About Companies Going Green
There are many ways to save money and be kinder to the environment at the same time; one of them is by your company going green. To go green means to be more eco-friendly and energy efficient. Many families have been going green for years and now it’s time for small and large companies to join the earth-friendly trend. It is very easy to go green an there are numerous benefits, aside from helping out your planet. Small changes go a long way and with a simple system at your company, you can be a green business.
Benefits of Going Green
You will find many benefits to your company going green that make it well worth the small amount of effort that goes into it. First of all, you’re going to save money in the long run in most cases. If you’re switching to fluorescent light bulbs, purchasing re-usable mugs for employees rather than paper, and digitalizing everything, you’re saving money after the initial investment. There are also tax advantages to your company going green. Many states want to reduce their emissions so if you are willing to go green and be more energy efficient, you will see many different types of tax credit and incentives to doing so.
Another benefit is of course having reduced waste. When you improve your energy efficient, use less paper products, recycle and cut down on paper items that are thrown away, your waste is reduced and so is your energy bill! One benefit you probably haven’t considered is that you will actually get more business by going green. The public tends to find out about these types of changes, and many consumers prefer giving their business to green companies. Get the word out when you decide to become a green company.
Companies Going Green
A variety of companies are choosing to go green for these and other benefits, aside from just wanting to be more environmentally conscious and reduce their carbon footprint. Some of the green companies include waste management companies that are offering more recycling possibilities for other businesses and homeowners as well as starting gas-to-energy projects. Electronic and computer companies such as Dell are reducing their electronic waste by recycling any type of waste to reduce emissions. They are also going green in their field offices with many different environmental and recycling products. Burt’s Bees, a popular company providing natural and organic products, has been a green company since 2010. They have achieved a goal of sending zero waste to local landfills with a reduce, reuse and recycle plan that is company-wide.
How Companies are Going Green
Companies are beginning to discover various environmental and green projects, including improving their company recycling programs, reducing waste, using more energy efficient systems in their offices and retail stores, and developing green programs. Companies big and small are hoping to reduce their carbon footprint for the good of the planet.
Ways Companies can go Green
Going green isn’t a new concept, but you might want to do more than start a recycling program at work. While asking employees to recycle their bottles and cans is a great first step, there are dozens more things you can do for your company to go green. This includes actions within your office, warehouse, and transportation choices. Nearly every aspect of running your business has a greener, more energy efficient alternative. In no time your company will be considered one of the top green companies.
Choose Environmentally-Friendly Products
When you go through vendors to purchase products, whether it is merchandise you sell through an online store or office supplies, buy greener products. This includes office supplies and products that are biodegradable or made from recycled materials, and more eco-friendly solutions when you’re stocking your online or brick-and-mortar store. For cleaning products, choose natural products that don’t use harsh chemicals. Purchase re-manufactured printer ink and toner for your office equipment.
Set Up a Recycling Program
Your employees no doubt drink from aluminum cans and plastic bottles frequently throughout the day; why not make it easy for them to recycle? Set up green recycle cans or bins next to all of the office trash cans. It can either be one green can that is sorted later or separate bins for cans, bottles, and paper products. Assign someone or several people to turn in those items to a local recycling center on a weekly basis. Many recycling centers throughout the country also have pick-up services for companies looking to go green and start their own recycling programs.
Go Digital
Nowadays, most everyone business-relates is digital, so jump on the bandwagon! Not only does it make your daily operations go easier and filing a much simpler process, but you’re helping to save the environment as well! Every company that wants to go green should start developing a digital system in their office, warehouse or other business atmosphere. This means digitalizing files and folders, company and employee information, and anything else relating to your business that can be digitalized.
Use Energy Efficient Lighting
Switch out the incandescent light bulbs in your warehouse, office, manufacturing plant, or anywhere else you do your business duties. These light bulbs use much more energy than what is necessary to provide you efficient lighting. Throw them out and purchase fluorescent light bulbs instead. They’re often less expensive, easy to find, and use up to 75% less energy every time you turn the light on! Not only are you becoming a greener company, but your monthly energy bill will be a lot lower.
