Eco-friendly business expansion should always be at the front of your mind when gaining traction in your sector. Customers today expect local, national, and international businesses to address some of the world’s most pressing issues, and you can stand out as a pioneer in your industry. It can be a challenge at first, so green policies need to be gradual to really work, or you risk losing them. From sustainable partners to maintaining certification, here are some ideas.
Consider the Land when Building
It isn’t often that a business will be responsible for the land and the office it occupies. But it isn’t unheard of for a company to own the premises. You will have more of a responsibility when you actually own the land upon which your business operates, and using services like organic mulch land clearing for physical expansion helps the immediate environment with minimal harm. Yet even if you rent the premises, you can make suggestions to the land owner and contractors.
Use Eco-Friendly Business Partners
You can’t be sustainable without partnering with sustainable businesses across the entire supply chain. Of course, you can’t influence others, and you don’t know another company’s practices entirely, but you can make deciding easier. Any company that has eco-friendly policies will proudly display this on their website, and some even blog about it. So, if a partner’s eco practices don’t align with yours, it might be time to consider switching to a partner who does.
Manage Waste Effectively
Waste management is a complex subject because it involves many different areas for review. There’s general waste, industry-specific waste, and employee waste. What do we mean by these? Well, general waste is waste that can and cannot be recycled. Think food, plastic, paper, etc. Industry-specific waste refers to things you can’t just throw away and must be disposed of correctly, like chemicals. And employee waste means wastewater that can be used again.
Ask Staff to Work from Home
You can reduce overall power usage by asking staff to work from home and supporting those that do. Additionally, you can expand and maintain a business even by moving to smaller premises for a smaller eco footprint when most of your employees don’t need to come into the office. This also helps you save a little bit of money while you are at it. Additionally, employees working from home reduce their footprint by not commuting to work in a car or on a bus.
Adopt a Paperless Office
The paperless office isn’t anything new, but many are yet to embrace it. Paper is an essential office supply, but there are ways you can reduce your reliance on paper and move away from it. This process must also be gradual, or you risk a staff mutiny as business changes are made:
Change how you handle documents
- Use document scanners to scan images, notes, and reports
- Send and receive online faxes by email rather than paper faxes.
- Try document management tools like Rubex, Sharepoint, and M-Files.
Go digital wherever possible
- Use accounting apps instead of paper invoices and expense sheets.
- Verify contracts and deals using e-signature services like Zoho Sign.
- Get HR to Install timekeeping and rota apps that employees can use.
Move away from paper
- Highlight the processes with the most paper waste first.
- Slowly move away from paper-based interactions across your office.
- Ensure employees understand how and why you are doing this.
The transition away from paper should be a gradual one. Highlight the positives and ensure employees know these to minimize disruption and encourage the paperless embrace.
Switch to Green Office Supplies
An office depends on its supplies, and some are wasteful by nature. However, almost everything has a green alternative these days. The most obvious would be to switch to recycled paper. But you can also use wooden pens with recycled ink, repurposed toner cartridges, and even plant-based glues and adhesives. You can also extend green policies to other parts of the office and not just for work. For example, recycled paper towels, reusable bottles, and bamboo plates.
Make Energy Efficient Replacements
There are many other replacements you can make across your office infrastructure that can contribute to a better overall green policy. For example, you can inquire about the building’s insulation and ensure it meets current needs. You can also switch to LED lightbulbs. And any office equipment you use should be energy efficient. This one actually also saves you a ton of money in the long term and helps reduce the costs you pay out on repairs for older equipment.
Eco-Friendly Business Certification
You can self-evaluate your green policies, and this is one way to stay on top of things. But more often than not, policing yourself doesn’t work as well as it should. So how do you do this then? Well, you can apply for specific certification to do with environmental policies. This way, you are held accountable for maintaining certain standards to keep coveted certifications that you can proudly display as an upstanding business that actively cares for the wider environment.
Encourage Employees to Contribute
You will need the support of all your employees to maintain a company-wide green initiative when expanding. And this includes everyone from the bottom to the very top. CEOs and senior management can be the example, and management can keep tabs on things. You can even incentivize employees to go green by offering rewards for the greenest departments. But it also helps to listen to employee concerns and work with them on a green policy that will work.
Summary
Physical expansion of the office can have a major impact on local wildlife. So, considering the land around the premises is the first step to an eco-friendly business expansion plan. You can also initiate a paperless office policy and go digital wherever possible. Yet it is hard to make sweeping changes to an office space if you don’t have the support of your employees. Working with them on plans that will work instead of dictating them is often the best way to get it going.
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