Five Ways to Make Your Business More Eco-Friendly

Eco-Friendly: Making your business more ecologically friendly is good for the environment AND for your business’s bottom line. Saving money by removing energy waste, changing your operations or processes to use less consumables and being able to market your business as ‘green’ can all give your finances a boost. Here’s our top five ways to make your business more eco-friendly:

Recycling Bins

Installing recycling bins in your staff room, canteen and at strategic places around the site can make a huge difference to the impact that your business has on the environment. Clearly colour-coded and labelled bins make it easy for staff to dispose of waste correctly, and they encourage eco-friendly waste management practices.

Cycle Parking

Investing in a dedicated cycle parking area will encourage staff, customers and visitors to cycle to your site rather than drive. Make sure your cycle storage area or bike shed is in a convenient place close to entrances and exits and – ideally – it should be visible from inside. Good lighting in and around the area and a security camera that overlooks the spot are best practice to keep the bikes and their riders safe.

Conserve Energy

Use LED lighting where you can, as the bulbs are long-lasting and use less power. Make sure that computers and other electronics are powered down and, where possible, unplugged at the end of the day, and that air conditioning or heating systems are set at an appropriate temperature and kept well maintained with clean filters. If you can, source your electricity and gas from renewable energy firms, or suppliers who are dedicated to reducing their environmental impact. In many sites, corridor and restroom lighting is turned on 24/7 – this is costly to both the company and the environment. Switch to timer controls or, better yet, motion controls so that lighting is only on when it is actually needed.

Go Paperless

Offices, in particular, still use vast quantities of paper and much of it is just no longer necessary. Most things that are printed could just as easily be communicated with staff, suppliers and customers electronically, and you’ll be saving money on paper, ink and printers as well as having less of an impact on the environment. Plus if you sell ink cartridges that you didn’t use, it wouldn’t just add up to being eco-friendly, it would also mean you would be able to earn your money back.

Appoint a ‘green leader’

Putting someone within your company in charge of your green initiatives can help you in many ways. Employees will feel more engaged with your environmental goals, people will come with their own ideas and initiatives that you may not have considered and, in larger organisations, you can have departments, divisions or different sites competing against each other with a prize for the most improved. This is a simple and cost-effective way of encouraging your staff to think about the impact their actions have, and it is suitable for any business – commercial, industrial, retail and office.

Author Bio: First Mats started life as safety matting specialists, but have since expanded to become a complete industrial and commercial supplies company. The focus of First Mats is to provide safety-focused products that improve the wellbeing of staff through quality approved products, backed up by extensive knowledge. www.firstmats.co.uk

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