Provide Glass Mugs to Employees
If you have employees working in an office, they probably use a lot of paper cups for coffee and water. By supplying each employee with a glass mug, you’re saving money on numerous paper cups every day and becoming more eco-friendly with these reusable mugs.
Is Going Green Affordable for Businesses
The prospect of going green can be an exciting adventure when you figure out how many benefits there are. And one thing that surprises companies is how little money it actually takes to be a green company. Of course some of the going green options might cost you a small investment, but the majority of the changes cost nothing at all and are simple to implement. If they do require some money upfront, the money you save in the long run makes it well worth it.
About Going Green
When you decide to go green, you have many options ranging from things that are free, such as recycling and changing the filters you use, to those that require a small upfront investment. Other ways of going green may require more of an investment, such as eco-friendly upgrades to your buildings or retail store, but they aren’t required. If you want to be a green company but are concerned with how much it will cost, that is entirely up to you. Of course installing solar energy panels will cost the most in regards to going green, but this isn’t necessary to be a green, more energy efficient company.
Cheap Ways to Go Green
Many companies want to be more environmentally friendly and have “green” status, but are concerned with the cost of these changes. Most upgrades and incentives you do at your company to be green cost nothing at all, or very little investment. The following tips will help you be a green business without spending a lot to get started.
Coffee Filters – Change the coffee filters your office uses and get the re-usable kind. This is not only more convenient because you never run out of them or have to keep buying them during your weekly supply runs, but it is also much better for the environment. Just one coffee filter a day during work ends up being more than 300 a year! If you have re-usable filters, that is 300 less filters in the landfills.
Get Rid of Paper Towels – In offices paper towels can be helpful when cleaning up spills but they are terrible for the environment. Most paper towels don’t end up in paper recycling bins, but instead in the trash can and then landfills. If you have a small office, try to stock cloth rags that can be used for wiping down counters, sinks and tables in the lunch room instead of paper towels.
Recycle Plastic Bags – Another way to be a green office is to provide your employees with a place for recycling their plastic bags. It seems like every other employee or more brings their lunch in their plastic grocery bags. While it is a great way for them to re-use them, they usually get thrown away at your office. Instead of them going into the trash and quickly piling up, provide a container for recycling these bags and have someone take the bags to a recycling center once a month.
Placing Green Guidelines in Offices
Green guidelines are a set of rules and guidelines for your employees to follow in order to ensure you stay a green company. So what is a green company? This means your business and administrators make actions that cause you to be more eco-friendly and energy efficient both in the office and out on job sites. A variety of big and small changes can be made to your daily operations that help you transform to a green company, and these details are planned out in guidelines to help employees stick to the plan.
Setting Guidelines
The first step to this new green process is setting the guidelines for your company. Depending on the type and size of your company, how many offices you have, products you offer, and other details, your specific guidelines may be different from other green companies. In the office, there are dozens of ways to go greener and be energy efficient. First come up with a plan and decide which ways your company will be more eco-friendly and follow that with guidelines.
For example, if you want employees to recycle all of their cans, bottles, and paper products, provide them with containers, bins or boxes to separate items for being recycled, and put this in the company guidelines. You can offer rewards to employees who follow the guidelines, and offer consequences for employees who do not follow through with guidelines. Other types of green guidelines in the office include turning off lights and electronic equipment at the end of the day and when not in use, bringing in glass mugs instead of using paper disposable coffee cups, and becoming more digitalized whenever possible.
Educating Employees
Another important step to your green initiative is informing employees of the importance of going green and why following these guidelines are important Any time you introduce new rules and regulations in regards to daily business operations, your employees should understand the purpose and what the reward is. Educate employees on your impact on the environment and what is being done to reduce your company’s carbon footprint. Show data and statistics about how much energy is used when computers are not turned off or unplugged, how many paper coffee cups fill landfills, and why the office lights have been changed to fluorescent. Informing them will give them a better idea of why the new green guidelines are in place and give them a reason to follow through.
The Follow-Through
Not only do you need to set the guidelines and make employees aware of their purpose, but also follow through yourself. Whether you’re part of your company’s green workforce team or are the head of human resources, you need to help your company follow through with their plan of being greener, and more energy efficient. If every employee follows through on the plan you can be a greener, more eco-friendly company.
