Smaller Businesses Going Green
Smaller businesses know all too well that it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. To keep the business going and in competition with the bigger businesses, small businesses need to continuously think outside the box. They need to be ahead of the game, so why not take your small business to the next level? Why not take your business on an eco-friendly ride and show those big businesses how it’s done?
Going green isn’t a huge sacrifice. People have their qualms about it, but in all honesty, it’s not as bad as you may think. Going green will actually be one of the smartest things you could do for your company and you will be saving costs throughout the business. Your business will be cutting edge.
Think of going green as an investment. Your business will continuously reap the benefits of going green as well as reducing the negative impact on the environment.
Here are 5 easy tricks to help cut costs while reducing your company’s carbon footprint:
- Encourage using less paper. Try keeping in touch with your staff and customers via email. It will dramatically cut down the amount of waste paper and energy that is associated with paper mail.
- Traveling. Consider allowing your employees to work from home once in a while. Encourage carpooling. These ideas will cut the amount of emissions from traveling every day.
- Device management. Put computers on reduced energy settings. Energy Star devices are ideal in businesses as their products are more energy efficient than others. Look for the Energy Star logo. Laptops are more idea than desktops. Laptops can run on their own batter power as desktops cannot. Also, turn off any devices that are not being used. No reason to keep them running if nobody is using them.
- Use Internet fax services. Documents sent electronically can not only be easily forwarded to other parties, but will reduce the amount of paper wasted. Experts say that 73.5 million trees could be preserved every year if 1% of paper faxes were delivered electronically. Imagine how many trees could be saved if this number increased!
- Recycle. Computers, paper, electronic devices can all be recycled. Landfills will not be overloaded with these products and harmful toxins in electronics will not seep into our water. Also, try buying biodegradable office supplies.
- To stretch your small business budget, use online promo codes for office supplies and technology.