Simple Ways to Make Your Business More Eco Friendly
The green revolution is underway and gathering pace at an impressive rate. While the headlines talk about governments and corporations needing to drive change, we can all contribute in our own way. Every business of every size and shape can become more environmentally friendly by taking small but significant steps. If those steps achieve higher levels of sustainability with very little in the way of compromise, all the better!
We all know about saving water, buying responsibly, cycling to work and eating less meat. All those things require significant change and a concerted effort. What if there was a way to make your business more eco-friendly without that effort? If we could make simple tweaks to the items we use every day to help achieve the same goal?
Here are some simple ways to make your business more eco-friendly that involve zero compromise on quality and require very little extra manpower or effort.
Switching to Green Products
The average office is not a green space and can involve a lot of consumption. Consumption of paper, pens, stationery, single use plastic, printer ink, consumables, energy and resources. We will all agree that those things are essential for the efficient running of a business, but what if we could tweak things so offices were less wasteful?
Tweaks like sustainable office supplies:
Biodegradable office supplies – Standard office supplies such as rulers, pens, paper that will biodegrade to nothing once placed into waste.
Recycled pens and office supplies – Standard office supplies made from recycled materials. For example, Bic ECOlutions pens, standard ballpoint pens made with 74% recycled materials.
Reusable water cups – Reusable cups for water to replace single use plastic. You could bring one from home or buy reusable cups for your staff.
Office Recycling
Switching to green products is a way to make your business more environmentally friendly. Combine it with recycling of waste, you can make an even larger contribution. As many office suppliers can collect your used items to recycle when they deliver your new products, recycling requires very little in the way of effort too!
Recycling toners and IT consumables – Printer toner, computer parts, old phones, tablets, office furniture, hard drives and most parts of the modern office can be recycled.
Paper recycling – Printer paper, books, Post-It notes, envelopes and most paper products can be fully recycled.
Pen and stationery recycling – The average office will go through boxes of pens and pencils per month. Most will go to landfill. Most pens, pencils and stationery can now be recycled with the vast majority of the materials being reused. Organisations such as TerraCycle are leaders in pen and consumable recycling.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is one of those win-win situations. Whether you switch to an energy supplier that generates the majority of their power using renewable sources or begin generating your own, you are contributing to the shift from fossil fuels.
Not every office building is suitable for solar panels. If yours is and you can finance the switch, you can move to sustainable energy while lowering your monthly energy bill. With solar panels becoming cheaper and more efficient, now is a great time to shift to solar if you can!
There is definitely a place for governments and corporations to make big changes in the way they operate but that shouldn’t stop the rest of us. Nobody said government had to lead or multinationals had to blaze the trail. We can all play our part and can all contribute to a sustainable future with few of the compromises of before. If that isn’t reason for business to go green, what is?
