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Practical Steps to Make Your Existing Business Sustainable

September 29, 2022

Many companies experience overwhelm even before beginning their sustainable journey. If a company chooses to operate sustainably and environmentally, there are a lot of items on the checklist that must be completed. New rules might not be well received by all employees, especially if they eliminate routines that some employees have grown accustomed to and find convenient. Going green necessitates an initial financial expenditure as well as an investment of one's time, effort, and dedication to the cause. Being sustainable calls for awareness of even the tiniest activities, which can be challenging to uphold in an office that must manage daily operations. Despite the challenging task, it is still possible to implement practices that are sustainable in the workplace, especially in an environment that is dedicated to being green. If you don't yet have the funds, you may start small by teaching your staff to care about the environment and to reduce the office's carbon impact. Here are nine tips for making your business more sustainable that are both free and even cost-effective.
Place recycling containers at the workplace.
Install garbage sorting bins in the office to ensure that your rubbish is separated. Put a proper label on your bins to make it simpler for your staff to know where they should dispose of their specific waste item. People frequently pass by these signs without even noticing it, so keep it as simple as possible. One proposal is to have separate bins for paper, glass, plastic, and metal. It will be simpler for your company to recycle and reuse potential waste if you sort your rubbish.
When not in use, turn off all electronic devices.
All of your staff members must make it a habit to turn off equipment like lights, computers, printers, and others when not in use. This is standard protocol and should not be an inconvenience to any. When these equipment are left plugged in, it significantly increases the office's energy usage and electricity cost. You are saving the company money while also helping the environment.
Cutlery and single-use plastic in the workplace must be eliminated.
Any proponent of sustainability absolutely detests anything single-use or even just the use of the term. We want things that we can use more than once and that won't contribute to the enormous amount of rubbish that humanity has amassed. Be careful to stock the pantry with water and coffee glasses. Also provide stainless steel or wood cutlery that are eco-friendly and more importantly, can be washed and used more than twice. Think about providing tumblers as well so that no one in the office will need to seek for single-use beverage containers. Make it a rule that single-use items are not permitted in the workplace and make sure that this is strictly implemented.
Utilize office resources as much as possible.
Before discarding a resource, make sure it has been utilized to the fullest extent possible. Paper must be used on both sides, the back and the front. Installing a reusable paper container will allow people to simply get scratch paper for their office needs. Never throw away inoperative office supplies like a hole puncher or a stapler right away. Before discarding something, make sure it no longer works. You can reuse envelopes and folders as well. Clear your workstation of clutter to make it simple to reuse resources repeatedly. By doing this, you might be able to determine what needs to be thrown out and what you haven't utilized yet. Our possessions frequently get misplaced in the chaos, and we decide to buy right away without even realizing we still have a supply of these things such as short bond paper or paper clips.
Offer more remote employment opportunities.
Consider offering more remote employment options since working from home is now a practical choice for the majority of businesses. Offer work-from-home career opportunities to new hires. Decrease the amount of days they are required to report to work with your current personnel.
Plan internal discussions on sustainability.
Invite environmentalists to speak for internal sustainability workshops. Rotate the organizing committee amongst teams and departments to allow everyone to actively participate in the pursuit of sustainable knowledge. You will forever take the information with you, a piece of knowledge that neither you nor your staff can lose. Plus, once people are more informed, they could go on with their lives informing other people too.
Provide carpooling options.
Offer a business van to pick up your workers from their homes and transport them to the office in order to lessen the carbon footprint. When they must return home, the opposite occurs. Depending on where each employee lives, divide the workforce into north and south routes to accommodate everyone. If it’s easier, you can have a master list of everyone who’s joining the carpool. There should be an assigned coordinator and the night before, people should book their carpool slots so that there won’t be any conflict with regards to availability of seats and arrangement.
Hold competitions to recognize green initiatives.
Hold contests to encourage your staff to participate in environmentally friendly projects. For instance, hold an eco-brick competition and require the departments to gather plastic for bottle filling. In the end, the division with the most eco-bricks wins. There are other competitions that you can organize. You can challenge your workers’ creativity by making them recycle old things and repurposing and breathing new life into them. The judging panel could be the executives in the company. Not only does this promote sustainability in the workplace, it also gives the employees an opportunity to bond with one another. It builds teamwork and camaraderie, valuable traits of any team in any workplace.
Put on your uniform on certain days.
Among the top five sources of waste in the world is the fashion sector. People buy clothes mindlessly even though they already have a full closet and don’t need a new item of clothing. Employees will use fewer garments if they are required to wear uniforms three days a week.
Produce in small batches.
If you are a small business—as much as possible—produce your items for sale in small batches. This is not the time to overproduce, especially that you still don’t have the space to accommodate a big inventory and not that big of an audience to buy from you. And if you’re just starting out in business, why not consider making your garage your workspace for now? It’s spacious so there is a lot of room to move around and keep your inventory. Just make sure that it’s decluttered and that your belongings are kept in an organized fashion inside a wall shelf or an overhead storage rack.