The environment and business
The environment, business and industry are inextricably linked. The environment can impact upon business operations through environmental hazards such as flooding, subsidence, contaminated land. At the same time business can impact on the environment through pollution, carbon dioxide emissions and waste production to name just a few. Academics are conducting research into how global warming can impact on the increased likelihood of environmental hazards so the link looks likely to be ratified further.
Corporate responsibility
Business and industry recognise that there is a responsibility to the environment. Partly this could be to satisfy the expectations of stakeholders, investors and clients but it can also be due to a shift in the management attitude towards the environment. There has been a long standing debate as whether firms should reduce profit margins to reduce their environmental impacts. In part tighter environmental regulations and legal obligation have forced that this debate into the open.
Running a Green Business
Running a Green Business is a massive challenge for a number of reasons. Firstly being green in any aspect of life is difficult because it’s often hard to find genuinely green products. Because businesses are usually buying lots of things this challenge is increased twentyfold. Then factor in that this buying is being done alongside all the other things that have to be done in a normal working day and you’ve got a big challenge. Secondly, traditionally green and environmentally friendly products and services have cost more than standard ones. This made buying these things in a cost effective way very difficult. This is of course a big issue for businesses where there is such a huge pressure to buy in a cost effective way and to control finances.Thirdly, to make this more difficult there is a lot of information out there, both from third parties providing guide information and from firms offering Green products and services. Concrete information on the environment and the best kinds of environmental products to use is notoriously confusing and difficult to navigate. Trying to find information on what type of product or service to use can be as complex and time consuming as then going out to source the product.
It is with this awareness in mind that we offer our top tips for running an environmentally friendly business:
Start with the big things. Energy and how we produce it is a big concern for those interested in the environment. Energy use is also very expensive for business and is a large overhead for nearly every business big or small. In terms of the big things you can do, check out your supplier to see how green they are and find out how they produce their energy now and how they are planning to produce it in the future. Just as solar panels benefit homes, businesses can use them too on their premises to generate energy and reduce costs. Make sure your business premises are fully insulated and all things like light bulbs are energy efficient.
Switch off. This is free and very simple. Switching off computers, photocopiers and printers at the mains saves energy and that also means it saves you money. Doing this is free and only takes a quick word with staff or five minutes at the end of the day.
Paper free. Whilst the paper free office never really happened for anyone, you can reduce paper consumption by insisting that staff only print hard copies when necessary. You might have to be tough on this so staff get the idea but once instilled it should stick. Remember to use recycled paper wherever possible.
Recycle. Get some recycling bins in that office.
These are good starting points for your green drive. There are other areas you might want to consider once you’ve got this down such as encouraging staff to car pool and looking at green web hosting. But making our business green is a case of taking a few small steps at a time, not trying to do everything all at once.