Going Green at Branch Offices
If you run a branch office, you may be wondering how to make it more eco-friendly in order to have a company-wide green company. Going green has been popular for several years now, starting with residences and families, and now moving on to businesses. If your ultimate goal is to be a green company, there are many changes and upgrades you can make to your own branch office for conserving energy and being environmentally conscious. Not all “green” changes are expensive; in fact, most of them cost very little or nothing at all. This makes it well worth it to explore your green opportunities.
Soy-Based Ink
One of the big ways you can make a difference in your going green initiative at a branch office is by changing the ink you use. Soy-based ink is available for most printers and is much more environmentally friendly. It has lower levels of toxic chemicals such as volatile organic compounds, produces brighter colors with sharper results, and by choosing soy-based ink, you are supporting local farms and crops. While it is currently only available for commercial printers, you will soon be able to find vendors offering it to office printers as well.
Vending Machine Waste
Another way to be more environmentally conscious in brand offices is to be more conscious of the vending machines in your office. This includes coffee-making vending machines especially. These types of machines dispense coffee into disposable paper cups which are often not made of biodegradable materials. If you can’t get rid of these machines completely, at least choose paper products that are disposable or get machines where you can insert your own reusable cup underneath the machine to refill your coffee beverages.
Commuting and Transportation
If you have a branch office with a big group of people, each person driving to and from the office is consuming fuel and their vehicle is hard on the environment. To alleviate some of this, offer a carpool matching service at your office. What this does is group together 3-4 people who live near each other so that they are able to carpool to and from work. Each day of the week a different person will do the driving with their own vehicle, which severely cuts down on how many vehicles are emitting fuel and chemicals into the air.
Turn off Electronics
A big problem in branch offices is when lights and electronic equipment is constantly turned on even when not in use. Create a green project in your office that asks employees to turn off any equipment not currently in use, and that at the end of the day not only do things get turned off completely, but unplugged as well. Provide easy-to-reach power bars to employees that let them turn off machines with a push of a button, or that can be unplugged with little effort.
Maintaining a Green Company
If you are a business owner or administrator and want to be a green company, there are many changes you can make in the office and on job sites that will make you more eco-friendly. Small and large changes to the way your business operates allows you to be more energy efficient as well. The hardest thing about being a green company is maintaining that status. To maintain a green company, it takes a combination of planning, upgrading, incentives and updates. Not only will you need to create a plan for becoming a green company, but also keeping updated on the changes and ensuring your employees are following through with the plan.
Ways to Maintain a Green Company:
- Come Up with a Plan – The first step to maintaining a green company is starting with a plan to have a green company. This includes making any changes or upgrades needed including materials you might need to purchase, building or transportation upgrades, and guidelines for the plan to hand out to employees and administrators.
- Execute Your Plan – You will also need to execute the plan and guidelines you have set forth. This includes informing and educating employees and administrators on the importance of being a green company and what changes have been or will be made, as well as providing them with training on how to be greener in the workplace. You should have incentives for employees who stick to the green plan as well.
- Assign a Workforce – In order to effectively become a green company and stick to the plan you have set out to accomplish, a team of empolyees who can be part of your green team or green workforce should be established. Ask first for volunteers, as there is likely a group of individuals at your company with the knowledge needed to get started. The amount of people in the green team depends on how big your company is. They will also be in charge of certain events and meetings in regards to ways your company can be more environmentally friendly.
- Create Environmental Events – An important step to maintaining a green company is offering incentives, promotions, and fun activities to be involved in. The more involved employees get into the new green initiative, the easier it will be to maintain your green status. You can have a monthly or quarterly barbecue where employees each bring in their own reusable plates and utensils rather than using plastic or paper, having special functions at work where the crafty employees show handmade gifts to make that are eco-friendly, or providing various incentives to employees who bring in the most recyclable products.
- Follow through – The follow through of any plan set in motion is often the most difficult to maintain. If you intend to keep being a green company, you will rely on your green workforce team to implement new ideas on a regular basis and be sure everyone at the company is following through with your green initiative.