If you’re looking for great ways to invest in the future of your business, you need to find ways to green-up your business. Not only is this great for the environment (which, let’s be honest, is home to everything else), it’s a great way to boost sales too.
Consumers the world over are becoming clued up on the environmental impact individual businesses are having on the world, and names get named. That’s a new revelation. It’s even got to the stage where people are willing to pay higher prices for goods and services to know their money is going to a business that practices environmental-awesomeness.
The trick is learning just how you can green-up your business in a way that will win over more clients and customers, which is where the sales trends are going. To help you out, we’ve pulled together some top tips that will turn your business the shade of green as a dollar bill.
- No More Wasted Water
Saving money while helping to conserve a valuable resource; what could be a better investment than that? Exactly. That’s why you need to find ways reduce water usage on your business premises. Fix any drips and leaks, install low-flow toilets, get a water tank so you can store more rainwater, get Energy Star rated appliances for any on-site washers and convert your sprinkler system to a drip system with a rain sensor. All of these will up the ante big time.
- Don’t Just Chuck Stuff
Business renovations are commonplace. It’s a way of staying up to the minute with the latest tech, keeping offices state of the art and ensuring you are ahead of the curve. The problem is, so much usable materials go into landfill. Don’t fall suit. Donate these items to charitable organisations instead, organisations like Habitat For Humanity. They will take everything from old appliances to used lumber and sell it. This a) keeps tons of materials out of landfill and b) helps fund low-income housing projects.
- Perfect Your Procurement
If you really want to make a difference environmentally, start practising green procurement processes. Source your goods and services from providers that use sustainable methods. That could be as simple as using a local supplier instead of someone that is thousands of miles away or it could be having a strict no-excessive packaging rule. It could be buying things designed to be repairable and not throwable or having a renewable materials only policy. Whatever is possible for your business.
- Clear Away Conveniences
Forget all about how good you think you are at recycling and accept that we, as a nation, are leagues behind the innovators on this front, and a big reason for this is our addiction to throwaway and single-use products. Coffee-pods used in Nespresso machines are a great example of how bad society – and office culture – has gotten. This mindset needs to be replaced with a new workplace attitude whereby paper towels are swapped out for hand dryers, refillable water bottles are handed out and no disposable coffee cups are allowed.
