Businesses have a huge impact on the state of the global natural environment. Reducing the weight of conducting business is a big ask for many businesses: CNBC asserts that 40% of business travel must be halted, for instance. Not every business has a big travel imprint, and they might already be conducting most business digitally to remove their footprint. Nevertheless, there are key steps that businesses of any size can take in order to minimize their footprint in terms of carbon and waste, and to create a truly sustainable future.
Everyday processes
An easy place to optimize is in the day-to-day processes that businesses undertake to keep operations running smoothly. These are the tasks that underpin the smooth running of an office, if not necessarily directly contributing to business goals. Take cleaning, for example. Ever more important in the current climate of heightened hygiene, the products and energy used in intensive cleaning nevertheless contribute to climate change and environmental damage. The EPA highlight, in particular, the damaging impact of detergents on natural environments and in contributing to pollution. Simply switching to a green focused cleaning strategy can eliminate a lot of harmful waste and make cleaning sustainable.
Choosing renewable providers
Building renewable energy of your own can be difficult and, for many states, economically not feasible. To counter this, green energy giants are now providing viable solutions across the USA; so much so that the WSJ have highlighted the fact they are now rivaling the energy giants in the oil sector. Be on the lookout for new energy solutions – it’s no longer a huge money sink to try to find renewable energy, and this, even without self-generation, can be a great way to save money and make your business part of the renewable energy landscape.
Reducing waste through automation
Automation is providing a key way for businesses to save money, and to save energy too. This positive feedback, in which less time and capital is needed to manage basic processes, means you’ll be spending less on the energy required to power-intensive and inefficient process management. The benefits here are clear: the International Institute for Sustainable Development finds that, in a best-case situation, automation will lead to wide-scale improvements in emissions, resource use, and the use of existing ecosystems. What does this mean for your business? Moving processes such as HR and payroll to unified and automated systems is one step. Another approach can involve looking to cut waste through using automation in basic customer engagement: think automated email responses and robo-advisors, which can also have the side benefit of collecting better user data. Ultimately, this all feeds into a business streamlined to act quickly and with minimum waste.
A streamlined, minimum waste business is inherently a sustainable one. Cutting away processes and looking for better ways to make use of your resources is a level of awareness that will help you to always put the planet on the front foot. In turn, you can generate extra revenue for your business.
