The environment is vital as people depend on it for their livelihood, and caring for it creates more jobs. Using products that lessen your dependence on natural resources and products made from recycled material can help save the environment. Running an environmentally-friendly company reduces your impact on the environment and conserves natural resources.
A diverse environment strengthens food security, ensures clean air, and improves mental health. Protecting animal and plant species, preserving green spaces, and lessening emissions can save the planet. Consider auditing your business activities to determine what you can do differently to protect the environment. Discussed below are 11 ways companies can help to protect the environment.
- Invest in environmental training or education
While the changes your company makes can significantly impact the environment, how individual employees go about their daily duties also counts. Implementing regular training programs can help your staff learn what they can do to ensure a greener company. Environmental education increases the knowledge level within your organization.
Your staff understands the environmental regulatory concerns affecting your company, helping you remain compliant with state and federal requirements. You can have your employees learn everything they need to know about the environment and how to act on its behalf at Genus or any other learning platform to help your company find ways to save the environment.
- Reduce paper waste
While some businesses are going paperless, others generate a lot of waste. If you still depend on paper-based processes, it’s an excellent time to consider shifting to electronic work processes. Discourage your employees from printing emails and drafting documents, allowing you to send and store documents electronically and print less. Since you may still need to use paper, ensure it’s recycled and doesn’t get tossed in the garbage.
- Switch to LED lighting
LED bulbs reduce your energy bills and are more environmentally friendly than fluorescent lights and incandescent bulbs. The manufacturing process and use of LEDs minimize environmental damage. LEDs use less power per lumen of light emitted, reducing greenhouse emissions from power companies. The LED carbon dioxide emissions are also low. Switching to LED lights conserves energy, reduces utility bills, and protects the environment.
- Embrace telecommuting and remote work
While the number of companies embracing remote work is increasing, others don’t allow it. If your organization lets employees work remotely once in a while or permanently, you can improve your eco-friendliness. With fewer people working from the office, the energy used should drop significantly and your organization will reduce the emissions it’s responsible for. This will help contribute to improving the environment, and with more staff working remotely, you’ll save on energy costs. You can even downsize to a smaller, more efficient office space.
- Provide filtered water
You’ll likely find several beverages on the desks if you walk around the office. While water is the beverage of choice for most young employees, plastic bottles aren’t good for the environment because they take years to decompose fully if they end up in landfills. Provide recycling bins and stick to the rules of protecting the environment, including reducing, reusing, and recycling. When onboarding new employees, consider giving each of them a reusable cup. You can add infiltration into your system so your staff can access fresh water from the taps. Investing in a water cooler ensures that your employees get cold, clean water throughout each day.
- Invest in more efficient processes and machines
Most of the machines and processes that companies use usually consume more power or energy than needed. You can replace or change these processes and machinery to more efficient ones to protect the environment. For instance, if your company still uses a fax machine, you can replace it with an e-fax service. This will let you receive and send faxes quickly and online, without a fax machine. Consider auditing your entire office to identify outdated and inefficient technologies and processes and replace them.
- Establish a sustainable strategy
Establishing a sustainable business solution is essential to creating a fruitful, environmentally-friendly business. Developing a sustainable business strategy can improve your bottom line, help you achieve your long-term goals, and protect the environment. You can start by buying recycled office materials, lowering conventional energy usage, and using smart appliances, lights, and thermostats. Reward sustainable office behaviors like cycling or carpooling to work.
- Pick the right products and partners
Your business’s sustainability depends on the daily decisions you make. If you realize that something is hindering your choice to adopt environmentally-friendly practices, consider changing your suppliers. Your vendors should always safeguard the environment using sustainable goods, materials, distribution, and processing. The products used in your office, including cleaning detergents, should be eco-friendly.
- Reduce travel
Travel is a crucial business aspect, especially if you have to meet prospective clients, attend conferences outside your office, take a long drive, or board a plane. Besides cutting into your business’s bottom line, travel negatively impacts the environment. While you can adopt green travel practices, switching to tech tools like video conferencing is more cost-effective than attending conferences to network.
You can organize webinars and get your clients to join online, saving travel money and time and reducing carbon emissions. You may consider interacting with your customers via video chat as it has the same face-face benefits as in-person meetings.
- Place recycling bins in common areas
While some companies have mechanisms to ensure that their refuse goes to recycling centers and not landfills, others toss everything in the nearest waste bin. Place bins in each common working location and meeting area to let your office visitors and employees know that you aren’t taking your environmental responsibility lightly. You might pay for the recycling pickup, but it will be a worthy investment if it safeguards the environment and improves employee morale.
- Power off your office appliances
Leaving your appliances plugged in, including computers, printers, and others, increases energy usage and bills. Consider reducing energy usage by making it mandatory for all your staff to power down their computers and other devices before leaving, saving energy and the environment.
Endnote
Making your business eco-friendly doesn’t have to be complicated. Implement these tips in your company to help save the environment.