While it’s noble to want to do your bit to save the planet, having an eco-friendly business can be costly, making it even more difficult to make a profit. You won’t be bringing recyclable coffee cups into the office if they're to make a massive dent in your profit margin. You need to be measured in your approach to making your startup green, considering all the eco-friendly options out there. What works for one business may not work for another.
Being eco-friendly needn’t be an afterthought to your business plan and can actually help make your company more profitable in the long run.
Clever PR
While you don’t want to cynically embrace becoming a more environmentally aware business, there’s no harm in having an eye on the sorts of marketing and PR techniques that could enhance your standing online and amongst your customers. Businesses that welcome initiatives such as using local producers of materials, cutting down on air miles and opting for a more carbon neutral existence are more likely to be appealing to more environmentally conscious millennials. If you're embracing eco-friendly processes, publicise it! Make your point of difference known.
Highlight this on your website, on your social media channels and as a signature on your emails. By being greener, you can revolutionise the brand you have created, making it more profitable. Click here to learn how She Does This can help your business with social media.
Economic Savings
While it might sound obvious to turn a tap off, something so simple can save you quite a bit of money over the course of a year. Dripping taps, lights left on and monitors kept on standby are nothing but pure wastage. To combat this, take a more environmentally aware approach and encourage any staff that you have to become aware of the basic ground rules within the office. While a little school-like, encouraging your workforce to turn lights off, shutdown laptops fully and only boil the kettle when needed can have a massive impact on your utility bill each month. Being eco-friendly needn’t be all about making money, but it can save you money too.
You could also get some water tanks, collect rainwater, and use this to wash your car or water your garden, rather than seeing your water bill go through the roof. Set a challenge for your staff team to formulate their own eco-friendly ideas and implement those that have merit, rewarding those individuals who thought up the ideas. Boosting staff morale means creating a happier staff team and enjoying a more productive workforce.
Flexible Working
By embracing flexible working, you're being greener without even paying it much thought. Allowing people to work from home means less ozone damaging cars on the road. In turn, you create a happier workforce and are rewarded with a better standard of work. You could go one step further and implement a cycle to work scheme or car sharing initiative to really enhance your environmental credentials.
Running a business needn’t be a choice between being eco-friendly or being profitable. The two can go hand in hand when creating a business fit for the twenty first century.
