Improving the eco-friendliness of their companies is something many business owners strive to achieve. With consumers growing in awareness of environmental issues and green principles increasingly influencing buyer behavior, it makes sense to introduce eco-friendly changes to your business. 

Many benefits can be gained from improving your company’s environmental credentials. Your efforts to transform your business into a greener organization will help you to increase your sales by attracting a new audience to your products, and also help to demonstrate your company’s commitment to behaving responsibly and playing its part in protecting the planet.

So, there are many strong reasons to consider your business’s approach to the environment. But, while many companies have the best intentions and plan to increase their eco-credentials, it can sometimes be tough to make the transition and adapt an organization to reduce its environmental impact. If you are hoping to make your business eco-friendly but are unsure where to begin, these tips should help you to assess how you can move forward with this:

Introduce Green Procurement

While you can make every effort to implement greener business practices and actively reduce your company’s environmental impact, all this work is ruined if your suppliers do not uphold the same standards. Green procurement is crucial for any business that wants its environmental efforts to be taken seriously and respected.

Using suppliers that do not uphold the same high standards can jeopardize your company’s reputation and lead to accusations of greenwashing. So, focusing on green procurement is vital, but it can be challenging to monitor.

A useful first step is to verify that any chemicals or pesticides used in producing the supplies have been registered with the appropriate agencies. Research organizations such as MRIGlobal help businesses complete their EPA and FIFRA registrations, so it is relatively straightforward for your suppliers to get the proper registrations. These registrations ensure items such as pesticides have minimal adverse effects on the environment, so it is extremely important to comply with these. Being aware of potential issues such as this by checking your suppliers uphold the same high environmental standards as your own business is crucial. 

Save Energy

Focusing on saving energy is one of the most significant steps you can take to improve the eco-friendliness of your workplace. Cutting your company’s energy usage will help reduce its carbon footprint. Before you implement any changes, you may find it beneficial to calculate your company’s current carbon footprint so you can monitor your progress once you start your attempts to actively reduce it. 

There are many ways the energy consumption at your workplace can be reduced, so you should be able to make a significant difference in a short time.

Starting by seeking a renewable source of power for your building is a beneficial place to begin. If feasible, you may wish to have solar panels installed at your building to power your business. If this is not possible, simple acts such as using natural light as much as possible and swapping your light bulbs for energy-efficient alternatives should make a difference.

Ensuring that equipment and lights are switched off when not in use will also help to reduce your company’s energy consumption. In addition, you may want to assess your HVAC system to ensure that it is running as efficiently as possible, as this can impact your energy consumption and increase your carbon footprint.

Go Paperless

Transforming your business into a paperless workplace provides a host of benefits for your company finances and your business. When you stop using paper at work, you will find that a host of different savings are made that improve your company’s eco-credentials. No paper means that you can reduce your energy consumption as you no longer use printers and photocopiers. You will also minimize waste as you will no longer need to buy ink, toner, and paper for the printer. So, making your business paperless can help you save energy and reduce waste in several ways.

Take One Step at a Time

Trying to change every aspect of your business at once and making an overnight transformation into an eco-friendly business is not possible. Instead, it is helpful to write a plan stating your environmental goals. With goals in place, you will have clear targets to work towards and will be able to prioritize the eco-friendly changes that can be implemented right away. With the quick wins complete, you will be able to start establishing long-term environmental goals and play your role in protecting the planet.