There are many elements to running a modern business: social media engagement, remote working, and adapting to more sustainable practices. You might have got a handle on the first two, but sometimes it can be challenging to know how to become more sustainable.
To help, here we break down five simple tips which you can then apply to make your business more environmentally friendly.
1. Use Websites.
If you are interested in sustainability, websites are your best friend, which is true for businesses too. Online you can access crucial information about climate change and sustainability practices, but they are also the place to exchange dialogues and knowledge with other companies who are also trying to be more sustainable.
In addition, there are companies whose goal is to aid businesses to become more environmentally focused. So if you are interested in sustainability, sustainable, ESG, (environmental, social, and governance), then look no further than dedicated report websites.
2. Change the Office Culture.
As a business leader, your actions decide the company culture. So if you begin adopting sustainable practices, this will have a ripple effect across the whole company. This might be cycling to work, taking public transport, or carpooling. With passenger vehicles emitting approximately 4.6 tons of carbon dioxide per year, a change like this will make a huge difference.
Other environmental adaptations might be placing recycling bins throughout the office or reducing paper and printing usage by using computer clouds for filing, invoices, and administration. It might be setting up a composting garden at the back of the office or implementing motion-sensor lights in the bathrooms.
3. Set Your Business Targets.
As a business leader, you will likely have spent a lot of time setting targets. This might be in sales, in fundraising, or charity work. You might have set goals to do with turnover or perhaps customer satisfaction. Because of this, setting sustainability targets should be a familiar thing to do.
By setting targets, you can also look back year upon year to more easily inspect whether your business is making the progress in sustainability that you had hoped.
4. Make Changes to Your Cafe.
It is likely that your business has some sort of cafe or canteen, and this is another area where you can focus your sustainability efforts. Did you know that the world uses approximately 500 billion plastic cups every year? By doing something as simple as swapping coffee cups for recyclable or recycled coffee cups, your business will contribute towards reducing this number.
Similar changes can be implemented in throw-away cutlery and food wastage. By introducing biodegradable straws, cups, and plates and by dividing food into separate bins, your business is quickly going to become more environmentally friendly.
5. Carefully Choose Your Partners.
Now that your business has made these simple sustainably-minded adaptions, it is important that you continue this good work with the business partners that you choose to collaborate with.
Obviously, this step is the hardest. With employees relying on you for their livelihood and healthcare, having environmentally-motivated principles with partners is not always an option. So instead of being absolutist, it is about making modifications where you can. If there is the opportunity to work with more sustainably-minded brands and companies, do.
The Round-Up.
So if you run a business, these are five steps that you can try to adopt, which will make your company more sustainably-minded. It isn’t always easy, and it may take time, but by reducing your company’s paper usage, introducing biodegradable products into your canteen, encouraging a reduction in vehicle usage, and using websites to source and share further information, your business will be making all the right steps towards becoming more sustainable.
