The environment is often at the forefront of people’s thoughts, whether they’re getting ready for their day, building a business, or trying to simply get through life. When you have a small business, you may be more focused on the bottom line that you actually neglect of few very important keys to helping your business be more environmentally friendly and sound.
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There are plenty of ways for any business to go ‘greener.’ Below are three such ways that your business might be able to help the environment and, in the end, actually have a more positive impact on your bottom line. (Yes, believe it or not, your business may actually be able to save money when you ‘go green.’)
- Go paperless. When you’re running a business, you’re going to have a lot of documents with which to deal. That means, if you’re not paying attention, you could end up printing thousands upon thousands of pages every single month.
These could include receipts, invoices, memos, and much more. Not only is that going to cost you a tremendous amount in paper and ink, it’s also taking a toll on the environment.
Instead, go paperless as often as you can. You might discover that doing so will save you hundreds and maybe even thousands of dollars on these printing expenses every month. When your customers realize you’re going paperless (or at least giving them that option), they’re going to appreciate it.
- Use the Cloud. Having documents stored online, in the ‘Cloud’ means you can work from anywhere. You can even have some of your employees work from home one or two days a week. That could help you reduce the amount of fuel they use driving to and from work, and their expenses in doing so, but you won’t have to heat or cool your office as much on those days, too.
By using the ‘Cloud,’ you also won’t need to keep your own servers on site, which will reduce the amount of energy your company consumes.
- Focus on environmentally sound office supplies.
This might seem to be a bit obvious, but every little detail is going to make a world of difference when it comes to being environmentally conscious. There are probably numerous things you could do to help your business boost its greenery (not plants, mind you) and reduce its carbon footprint.
Use CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulbs instead of the traditional incandescent bulbs we’ve been using for years.
Use recycled paper. You could also get in the habit of recycling old paper (you may want to shred sensitive documents before recycling, though).
Encourage everyone to bring their own water bottles. This will help you avoid using too many new plastic bottles, thus helping the environment and cutting down on unnecessary plastic waste.
Rely on energy saving settings for your computer devices. The more energy you desktops and laptops conserve, the more it’ll save your business money and you’ll be able to enjoy the benefits of being a ‘green’ focused company.
