4 Ways To Be More Eco-Friendly With Your Business

Customers today are a lot more concerned about the environment and like to know that the goods and services they are buying come from a company that cares about green issues. Most are also incredibly savvy and can see through companies’ attempts to ‘greenwash’ by saying the right things, but taking no concrete action when it comes to reducing their business’s carbon footprint.

If you genuinely care about the planet and want to make a difference, there are plenty of things you could do to improve how eco-friendly your business is. Even the simplest adjustments can boost your energy efficiency and reduce the strain you put on the natural world. Here are just four of the easiest changes you could make to cut your carbon footprint and help your business become more eco-friendly.

Recycle more

We all recycle at home, and recycling at work should be no different except it needs to be done on a larger scale. Regardless of the nature of your work, your business will likely generate large amounts of paper, cardboard, glass, scrap metals and plastics. The vast majority of these waste materials can be recycled rather than going to landfill or incineration, which are far more damaging to the environment.

You can also recycle other things which you may not instantly think of, such as desktop computers, laptops, printers and other electrical goods, all of which can be collected by specialist organisations and their usable parts salvaged. Even some large High Street electrical retailers are getting on board with electrical recycling, with some even taking electrics past their useful life and putting the scrap to good use.

Reuse more

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of the circular economy, now’s the time to get familiar with it. The circular economy means goods are created, used, then reused or recycled. Reusing waste products is a great way to reduce the amount you send to landfill, giving new life to things that might otherwise have gone to waste. This could, for example, involve selling leftover canteen food cheap at the end of the day to reduce food wastage, or selling-on as second hand any furniture you feel no longer serves its purpose.

You can also look at ways you yourself could buy used goods. ‘Used’ no longer means second-rate, as many companies are tackling the problem of waste by specialising in upgrading items to make them as good as new. As many SMEs are working on tight budgets, sourcing used and repurposed electrical equipment can save you a tidy sum, so it’s worth considering if you want to save money and go green.

Cut down on unnecessary energy waste

All businesses use energy, and all waste it to some extent. Finding ways to reduce that wastage can save you a pretty penny and be incredibly beneficial to the planet. For firms in the manufacturing sector, this might involve the use of more advanced green air compressors which can power a range of machinery in a faster and more eco-friendly way. You can even harness the heat generated by such compressors and repurpose it elsewhere, either as a source of space heating or to heat water for bathrooms.

Other tactics that can help save energy in an office space can involve changing all light bulbs in your premises to energy-efficient bulbs and starting a drive for staff to turn lights and electricals off completely when not in use. There are also many ways to reduce office spending sensibly too, such as not leaving photocopiers switched on overnight. Computers left on standby overnight can also waste a huge amount of electricity and contribute to your climbing energy bills, so encouraging people to switch them off at the end of the day could save you a small fortune.

As energy prices soar and we all become more concerned about the health of the planet, even the smallest changes can make a big difference in the fight against climate change.

Be more mindful about business purchases

Leading on from purchasing repurposed goods, you should also be thinking about how the purchases you make elsewhere are contributing to your carbon footprint. If you have a fleet of vehicles, for example, you might think about replacing them with electric or hybrid vehicles once it comes to upgrading them.

Also, examine your suppliers – are they making efforts to reduce their environmental impact and go green? Could they be doing more or could you find a supplier who is? If your supply chains are quite long and there’s a lot of transport involved, think about how you could bring things closer to home and reduce the road and air miles your goods or services in and out generate.

Simply working on these four basic targets could help your business play its part in creating a greener, more eco-friendly workplace.