As a small business owner, you may be curious about how you can help your business become more eco-friendly. Not only can embracing innovation help reduce your carbon footprint and align with global efforts, but doing so can also save your business time and money. This article will explore 7 ideas you can use to move your business towards becoming more efficient, minimize your environmental impact, and save your business money.
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Invest in Energy Efficient Appliances
By investing in energy-efficient appliances and lighting (or upgrading existing appliances and lighting as older models wear out), you can dramatically cut down on your energy consumption. Doing so will also reduce your energy bills and save you money. Investing in products such as programmable thermostats can also help you reduce energy use by allowing you to monitor heating and air conditioning even when you are not in the office.
Use Cloud Based Storage Services
Gone are the days of bulky filing cabinets, boxes of files, and papercuts from digging through them. Now you can take advantage of cloud-based storage services to store large amounts of data. Cloud services can be accessed from anywhere, eliminating the need to have traditional office spaces and allowing teams to upload, download, and access your business’s important data from anywhere in the world.
Use Virtual Meeting Platforms
The most obvious benefit of using virtual meeting platforms is that they provide a quick and easy way for people to connect. However, there is another added benefit that directly benefits the environment. Virtual meeting platforms prevent the need for travel. It is estimated that remote workers save an average of $4,000 a year by video-conferencing versus commuting. Using virtual meeting platforms equates to time savings, fewer cars on the road consuming gas, and overall cost savings for your small business and your employees.
Use an iPhone Fax App
The invention of iOS fax apps has revolutionized traditional faxing. You no longer need a bulky fax machine and stacks of paper to send and receive faxes. Instead, you can take advantage of iOS fax apps that seamlessly integrate fax functionality into your iPhone. This means you can digitally send and receive faxes without using paper, and can store those documents in your cloud-based storage service and ultimately reduce your small business carbon footprint.
Eco-Friendly Web Hosting
It’s a no-brainer these days that a small business needs to have a website. Another way to help your small business be a little more eco-friendly is to choose a web hosting provider that uses renewable energy or energy-efficient practices. If enough small businesses implement this seemingly small change, it would have a big impact over time.
Use Eco-Friendly Supplies
All businesses need to source products or materials from other businesses. By buying from businesses that use recycled or upcycled materials or focus on reducing their carbon footprint, your small business can make an eco-friendly impact on the environment.
Use Project Management Software
Reduce your business’s need for physical documents, sticky notes, and filing cabinets using digital project management software. These programs are designed to help businesses of all sizes streamline workflow and communication from the start to finish of every project. Project Management software can also help your business become more efficient overall, therefore reducing the need for excessive resources.
Eco-Friendly Small Tips are at Your Fingertips
Implementing eco-friendly business practices and digital applications will help your small business align with global environmental efforts while saving time and money. From investing in energy-efficient appliances to shifting to iPhone fax apps and implementing digital sources like cloud storage and project management, your small business will start to reduce its carbon footprint and become more eco-friendly in no time at all.
