Making Your Business More Eco Friendly

We know how important it is to reduce our carbon footprint, to help the earth and save the environment, undoing some of the damage humankind has afflicted in the past few generations. Although some believe it is the government or big corporate businesses responsibility to do something about it, it's up to everyone to lessen their carbon footprint. If you own a business be a role model for your employees by being eco-friendly. Not only will you directly impact the environment in a positive way but this could rub off on your employees to make more effort to do it at home. There are numerous ways to be eco-friendly, here are a few ways to go about it. 

Save Water 

When you conserve water, not only are you helping the environment, but you are also saving yourself some money. If you have old toilets in your business contact a water company about changing the water flow to low restrictions. This can save a good amount of water, if you have old toilets in your property, as an old toilet will use nearly 5 gallons to flush whereas newer ones use only one and a half gallons. This is especially good if you have old toilets on your property. Nobody deliberately wastes water but it does happen, so extend this to your taps too. You could also use tanks to collect rainwater, especially useful if you use a lot of water for things like crops and other things that don’t require sterilised tap water. If you do your research online you will find places that provide tanks for you to collect the rainwater, Tuffa Tanks are one example. The rainwater has multiple uses, it saves you money as well as the environment, so collecting rainwater is an all-round winner.

Use Less Plastic

We all know the danger of plastic to wildlife, and the devastating effect it is having on the oceans. There is no effective way to destroy plastic when it is no longer needed and the time has come for us all to step up by eliminating as much of it as we can. Education is the first step to this problem, though there are changes you can make in your business. Any small effort with this problem goes a long way to solving it, so simple things like finding milk providers that store their milk in anything but plastic. Contact your local milk delivery firm and have milk delivered from them as they always return to collect the bottles, by doing this you are helping local business as well as the environment. Use unlimited filtered tapwater systems, as this will help people cut down on one-time drinking bottles and they will start using reusable ones.

Cut Down On Your Electricity Use

These are common-sense ones, but one has to be mindful all the time as bad habits and distractions can leave you to leave lights and equipment on when they could be turned off. Consider your office equipment for a moment, replacing computers with laptops if possible can save energy, and if you replace your computer check for the energy star logo as they run more efficiently and will power down during after long inactivity. It's a pity people don't think to turn out lights when no longer needed, and this happens all the time. By installing motion detectors in the hallways or anywhere there is not constant traffic of people is another good option. Lighting can account for quite a lot on your energy bill so buying motion detectors will cut this cost as the light will only be on when needed.

Recycling

For all those old pieces of equipment you intend on changing, like the old mobile phones and the old computer in the corner that takes forever to boot up think carefully about how to dispose of them. Your local recycling centre will accept most of your old electronics, or you could use a local ‘repair cafe’ where they can be fixed and reused. Try to make the effort to use recycled materials yourself wherever possible. Things like cardboard and pens and recycled copy paper are all available to buy and this all helps with the recycling programme. Placing bins in the appropriate places around the workplace will get the best results in recycling your rubbish. Set up bins for paper near desks and photocopiers. Have bins allocated for different things such as one for printer cartridges and batteries, and cardboard and plastics. Label them clearly so nobody puts the wrong thing in them.

To be more eco-friendly in business takes mindfulness and some research, but it is known people prefer to buy from companies that are eco-friendly. It can save you money and help the environment and isn't that what we would all like to achieve.