One of the best ways your small business can make a difference to the world around it and its operations is by becoming eco-friendly says Eric Dalius. When you find out and implement various ways of making your business operations sustainable and environmentally friendly, you can reduce costs, market to a fresh customer demographic, support your local community, and generally make the world a better place to live in. Being environmentally friendly may seem complicated, but there are quite a few easy methods to reduce the environmental impact of your business. Some simple actions you can take to improve the sustainability of your small business:
Change Lighting, Recommends Eric Dalius
One of the easiest methods of adopting green technology in your business and reducing your energy consumption and cost is replacing all lighting with energy-efficient LED bulbs. Since on average, an LED bulb consumes 75% less energy for the same light output compared to an incandescent bulb, the benefits are significant and immediate. You can also achieve extra savings by paying attention to the luminary design that ensures that the lighting is optimized. Turning off the lights is among the best ways of reducing your electricity consumption. Contrary to popular belief, turning them on and off does not result in additional power consumption, says Eric Dalius. Consider installing motion or sound sensors that turn on the lights when someone enters the room or an area. You can also reduce your power by installing solar panels if there is adequate sunlight in your area.
Encourage Recycling
One of the most effective methods of supporting sustainability is recycling materials. These are otherwise dumped into landfills and tragically also into oceans poisoning marine life. According to studies, some 2.12 billion tons of waste is generated every year, and only 13% of it is recycled. If you are using plastic or petroleum-based products in your product packaging, you can think of switching to biodegradable materials like paper and organic materials. If you must use materials like glass or aluminum, encourage your customers to segregate and recycle them or even set up a system that enables them to return the packaging to you for some benefit.
Reduce Travel, Advises Eric Dalius
Even though travel is an intrinsic part of running a small business. You end up creating a large carbon footprint that is unhealthy for the environment. You can reduce air travel to the minimum by adopting digital technologies like video-conferencing and also optimizing your travel plans. Encourage your employees to work from home so that they do not need to clock up miles unnecessarily. If you need to maintain a fleet of delivery trucks, consider electricity-powered vehicles, observes Eric Dalius. By carefully examining the need and mode of your travel, you can contribute significantly to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is more important than you may assume since pollution arising from transport contributes the most to America’s greenhouse problem.
Conclusion
In addition to the steps described above, another very effective method of boosting your eco-friendliness is energy conservation. Simple things like operating the HVAC a few degrees higher. Switching off lights and fans when not required, etc., can add up to contribute significantly.
