While you are keen for your business to remain profitable, money shouldn’t be your sole motivation when expanding your venture. During this Covid-19 pandemic, carbon emissions have decreased dramatically. It’s crucial that you are able to jump on this sustainable bandwagon to future-proof your money-making venture. Your green credentials aren’t simply lipped service to a global effort to reduce global warming and improve energy efficiency.

In the past, many business owners have envisioned sustainable policies as costly for very little return. However, flexing the eco-friendly muscles of your business comes down to social responsibility and being ethically sound.

Don’t assume that your customers and clients don’t take notice of your sustainability efforts. People who are keen to do business with you will research your company and check out your eco-credentials. People are savvier than ever and place greater importance on the ethical nature of their retailers, eateries, delivery companies, and artisan suppliers. It makes sense to jump on the sustainability bandwagon and do your bit to save the planet. Read on to find out how you can do this.

Energy Efficiency

It’s more crucial than ever that you can say that your business is energy efficient and carbon neutral. This bold claim can enable your business to take the lead from a green perspective and can be held up as a beacon of excellence for your competitors. Being eco-friendly is a great public relations coup, as you will be the sustainable choice for customers seeking out a product or service that you can provide.

Being energy efficient can be explored through a range of methods. If you have an official site or a warehouse, consider how you can be more energy efficient. Installing solar panels on the roof of your site can help you to generate your own power and electricity. Rather than rely on a utility company, you can harness the power of the sun and power the lighting, motors, computers, and hardware within your working environments. This allows you to take more control of your electricity production. Any excess energy that you produce can even be sold back to the grid making your business some extra cash that you can inject into marketing, advertising, or recruitment.

Alternative sources of energy are well worthy of your exploration. Miniature wind turbines can be useful in breezy environments and work in the same way as solar panels. These may be costly to install initially but they pay for themselves over five years or so. This allows your energy production to become a profitable aspect of your venture which you can exploit and publicize in terms of your PR and marketing.

Hardware

If you have a vast array of hardware that seemingly eats electricity and power, think about the sorts of laptops, servers, and specialist equipment that you buy. When looking to replace your fleet of hardware, check out the energy efficiency of the product. Go for a laptop that is regarded as A+ or above in terms of energy efficiency. This enables your machine to use less power when it is fired up and plugged in, meaning that it costs you a lot less to run.

If you work within an industry that is less office-based, such as construction, car spray painting, plumbing, or engineering, you need to consider other powerful pieces of equipment that may sap energy. Head to cbeuptime.com if you utilize air compressors as a vital tool within your day to day practice. Consider switching to a variable speed example as these use up to half the energy of the fixed speed equivalents. This reduces your impact on the environment and also cuts your overheads, saving your business money.

Recycle

To do your bit for the local community and to reduce increasing energy production in manufacturing, consider implementing a recycling policy within your business. If you are looking to replace your laptop fleet, don’t wipe your machines only to then dump them in a landfill. These laptops are probably worthy of a local school, hospital, or charity group. While they might not be the most powerful or speedy machines, plenty of local community groups can benefit from your laptops.

From a PR perspective, you can forge closer relationships with your community. Recycling also means that your business won’t be contributing to the destruction and replacement of perfectly usable items. Many customers, especially millennials, are keen to recycle and reuse items, from tin cans to smartphones. This is something that you can exploit to attract the millennial niche to your company.

Engage Your Staff 

Having the documentation to implement a sustainable policy doesn’t necessarily mean that your staff is on board. It’s crucial that you can get your employees to buy into your business vision. You need to ensure that your team is keen to jump on the sustainability bandwagon with you. To motivate your staff, sign up for a car share or cycle to work scheme. Doing this will enable your staff to purchase a bike at a subsidized rate if they commit to cycling to work rather than taking the car. If cycling is not appropriate, a car share scheme like the ones at business.liftshare.com will halve the number of cars on the road each morning in terms of your staff, reducing carbon emissions. This also enables your team to spend more time together and learn more about one another. This can improve the cohesive nature of your team.

Reducing carbon emissions and attaining neutrality is the goal of many businesses. If you are keen to achieve this, look to sustainable suppliers, embrace more flexible working practices, and conduct more virtual meetings rather than flying to mainland Europe for an hour with a client. Being sustainable and trying to achieve carbon neutrality can actually save your business money, making it more efficient and enhancing the time management capability of your company.

Jump aboard the sustainable and carbon-neutral bandwagon, enthuse your staff with greener policies, and empower your business to do its bit to save the planet.