Make Your Business Green, To Save Some Green
Whether you want to do some good for the environment, save money for your business or both, going green is a popular decision that more and more business owners are making. However, it doesn’t have to mean a major overhaul for your company. There are easy and convenient ways to reduce your carbon footprint while maintaining maximum productivity. To learn how, keep reading.
1. Go paperless.
You can save both business electricity and printing costs if you become a paperless office or business. Implement an electronic document sharing plan for your employees, and ask them not to print emails. For your customers, solicit email addresses and start a new paperless billing service that they can opt into.
2. Make it a trend.
If you contract with other businesses for specific services, consider seeking out only those that are also green. Create a network with these companies, and you may even be able to cut a mutual deal for the services that you provide to each other.
3. Turn out the lights after lunch.
The sun is at its highest point in the sky around noon. On clear days, this is the perfect time to take advantage of the natural light. Arrange desks around wide windows so that your employees can still work comfortably while you save on electricity used for lighting.
4. Do regular maintenance around the office.
This goes for more than just the air conditioner and heater, although they are key pieces of equipment that should always be monitored and kept in good repair. You should also do maintenance on your windows, doors and insulation to make sure you are not losing cooled or heated air from your system during months of extreme weather.
5. Check your energy tariff.
Make sure you aren’t spending more money than is necessary on your energy tariff by comparing business electricity prices and natural gas providers in your area. Use a site like uSwitch to make this an easy and fast process.
6. Switch to more energy-efficient equipment.
When it is time to upgrade your office equipment, look for printers, copiers and shredders that are energy efficient, and buy laptop computers instead of new desktop units. If any of these machines has a standby mode, put it on a power strip and turn it completely off at the end of each work day to avoid wasting electricity.
7. Start an incentive programme for employees.
Encourage your work team to constantly think of new ways to save energy around the office. Offer them incentives for the most creative and efficient ideas, and ask them to remain committed to saving electricity.
8. Keep track of your business electricity usage.
If you don’t have one already, request a smart metre from your electricity company. A smart metre will give accurate readings of how much energy you are using in real time so that you can determine which practices save you electricity and which you need to change to achieve greater energy savings.
