If you’re considering boosting your company’s green credentials, now is a great time to get started. As well as saving your business a considerable amount of cash, the buying public is increasingly demanding that the companies they patronize have rock-solid eco credentials. This means that greenifying your business in 2024 is likely to result in a significant increase to your bottom line.
While there are many obvious ways to go green as a company, such as recycling more, switching to renewable energy plans, and replacing old energy-eating appliances, we take a look below at some alternative means to put sustainability front and center in 2024.
Conduct an Energy Audit
An energy audit is a good place to start when it comes to greenifying your company. This will identify where, how, and when energy is being used and identify potential savings. You can choose to instruct the services of a professional auditor or undertake a DIY energy audit of your business yourself.
Start by assessing your business’s current energy use – you may wish to make use of an energy tracking spreadsheet (you can find free downloadable templates online) or deploy energy auditing software to make the task easier.
When it comes to taking action, it’s a good idea to figure out the potential savings in each of the identified areas; this could be in terms of both cost to the business and carbon generated. This will help you to prioritize the changes to be initiated and create a roadmap for the project as a whole.
Consider Switching Up Your Comms System
If your company is still using regular legacy phone systems, then it’s time to think about making a change. More businesses than ever are moving to VoIP connections, which offer many benefits, including cost savings (even for overseas calls) and more reliable lines. VoIP is much greener, too – it requires minimal infrastructure or physical hardware, and when it’s time to expand, new lines can be added remotely without the need to procure additional equipment.
The absence of physical circuits in systems like Comcast VoIP and optimized data transmission results in each call consuming significantly less power than its traditional counterpart. This makes switching to VoIP a choice that’s both sustainable and great for your company’s profit margins.
Make Sure Your Website is Green
You may think, understandably, that the inherently digital nature of your online presence makes your website green by default. But there are, in fact, important changes you can make in this regard to boost your company’s green credentials.
Check out the web host you’re using to ensure that they’re using renewable energy sources. If not, it may be time to switch – and if this is the case, there may be an unexpected bonus. Many web hosts now specialize in using green energy and are able to offer cheaper plans as a result.
Monitor Employees’ Commutes
You may be surprised at just how much carbon your employees are putting into the air simply by getting to and from the office or attending remote work meetings and events. Using a mileage tracking app is an effective way to help understand just how much staff are driving and where this can be reduced.
While offering home working is the obvious solution, this may not be suitable for all businesses. If yours is one of them, consider creating a carpool scheme for employees to share the daily commute and only schedule off-site meetings in nearby venues. Reviewing the routes taken can also help employees identify alternative routes where they may not be as liable to sit in traffic.
Make the Quick Fixes
Finally, don’t forget to make the changes that can be effected quickly and easily but will add up to a big difference. For example, simply reducing a device’s screen lighting from 100% to 70% will have an impact on energy usage while being barely noticeable (if at all) to the user.
Switching to e-invoices from paper versions and to email from paper-based marketing is also a change that can be made relatively simply, and relocating the office thermostat if it’s currently positioned in a drafty area will make a big difference to your energy usage, too.
These small changes, combined with the larger-scale project outlined as a result of your energy audit, will put your company on a truly sustainable path. As well as being the right thing to do, you can also expect to reap many benefits as a result, from cost savings to a boost to brand image.
