Within your business, you have a responsibility not only to try to do what’s best for your investors, your employees, and your bottom line, but you should also try to accomplish all these goals while also doing what you can to better the world around you. As a part of this, many businesses are now looking beyond themselves to see how they can continue to do business while also reducing their carbon footprint and having less of an impact on the natural world.
If this is something your organization is interested in, here are three simple ways your small business can positively impact the environment.
Try To Eliminate Waste
One of the most significant ways your business can start making some real change is to seek to reduce the amount of waste that’s produced. And for the waste that you are producing, try to find ways that you can reuse this waste so it’s not simply adding to landfills in your area.
Some easy ways you can start to make these kinds of changes within your company, according to Small Business Trends, include encouraging your employees to use their own water bottles rather than supplying plastic ones, eliminating the production and use of extra and unnecessary paper, and avoiding getting too many takeout containers when you order in for lunch. Depending on your particular business, you can likely find other ways to cut back on waste as well.
Replace Your Light Bulbs
If you’re looking for an impactful change that you can make right now, without having to put too much time or effort into planning for your environmental impact, replacing your old light bulbs with more energy efficient options is a great place to start.
According to Serenity Gibbons, a contributor to Forbes.com, using LED light bulbs as opposed to any alternative will help you to use less electricity in addition to needing to be replaced much less often. While getting these light bulbs will be more expensive than the alternatives, especially if you’re buying them all together right now in order to replace every light bulb, you’ll begin to see savings in your electric bill and future purchases after a very short time.
Work With Local Businesses First
When trying to be environmentally conscious, you need to start thinking about more than just your individual business. As an organization, you’re going to be doing business with a lot of other organizations. And if you’re giving your business to a business that doesn’t care about its environmental impact, that could reflect poorly on you and negate your own environmental measures.
To deal with all of these problems, Tara McMullin, a contributor to Medium.com, recommends that you start trying to do as much business locally as you can. This can help to save a lot of carbon emissions for transportation of goods, as well as helping to fuel your local economy.
If you’re ready to have your business start making a better impact on the environment, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you achieve this goal.
