The Planet, Good For Business
By investing in sustainable business practices, you’re not only saving money on energy bills and office equipment, but you’re also improving your reputation too.
A strong corporate social responsibility stance is good for business. A study by Echo Research and Cone Communications revealed that 90% of shoppers would switch to brands that were supporting a good cause if the goods were of similar quality and price.
Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay
