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If you’ve been in the entrepreneurial game for any amount of time, you’re probably aware that the environmental cause is booming across the globe. This should come as no surprise, as the rising threats of climate change along with the rapidly-deteriorating ecosystems have prompted consumers, governments, and businesses around the world to unite and support the environmental movement any way they can. This has also prompted business leaders to start investing in renewable energy while making their in-house processes as eco-friendly as possible.
Making your business greener is one of the best ways to minimize your financial expenditure, build a brand that the consumers will love and respect, and of course, the best way to aid the preservation of the natural world around you. Let’s take a look at the five steps you need to take in order to make your business more sustainable in the long run.
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Create a paperless office space
There are many wonderful ways you can make your coworking office space more energy efficient and sustainable with the help of technology and digital transformation in general. Regardless of how digital and modern your business is, however, there’s always a need for a lot of printed material and sadly, most of it is wasted or ends up not being recycled or reused.
If you want to safeguard the environment while cutting waste and saving money, be sure to reduce the number of documents you print by building a digital workplace that doesn’t require printed documents at all. Integrating the right digital tools and processes will support you on your journey to becoming a zero-printing workplace, so be sure to implement employee management and reporting tools, accounting software, HR tools, as well as digital payroll and administrative platforms.
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Set a carbon footprint goal
Minimizing your company’s carbon footprint should be one of your top priorities if you are looking to go green, support the environment, conserve natural resources, and most importantly for you, minimize your financial expenditure. What’s more, this is both a good policy and a good marketing move that can make your brand more relevant and trustworthy in the eyes of your target demographic.
You can start by running an energy audit of your company to determine how big your carbon footprint actually is. Next, decide on a realistic one-year and five-year goal for lowering your CO2 emissions, which will give your company a clear objective and help build an eco-conscious workplace culture. Aim for a ten-percent decrease at the very least, and add this project to your collaborative cloud environment to ensure accountability across the company.
Be sure to institute a strict green policy, and incentivize your employees to carpool to work, ride to work on their bicycles or to simply use public transportation. On your end, be sure to install motion lighting and LED lights, programmable thermostats, as well as energy-efficient appliances across the board.
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Capitalize on solar panels and inverters
Going solar is one of the best financial decisions your business could make, and it’s also a great way to cut your CO2 emissions and run your business on clean energy. This is something that business leaders in bustling business hubs around the world, such as Hong Kong, have realized some time ago, and are now installing solar panels equipped with quality solar inverter in order to generate and utilize clean energy to power their offices and their processes. This allows you to detach your business from the municipal power grid, which means that more people will have access to electricity while you enjoy energy independence and a greener working environment.
Finally going off the grid will help you save money and truly commit your business to the environmental cause. Some countries also offer sizable financial incentives for companies to kick-start their solar transformation program, so be sure to apply for any available funding in your region to acquire solar panels and inverters in a cost-effective way.
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Create an office oasis with a living wall
A living wall makes a great addition to any modern office space, acting as a passive conservation feature and an aesthetic focal point that your employees can enjoy throughout the day. You can raise a living wall throughout the office space and in all communal areas, adorned with various plants and flower species that will elevate the aesthetic appeal of the office.
In turn, your living wall will serve numerous key purposes by supporting passive energy conservation and creating a beautiful natural accent that your employees can use to banish stress and fatigue. The wall will also reduce the noise levels in the office, which is pretty important if you’re located in a bustling part of town.
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Create an eco-conscious community
Of course, you can’t hope to achieve your goals of becoming an eco-friendly company without the help of your employee collective. After all, the future of your business lies in the hands of your team members, and your brand’s reputation literally relies on your employees and how they portray it to the rest of the world. With that in mind, if you have an eco-conscious employee collective, you have a higher chance of building a truly sustainable brand.
Be sure to implement stringent recycling policies, choose your vendors and providers wisely, make sure to support relevant environmental causes, and don’t forget to optimize all of your processes for maximum conservation and environmental preservation. This will help you build a brand image that the modern customer will love.
Wrapping up
Creating an eco-friendly and sustainable business model is the best way to aid the preservation of the environment, and it’s definitely one of the best ways to cut extraneous expenses while elevating your brand’s image in the process. Be sure to implement these solutions in order to make your company greener as a whole.
