How to make your small business more eco friendly in 2022
This is a collaborative post
If you’re looking to take your small business to the next level in 2022, it’s time to start paying attention to your environmental impact. With consumers becoming more educated about carbon emissions, carbon footprint, waste management and sustainability, you can stay one step ahead of your competition and become a brand of choice by seeking out eco-friendly initiatives. Great for your conscience too, you can be confident that the decisions you are making for your business will have a positive impact on others too.
Here are just a few ways to help your small business become more eco friendly in 2022.
Embrace the virtual
Pre 2020, the thought of having large meetings with clients and potential customers over Teams nay have seemed like an alien prospect, but after 2 years, almost everyone has embraced the benefits of virtual meetings. Before jumping in the car and trekking across the country to meet for a 45-minute discussion, ask whether both parties would be willing to jump online instead? Not only does this save valuable productivity time, but also reduces your carbon footprint too.
Clean up your mailbox
If you want to reduce your carbon footprint with relatively simple action, have a clear out of your mailbox. If you’re like me and have a mailbox that is in drastic need of attention (current inbox figure 203,636 – true story), then you will want to know that according to the Good Planet, The average American has around 500 unread emails. If we deleted 500 unread emails (assuming they’re not important emails), that would delete 175 grams of carbon dioxide if each email contributes 0.3 grams of CO2.
Update your packaging
Are you using sustainable and eco-friendly packing? If not, now is the time to make the switch. Consumers are becoming more and more aware of climate change and the impact of plastic waste, so whilst the packaging is essential there are plenty of more sustainable options to consider. Lil Packaging was the first bespoke packaging manufacturer to be certified Plastic Free in 2020. Their packaging comes with an innovative strip and sticks design which removes the need for the use of any additional tape. They also use plant-based ink and source sustainable, FSC® certified materials.
If you’re sending large quantities, try and send them all at the same time using pallet deliveries rather than mutiple smaller transactions. Not only can this reduce your carbon footprint but is a reliable and cost effective option too.
Go paperless
If you are still printing out every single invoice and receipt for your records, then make the switch to paperless banking. Not only will you save a fortune in ink and paper costs, but reduce the amount of energy taken to print, file and process your payments. There is plenty of apps and cloud-based invoicing tools that are super-efficient and easy to use, simply snapping images of your receipts as you go. You can even set up automatic alerts when payments are overdue, saving time and energy in chasing outstanding invoices.
Green your office space
To make your working environment as ecofriendly as possible, seek out small adjustments you can make to your workspace that will have the biggest impact at the lowest investment. From embracing natural light to switching to LED lighting, turning down your thermostat or introducing smart meters and thermostats to simply turning off devices when not in use. You can even bring in plants to improve air quality which also has a proven impact on emotional wellbeing too.
