In the last five years, consumers have become increasingly environmentally conscious. About 85% of consumers are now preferring to purchase sustainable products and services. Consumers also tend to favor businesses that are aligned with their values.
These consumer behavior trends emphasize the importance of adopting a sustainable approach to business. A top priority for businesses looking to be more sustainable is reducing their CO2 emissions. Eco-conscious customers seek to reduce their carbon footprint, and a business that can help them do so is likely to gain their patronage.
Here are ways you can cut down the carbon footprint of your business.
Double down on waste reduction
Whether you’re trying to be more sustainable or not, a waste reduction strategy will be beneficial to your business. Producing less waste means better efficiency, and efficiency in business is always a positive. When you’re trying to decrease your carbon footprint, even more so.
Depending on the nature of your business, you will be producing more of a particular type of waste. Be it food waste, hazardous waste, or general waste, doubling down your efforts to reduce its volume is among your top priorities for sustainability.
Read: Discover How to Manage Your Garbage
Reduce, reuse, and recycle — everybody’s heard of that already. But it can feel complicated once you really get your hands dirty. To help you intensify your waste reduction efforts, here are some tips you may not have considered.
Start composting
For businesses in the food industry or any other industry that produces plenty of organic waste, composting is a prime method of waste reduction. It’s more cost-efficient over landfill-bound waste hauling if your business is within 80 kilometers of a composting facility.
Audit your establishment
Inspect your business’s supply chain and identify which items go to waste. Take note of the consumables you use and determine whether you can switch them out for something more recyclable. Another thing worth considering is the placement of your waste bins. Are they easy to locate? Are they adequately labeled and easy to read? Doing so can help ensure waste is properly disposed of.
Use less packaging
Plenty of waste comes from packaging alone. Not only does it contribute to a business’s carbon footprint, but it also costs it more money. Determine whether you’re packaging your products and supplies as efficiently as possible. You can also explore reusable packaging materials while eliminating single-use plastics.
Collect e-waste
E-waste is a commonly neglected type of waste despite being highly hazardous. People usually don’t know what to do with broken electronics and they end up just chucking them into the trash bin. Your business can help cut down on e-waste by collecting e-waste at your facility and encouraging your employees to bring e-waste they have at home. By shouldering the responsibility of taking this waste to trusted e-waste vendors, you ensure that more e-waste gets recycled.
Go online whenever possible
The lockdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have proven that many business processes and events can be successfully done online. By conducting meetings and corporate events online, your employees won’t need to drive to work or use public transportation — reducing their carbon footprint, and by extension, reducing yours.
If transport is necessary…
As much as you want to do everything online, there are activities that demand to be done face-to-face, just like business trips. For these types of activities, your best option is to opt for public transportation or car-sharing. Since everyone won’t be driving their own vehicle, the volume of CO2 released into the atmosphere will significantly be decreased.
Be smarter about shipping
If you’re looking to minimize the carbon footprint of your business, you can’t be cavalier about your shipping practices, especially if your business relies on shipping. The rule of thumb in greener shipping is avoiding air transportation as it’s the least fuel-efficient compared to land and sea delivery. You can also improve shipping efficiency by only shipping out large orders instead of several small ones.
You can go one step further by offering your customers a green shipping option at checkout. A green option is a type of shipment option that takes longer but is significantly more sustainable. It involves the use of optimal shipping routes, electric vehicles, and biodegradable packaging.
Explore renewable energy options
Switching to renewable energy is one of the best ways to decarbonize a business, but it may seem really expensive, especially for startups. Fortunately, renewable energy options have become more accessible in recent years. You have plenty of options in renewable energy and it’s worthwhile to take the time to study which suits your business best.
Solar energy
Technological advancements have been driving the cost of solar power prices down. Solar panels are now easier to acquire and install than ever before. Even if the prices still feel too expensive for you, they’re guaranteed to pay for themselves given how much they will decrease your energy bill.
Biofuel
Use biofuels for your vehicles as much as you can. Biofuels produce significantly less carbon dioxide upon combustion. If you use 30 liters of biofuel a week, you can decrease your carbon emissions by as much as 250 kilograms per year. Using biofuel won’t cost your business an arm and a leg since most petrol and diesel vehicles can run on biofuels without the need for any modifications.
Conclusion
Decarbonization is an excellent business strategy in the present day, but it shouldn’t be done just in the name of profit. Many consumers look closely into businesses’ sustainability efforts and determine whether they are sincere or just riding the trend. If you seek to reduce your CO2 emissions, it’s best to approach it with sincerity and passion instead of just settling for half-baked initiatives that only have short-term benefits.