In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve already seen some startling repercussions from business grinding to a halt and industries shutting down. The air across the world is cleaner, waste is down, and the animals in our local areas are taking back the streets in their legions. Nonetheless, when this crisis is over later this year, we’re going to find ourselves back in the full swing of carbon production, and businesses will shoulder part of the responsibility to go greener in the future. Read on to learn how businesses can go greener towards the end of 2020.
Company Review
With many businesses currently closed and staff working from home, this is the perfect time for companies to review their internal processes. Everything from how they use energy to the ways they produce goods and services, should be audited for companies to understand their carbon footprint. Once a figure can be applied to a company’s footprint, they’ll be better placed to cut down their impact on the environment, enabling them to become slowly greener over time.
Staff Schemes
Many staff members contribute to the environmental crisis individually, and this includes the way they work and contribute to the business that employs them. If they drive into work, they’ll be polluting more than if they use public transport or carbon-neutral transportation options. A business can become more eco-friendly, therefore, by running better transport for workers to get to their facility without using their own vehicle.
Meanwhile, training staff can help them understand their impact on the environment, including how they can change their behaviors in the workplace to contribute to a greener company in the long term.
Recycling
Most businesses produce what would be deemed as an ‘industrial’ amount of waste. This is likely to be difficult to cut down altogether, although that should perhaps be a long-term aim of any business looking to brush up on its green credentials. In the medium term, it’s possible to use only recyclable materials in a business supply chain and to purchase a simple cardboard recycling baler to crush and dispose of large quantities of cardboard. This enables the efficient disposal of recyclable materials from a warehouse or office and into a recycling facility in the local area.
Green Energy
Finally, businesses can be proactive in their use of energy by cutting down their overall energy consumption, and investing that saved capital in green energy facilities — like solar panels or wind turbines. Whether these are erected at the business’ facility itself, or out of town, this will be a wonderful PR win for any company that’s able to claim it is using only carbon neutral energy in the future. With more and more consumers looking for ethical ways to consume, this is an important step for any business looking to remain relevant in the decade that is to come.
These four elements will all help businesses forge a greener way of performing their function in the future, enabling them to show off their green credentials to the customers of the future.