Style is everything in business. The right style can make sure that you create a killer first impression for your customers. That is exactly what you need to do if you want to sell big and win even bigger on the market. And, you can never go wrong with bold blacks for the style of your business office as well as the dress code for you and your employees. It’s simple, it’s slimming. It’s bold, and it’s elegant. But today, as you might have guessed, we’re not talking about business decor or style at all. Nope, instead, we’re thinking regarding how you run your business and what’s at the heart of your business model.
When someone says green, these days you should immediately be thinking in terms of energy and power. If you’re not, then this suggests your mindset isn’t where it needs to be to win the modern market. Don’t worry though, because we’re about to change that completely and show why green needs to be a top consideration for any business this year.
By going green, you can save money, you can send a message to customers and investors that you care about the planet, and you can show some skin. In other wins, this is that rare business win, win, win. But there are considerations here. You need to think about the best way to go green. You need to weigh up the pros and cons of this decision, and you need to think outside the box when moving through these changes.
There are governments and businesses in the world that are still focused on dirty, black fossil fuels. If you go green, you can beat them at your own game and bring your business into the modern age in spectacular fashion.
Big Benefits
It’s worth exploring the benefits of green energy in a little more detail, and the first is cost. You might have been to Disney World with your kids. It’s an incredible place filled with fun and dare we say it, magic. But hey, as it turns out, the fun of Disney World is just one little thing that makes it incredible. There are plenty of other exciting elements to it. For instance, did you know that a section of the park is run entirely on green energy? What that means is that it’s completely sustainable. It doesn’t need any outside power source, and you can imagine what that will do to the costs of running a theme park like this.
The fact is that if you live in the right climate, you can achieve this too. You can create a bio-roof for your business building or any other the other possibilities that we’re going to discuss a little further down. You can see this level of savings in your company, and that’s just one of the benefits.
As we mentioned going green is also going to send a message to your customers. It’s true, customers are becoming more and more wary of what businesses are doing their part for the planet and which ones really aren’t. The question here is which category will your company fit into. Obviously, you want it to be the former rather than the latter, and a lot of companies have already made changes. Several years back Amazon started to make sure that all their packaging was biodegradable and this was clearly advertised on their products. As you can see going green also brings a lot of marketing potential.
It’s also worth looking at the concept of showing some skin. This simply means showing customers that your business is about a lot more than just crunching numbers. There are a few ways you can do this and going green is certainly one option. Going green, you can change things completely allowing your customers to see that you care and that you know you have a part to play in saving the planet. You can take this one step further by coupling energy-saving policies with initiatives to help everything from conservation to reducing CO2 emissions. Do this, and you might even generate some media buzz which is nothing short of money in the bank.
Don’t forget that a lot of fresh startups have made their name with philanthropic projects aimed at helping the environment and saving the planet. Your business could be next. Now, that we’ve looked at the benefits, let’s explore how to actually do it.
It’s Easy Being Green
It’s true, going green is easy because there are so many awesome and exciting possibilities to consider. Let’s look at some of the choices you might want to think about here from big changes to small improvements that could have a massive impact.
Big Changes
There are various big changes that you can think about and let’s start with completely altering your office space. You could think about the roof. Depending on your environment and climate you could either add solar panels or a wind turbine to your business address. You can view information here on solar panels but basically, you’d be syphoning energy from the sun that could keep the lights on, and systems work, particularly through the summer months. The issue, of course, is the initial installation but that’s easily rectified. Remember, the cost will pay off in the long term, and you can always look into government subsidies. A lot of governments and environmental agencies are willing to do anything they can to help businesses go green.
That’s just the beginning. You can also consider using architectural changes to conserve more energy in the building. Metallic plates will make a business building look modern, reflecting heat meaning that the AC needs to do less work through the summer months. Air shields can also be set up to keep hot air in and cold air out or vice versa, depending on the time of year.
Policy Changes
You need to think about policy changes that could make a difference to your energy usage and business eco-footprint as well. There are plenty of these to consider.
You can start recycling. You might not realise this, but landfills are quickly becoming overloaded with trash. Ultimately, this is going to mean that using landfills will become more expensive and there will be a heavier tax to pay. So, while setting up a recycling scheme for your business can be costly it’s one more cost that could definitely be worth paying. That way you can make sure that you won’t be hit hard when taxes change.
You also need to think about going paperless. There’s just no need to hard copies of files anymore. Not when cloud systems are more secure, easier to operate, use less space and are even cheaper. Going paperless of course saves the trees and at the same time improves the efficiency of your company. Don’t want to set up this change yourself? You’ll be glad to hear there are plenty of companies that will do it for you and get you back on track in the modern age. Once clients see they can access data in seconds rather than waiting for hard copies, you’ll see how valuable this change really is.
Other policy changes might also include how much energy is used and how devices are operated. It’s a common trend in businesses to keep tech switched on overnight in the office. Why do you do this? Well, there are a few reasons. First, it provides the illusion that there are people in the office even when they’re not so it can be for security purposes. Second, it allows you to avoid the inefficient start to the day with the ten or fifteen-minute load up of the computer systems. However, this is actually false logic. Tech is just like us. It needs to be powered down to recover, rest and get back up to speed. Leaving tech on overnight will also cost you a fortune in energy.
Finally, you might also want to think about who is providing your energy. The energy market is completely open, and that means you can choose who you want to buy energy from to power your business. Ultimately then, if you haven’t done so already, you can choose the greenest option that you can find on the market.
Small Changes
Lastly, you might not have enough money in the budget to make massive changes to your business model to make your office more green. But there are smaller options. You can replace your computer systems with the latest models. The latest models are a lot greener, and tech is always improving to use less energy.
You can also think about changing the bulbs in the office to LEDs if you haven’t done so already. This may seem like a small change, but they use a fraction of the power, are ten times as bright, and if you think about how many bulbs are in your office, it’s probably a pretty large change to make. But unlike some other options, it won’t cost you a fortune.
August 6, 2018 at 3:52 am
I think the reason why businesses should consider going green is the overall reputation that they will gain for being a green company. I have seen companies who are dedicated to be sustainable and their employee have high satisfaction rates and high productivity. Customers are most likely to trust them as well because they are more responsible compared to other companies.
November 21, 2022 at 8:45 am
Good suggestions!
Another thing to consider to make your business “greener” is switching to remote work. If you can enable employees to work from home, this means fewer vehicles on the roads, less of a burden on public transport, and lower levels of emissions associated with your organization.
In this case, a virtual office can be a green alternative to a traditional office. With a virtual office, you can get all the features of physical office space at a much lower price and less harm to the environment.
If you’re interested, read more about this: https://www.ranchoffice.com/coworking-blog/the-ranch-how-virtual-offices-can-benefit-startups.
January 17, 2023 at 5:13 am
Thanks for bringing this up and sharing such great ideas. Entrepreneurs can also consider buying used equipment to make their businesses more sustainable. This way, they can reduce CO2 emissions and save materials and energy. Also, by buying secondhand goods, entrepreneurs can get high-quality products for a lower price. For example, medical centers spend around 30 to 40% less buying used medical equipment.