The environment is in terrible peril.
Each day 13,000 to 15,000 plastic items are dumped into the world’s oceans, endangering marine biodiversity. Each year, around 35 billion tons of carbon dioxide are churned out into the air, which has led to rising global temperatures and an increase in the intensity of extreme weather events and natural disasters.
A great deal of environmental damage is caused by bad business practices. Businesses will regularly disregard their responsibilities towards the environment in order to ensure profit growth. This is unsustainable. In the long term, environmental damage will have a negative knock-on effect on the economy. Most responsible organizations have developed environmental sustainability goals as part of their long-term strategies. Here are some simple ways in which you can get on the road to making your business a more environmentally friendly place.
Insulate
Businesses waste an awful lot of money, and do an awful lot of environmental damage by heating their premises inefficiently. Paying for a professional to come and insulate your building will help you meet your sustainability goals in the long term. Although the cost of insulation is initially rather high, it will pay off in the end when you are spending less on heating. Insulating a building also increases the resale price it can garner.
Use Recycled Materials
Single-use materials are filling our world with waste. If possible, you should avoid contributing towards the expanding landfills dotting our planet and use as many recycled alternatives to conventional products as possible. Paper, packaging and myriad other commonly used items across the business spectrum can be made out of recycled or partially recycled materials.
Source Locally
The marine and aviation industries cause a great deal of environmental damage. Although these industries are highly regulated and have very ambitious sustainability goals themselves, they are still major polluters.
Sourcing the materials your business needs locally is one way of reducing your carbon footprint. Think of reducing air and sea miles as a way of reducing environmental impact. If your company has a net zero emissions goal then this is especially important, as you can’t import without creating more damage than you can heal!
Don’t Print Out Documents
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why your company still prints stuff out? So many businesses have bursting print queues when they really don’t need to. Many people are just as comfortable reading and storing a report via the cloud as they are shuffling papers in their hand. As well as being environmentally friendly, curbing your printing will save the business money in ink and printer costs.
Use Eco-Friendly Utility Providers
Since the deregulation of business utilities in 2017, companies have been competing to offer the best water business rates. They have also been competing to be the most environmentally friendly in order to lure in new corporate customers with ambitious sustainability goals.
You should take full advantage of this scramble for dominance between water utility providers and make an informed decision.
