The need to go green and save mother earth calls upon businesses of all sizes to adopt sustainable business strategies and make them more environmentally friendly. Again, the specter of climate change has hewed out a crop of environmentally conscious consumers. More and more people are voting green with their wallets, and your business’s carbon footprint can get in the way of a sale.
According to Sendle, a U.S. shipping company, 57% of consumers rethink their purchasing habits as they learn more about the effects of climate change. In comparison, 71% of the respondents said they’ll pay more for sustainable brands.
It takes money to go green. You’ll need to pioneer a culture change and install sustainable business infrastructure. Luckily, you can obtain low-cost small business loans from an online lender to effect these changes.
9 Ways To Shrink Down Your Business’s Carbon Print
Increasingly, consumers realize that what is bad for the planet isn’t good for them. Apart from saving mother nature, sustainable brands realize an increased customer base and substantial business savings. Don’t be left behind.
Here are five ways to make your business more sustainable
Embrace remote work
Remote work is slowly replacing the corporate culture. Allowing your employees to work from home means fewer cars on the road and less time commuting to and from work. The net effect is less carbon dioxide emission and reduced carbon footprint for your enterprise. It’s not only good for the environment but your business, too. You’ll save money on office space, supplies, and utility bills.
Leave the car at home
How you and your workers commute to work contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Walking, cycling, and carpooling to work can greatly reduce your business’s carbon footprint. Make sure your business is strategically located on sites that offer easy access to bike lanes and pedestrian walkways, then provide transport incentives to encourage your staff to walk, cycle, carpool, or use public transport.
Recycle electronics
Electronic waste is growing fast. Your business can help reduce electronic waste by donating old devices like computers, tablets, printers, monitors, and smartphones to charities or schools instead of dumping them in landfills.
Tech companies like HP and Dell have tech recycling programs where businesses can send replaced electronics for recycling. You can also make more money trading used electronics on sites like Staples and BestBuy.
Move business operations to the cloud
Cloud computing is a great way to go carbon-neutral and reduce your business costs and carbon emissions. Platforms like Apple iCloud, Microsoft office 365, Zoom, and Google Apps help employees collaborate and share information without the need to print or travel.
If you embrace cloud computing, you won’t need to keep expensive and power-intensive servers in-house, making your business more environmentally friendly. A small business loan can help you build and install sustainable cloud computing infrastructure.
Green procurement
Make your business more environmentally friendly by working with brands that produce and supply their goods sustainably. A great option is to procure goods from local suppliers rather than manufacturers located far away to reduce carbon emissions during transportation.
Use sustainable packaging
Ship packages to customers on sustainable packaging containers like recycled paper, cardboard, or sustainable poly mailers. These can be reused, resulting in zero waste.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
To reduce your business waste, use plates, glasses, and utensils in the office instead of disposable cups like coffee pods. Encourage employees to use both sides of the printer paper, reuse boxes, and empty trash cans on city recycling bins. It’ll reduce landfill waste.
Use energy-efficient appliances
Installing energy-efficient upgrades in the office is a great way to make your business more environmentally friendly and save money on your business’s energy bills. Use laptops instead of desktops and install LED lights, smart thermostats, automatic light sensors, and solar panels to reduce excessive reliance on electricity.
Borrow from sustainable lenders
Obtaining small business loans from online lenders is a great way to make your business more environmentally friendly. They use modern technology to process loans on the cloud. Their business’s carbon footprint is almost negligible.
