Today, over 80% of consumers say it’s important that brands design environmentally-conscious products. It’s clear that modern consumers are mindful of the planet they live on and the finite resources it has. So it’s important that you accommodate their needs and give them what they want.
Not only is it important to serve your customers, but it’s also vital that you practice environmental sustainability as well. This gives you a unique selling point (USP) plus it lets you conduct business as guilt-free as possible.
Interested in learning more? Then here are 6 eco-friendly business practices you should adopt.
1. Cut Down Use of Paper
We’re in the middle of the digital age, which means most things are online and on screens. While you’ve most likely joined in on digitizing things, chances are, you’re probably guilty of still using more paper than you should.
For example, do you send paper invoices or print out paper receipts for customers? If so, then think about cutting that out and emailing these invoices and receipts to them instead. Considering that paper copies of these things are easily lost, your customers will also appreciate that they have an easily accessible copy at all times sitting in their email inbox.
2. Only Buy Energy-Efficient Products
You now know that consumers have a huge demand for eco-friendly products. As a response to this, many manufacturers and brands have come up with energy-efficient alternatives to their existing products.
Take full advantage of this by swapping out everything you can for the better alternative. While it might take a small investment, it’ll all pay off in the end when you get longer-lasting products that consume less energy. Not to mention, you’ll get to reduce your carbon footprint too!
Energy-efficient products you can opt for include light bulbs, faucets, toilets, and even devices like computers, tablets, screens, and TVs.
3. Keep a Close Eye on Your Consumption of Resources
As a business owner, you probably already know about the pains of tweaking your operations just right so there’s not too much overhead. But without tracking your spending, it can be easy for it to run rampant, meaning more waste and more spend.
Thankfully, there are very simple ways of tracking your consumption of resources. For example, a program like KHA Environmental gives you a single database where you can see detailed reports about your consumption of resources, especially ones that are harmful to the environment, like volatile organic compounds (VOC).
These programs consolidate data from all sources so you have one simple place to view your consumption. From there, you can continually alter your business operations to have less waste, especially of VOCs.
4. Make Sure All Chemicals Are Disposed of Correctly
On that note, it’s inevitable that you’ll use chemicals at work, especially since surfaces need to be cleaned. No matter what chemicals you use, they must be disposed of properly or you risk doing environmental damage.
Of course, the best thing you can do is swap out everything you can for the eco-friendly and green versions, such as soaps and cleaning agents. But what about the products you can’t swap out?
In that case, you need to ensure that all employees understand how to properly dispose of these chemicals after usage. If you have chemical vendors, ask them to come in and educate your workforce.
If you use a third-party cleaning company to maintain your business, then make sure you speak to them about using green products. If they aren’t able to, then consider switching to a company that can.
5. Work With Green Vendors
Expanding on the last thought, not only should you work with a green cleaning company, but really, you should also be using green vendors all around.
We know what you’re thinking: you already spent so much hard work vetting these vendors, and now, you have to redo the whole process again?
Before you start all over, speak to your current vendors to see if there’s any way for them to accommodate better environmental practices. If there’s really no way to adopt greener practices with them, then you should search for someone new to work with.
In your new search, make sure you ask plenty of questions before committing. For example, find out more about their sustainability efforts to see if their values match yours.
It can take some time to get this right, but once you do, it’ll all be worth it when you have perfect matches for vendors.
6. Encourage Greener Habits at Work
If you have a workforce in the office, then your employees might be less eco-conscious than you think. What better way to encourage eco-friendly habits than by leading by example?
For example, you can place a recycling bin in the office and make it a point to properly recycle everything you dispose of.
Other environmental practices you can do to better your workplace include:
- Eliminating single-use objects (like paper cups) and providing employees with reusable items (such as a thermos)
- Buying in bulk to reduce single-use waste
- Asking employees to power down all equipment at the end of the day and/or use energy-saving settings on their devices
While every item on this list seems small, when they’re all combined together, they can make a huge difference in your company’s carbon footprint.
Put These Eco-Friendly Business Practices to Use
With our above tips, you’ll become the eco-friendly business that all consumers want. Not only will you be able to meet their needs, but you’ll also be able to do your part in looking after the planet.
In the end, while you might have to revamp some business practices, it’ll be a win-win situation. So get started today on these pointers if you want to reduce your carbon footprint.
If you found this article on sustainable business practices useful, then make sure you browse our other blog articles for more green business tips!