When you hear about what businesses can do to safeguard the environment, the debate usually revolves around the role of big corporations. Just because your company is small, however, doesn’t mean you can’t make a big impact by making your operations more sustainable. A few key decisions and strategies can put your business on the greener side of the climate fight, no matter what size your company is.
Going to the Carbon Market
Around the world, carbon markets play a growing role in how businesses and governments work together to fight climate change. In government-regulated markets, industries and businesses are allowed a certain amount of carbon credits that act as a carbon-emitting “budget” they must maintain. Businesses that have credits to spare can trade them to other companies; likewise, organizations and landowners with projects that reduce carbon can create credits to sell to carbon emitters on a voluntary basis.
Carbon trading may sound like some complex and technical scheme far removed from your small company. However, buying carbon offsets could be one of the most practical ways to reduce your company’s carbon footprint, whether you’re offsetting daily operations, travel impacts or one big project. You can find tools to help you determine your company’s total greenhouse gas emissions here, or you can enlist the help of a consultant to do the calculations for you. Once you have an accurate idea of your company’s carbon emission profile, you can make informed decisions about the role carbon trading should play in offsetting your emissions.
Your Energy Sources and Consumption
The energy you use may be the single biggest determinant of your business’s impact on the environment. Reducing your energy consumption and even changing the types of energy you use should be high on your list of green initiatives.
From your office computers to your break room appliances, the obvious first step for lowering your energy usage is buying energy-efficient equipment. Having an energy audit will then allow you to find and improve sources of energy waste that you may have overlooked, reducing your consumption even further.
Having cut down your business’s energy consumption, it’s time to turn your attention to the type of energy you use and whether it’s sustainable. If your building has a large roof that’s not shaded by trees, you might look into having solar panels installed to power some or all of your operations. If that level of investment doesn’t make sense for your company, your electricity supplier can offer you ways to lock in good rates on power that is guaranteed to come from renewable sources. Be sure to ask about that when you have your energy audit.
Travel and Transportation
Your company vehicles, particularly fleet trucks or vans used daily, add to your company’s ecological footprint every time they roll out. Beyond that, every type of transportation you and your employees use for work can either hurt or help the environment. For that reason, your decisions about when and how you travel are central to making your business more climate-friendly.
Even with a strong commitment to sustainability, you probably won’t be able to convert your whole fleet from gas to electric automobiles all at once. However, replacing your gas-chugging company cars and trucks with hybrid or electric versions as they reach the end of their service life can make your vehicle upgrades predictable and affordable.
You can lower your business’s transportation impact without having to spend a dime simply by cutting back on travel wherever you can. Thanks to technological advances from cloud storage and collaboration software to virtual meeting platforms, you and your employees can get a lot of business done without getting on the road. While the personal touch of face-to-face communication will never completely vanish, supporting remote work and online meetings can make your company more flexible and more sustainable at the same time.
You may have started your business believing it could make a contribution to your local community while providing a good living for you and your family. By boosting your company’s environmental sustainability, your local contributions can ripple out to a global community and help redefine “good living” – and good business – for the future.
