4 Easy Ways to Reduce your Business Carbon Footprint

We’re all becoming more aware of the environmental impact of our actions, and many people have adopted habits that aim to reduce their carbon emissions. Just as private individuals are taking steps towards a greener way of life, business owners are also growing conscious of the importance of eco-friendly practices in modern trading.

Whether you have a personal wish to protect the environment, or are simply mindful of the fact that consumers are beginning to take environmental practices into account when they choose who to do business with, there are lots of simple changes that you can make to begin reducing your carbon footprint and to minimise the impact that your company has on the natural world.

1. Use less paper

The idea of printing every email you receive may seem excessive now, but you don’t have to go back very far to the time when this was a common practice in many businesses. Make use of external hard drives and cloud storage to keep back-up copies of important information and organise your emails so that you can easily find what you need. Printing less will save you filing space as well as saving you money on paper and ink cartridges, so it’s well worth adopting the ‘do you really need to print this email’ approach.

Of course, there are times when businesses require a little stationery, and there’s no reason to beat yourself up about things that you need to do in order to provide your service. Wherever you do need to keep hard copies or correspond via mail, consider using recycled paper and envelopes as another way to reduce your consumption of raw materials.

2. Recycle your waste

In order for you to buy your nice, green stationery, someone in the world needs to have taken the time to recycle their waste, so pay the favour forward by doing the same. Be sure to provide clearly labelled bins and straightforward guidance on what goes where to make it as easy as possible for your staff to recycle their everyday waste. Also, recycle your HP inkjet cartridges and other old electronics rather than throwing them away.

3. Switch things off!

The majority of modern businesses would be lost without their computers, internet and other digital assets, but there’s no reason for these items to eat up electricity while the office is closed overnight. Get your staff into the habit of switching off all electrical equipment and lights when they are no longer needed, and you could save an awful lot of energy (and money) without any need to sacrifice your functionality.

4. Make advocates of your staff

In order to effectively reduce your footprint you will need the cooperation of your staff, so provide them will full training to ensure that everyone understands what you’re trying to achieve and why. Appoint an environment champion whose role it is to develop further methods of streamlining your consumption and cutting back on emissions, as well as simply encouraging other members of staff to take an active role in your green policies. Set up a car sharing syndicate and provide bike racks and showers to help your staff to change the way they commute and make a difference from the moment they set off to work.

This post was written by Nicky Hand, who believes that we can all do something to help contribute towards a cleaner, greener world. Take a look at Ace Envelopes for a range of high quality, FSC accredited recycled envelopes.