How to make your company more eco-friendly

Running a business means ticking a lot of boxes, with a lot of requirements to meet.

More businesses are beginning to worry more than ever about their carbon footprint. If you’re a business owner who is making an effort to make your company more environmentally friendly, there are some changes you can make to help. Some of them might even save you some money.

Conserve water

Wasteful use of water can cost you a lot of money, as well as having a big impact on the environment. To keep your company water waste to a minimum, keep on top of any plumbing repairs that may come up before a small leak becomes a big problem, costing you water and money. Bring in a plumber to advise you on what changes you might be able to make to use less water around the workplace, such as eco-friendly water systems.

Change cleaning products

Whether you hire cleaners for the office internally or use an agency or cleaning company, provide green cleaning products. Many cleaning products have a lot of harmful chemicals in them that end up causing significant damage to the environment and the health of those who use them.

Swap to non-toxic products instead. These are better for your housekeeping staff who don’t have to breathe in dangerous chemicals anymore and for the environment as those chemicals won’t find their way into the eco-system.

Use eco-friendly promotional materials

Many companies use a lot of promotional materials to give away to advertise their services. Whether you keep a pot of promotional pens on the conference table in the office or you often hand out keyrings, lanyards or tote bags with your logo on at trade shows, you should think about the amount of waste these products can create.

A lot of these products end up in the trash, contributing to plastic waste as well as landfill. Instead, look at the eco range from DynamicGift, who use recycled materials to make their promotional items.

Target commutes

How do your staff travel to work? Driving is one of the least green ways to travel. If many of your staff drive to work, consider how you can encourage them to choose a more environmentally friendly method of commuting.

Offer incentives to encourage greener modes of transport to get to work. You could offer loans to buy yearly travel passes for the train or bus, to be paid back in monthly segments from your employee’s salary.

Offer a help to buy scheme for bicycles on the same principle. Make sure you provide facilities for cyclists, like plenty of bike racks and showers to use on arrival. Set up an internal system for staff to arrange carpooling.

Plants trees and shrubs

Put some oxygen back into the air and make a nicer work environment by planting some greenery. Plant shrubs and trees in any outside space you own, and add plants in pots to paved areas like patios or balconies. Adding plants is a small step on the way to reducing your carbon footprint.

Recycle

Make it easy for your employees to recycle. Add plenty of clearly marked, separate trash cans for recycling.

Seperate paper, cardboard and plastic and make it easy to see which bin is which. Most people are now used to recycling at home, so the adaption should be simple. Make sure to lead by example and recycle your own trash too.

Look into alternative sources of energy

Offices use a lot of power, so look into some cleaner methods to produce yours. Could you fit solar panels to the office building? Is there a way you could use wind or water power? As well as being much better for the environment, these power sources could reduce your bills and your company’s tax bills.

Replace old appliances

Electronic items now have an energy efficiency rating on them. Phase out old appliances, whether it’s the computer or a dishwasher, that may be inefficient.

Replace these electronics with new ones, and only choose the items with the highest efficiency rating. These will have a smaller environmental impact and will be cheaper for you to run.

When you replace electrical items, make sure the old ones don’t find their way to a landfill. If they’re in good working order, you can wipe computers and either sell them to employees to use at home or donate them to somewhere like a school or a charity. Ask the retailer where you buy your new computers and see if they have a recycling program themselves to help you get rid of the old machines in a sustainable way.

It’s also important to consider whether an appliance can be repaired before you give up on it. Online Appliance Spares can help you find difficult parts to repair your appliances and make them good as new again.

If a replacement is absolutely necessary, you could also consider a refurbished item - something that saves waste, but also saves you money too compared to the price of a brand-new item.

Buy from sustainable suppliers

From manufacturing materials to paper for the photocopier, do your homework on your suppliers. Look for suppliers who are sustainable so you’re not contributing to someone else’s carbon footprint.

Look for companies who source or create goods in a sustainable way. Look for products that are non-toxic, recyclable and made from renewable materials. Look for suppliers whose values on recycling, emissions and energy and water conservation line up with your own.

Reduce plastic waste

An office can generate a lot of plastic waste, like disposable coffee cups in meeting rooms, plastic cups at the water cool or bottled water brought in for client meetings. Make a commitment to cut back on single use plastic. Stock up on mugs instead of disposable coffee cups.

Stop buying plastic cups for the water cooler and ask employees to fill a glass from the kitchen or their own water bottles instead. You could give staff a branded water bottle and reusable travel mug when they join the company, providing them with a welcome gift and a method of not using single use plastic.

Instead of bottled water, buy a water filter or a filter tap and take jugs of tap water into the meeting room instead. If you buy in food for meetings, try to buy from companies who cater with biodegradable packaging instead of plastic trays.

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