Start the journey here
Lets be honest - you are likely to be on this page because you are looking to save money, improve your corporate image and if you are lucky, help the environment.
What can be done to save money in the business?
Check with the HR department to draft and implement an environmental policy, and if there is one in place, see how it can be improved. It must contain information which will enable managers to apply energy saving measures.
This includes:
- Making sure all members of the company use as little energy as possible
- Ensuring that current and future purchases are made with efficiency, longevity and relevance in mind
- Reduce travel to a minimum, use teleconference software where applicable, increase travel by trains (because you can work on trains) and create incentives for your employees to cycle to work. Healthy employees work more effectively
Some money is saved and the energy consumption is down by 20%, what’s next?
- Changing energy supplier to a green electricity supplier: It’s as simple as changing from EON to British Gas. For example, if you buy electricity from Ecotricity, you are getting about 50% of your electricity from one of their wind farms and furthermore, you are helping subsidize more wind farms. It’s a win/win situation
- Look at the back office, analysing workflows and planning for a paperless office. Improved effectiveness means reduced costs and ultimately less emissions
- Train your employees, set up green teams who take ownership of the task of ‘greening’ your business and make sure that future culture includes social responsibility. If everyone does it, then everyone will do it
The solutions are there, some are more complicated like paperless office, some are met with resistance such as move from flights to webinars and trains and some are just plain simple such as switching your energy supplier.
KnowYourPlanet can help you set a new course towards a greener future. We hope you enjoy our site.
