Business engaged in environment protection
COURTESY : smallbusiness.chron.com
Business engaged in environment protection
Everybody is affected by environmental issues. By developing sustainable practices within your organization, as well as your industry, you can help protect the planet for future generations.
Conduct Sustainability Audits
As you consider what your business can do to protect the environment, consider performing a sustainability audit. This is a process that reviews your current policies and procedures, looking for areas in which your company operates sustainably, and where it could use some changes or improvements. Completing a comprehensive audit can help you and your team establish a realistic sustainability plan.
Tip
Audits aren’t one-time things. Schedule regular sustainability audits to ensure ongoing compliance with external and internal environmental protection protocols. Doing so not only helps your business meet its sustainability goals, it also prepares your company for establishing sustainable practices to certification boards and retail partners.
Look for P2 Opportunities
Pollution prevention or more simply, P2, is the “ounce of prevention” approach to environmental protection. Instead of generating waste materials that then have to be carefully managed and disposed of, business can look for ways to avoid waste generation in the first place.
For example, switching from incandescent to LED lighting minimizes energy use and the pollution associated with generating electricity. Companies that have traditionally used toxic solvents for parts cleaning often find that hot water can work just as well. Beer-makers have discovered that organic materials left over from the brewing process that used to be discarded can actually be used as animal feed. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an entire program devoted to encouraging P2 practices in industry and at home.
Adopt New Technologies and Materials
In response to environmental concerns, many businesses have made changes in their product materials, ingredients and packaging. Advances in technology have resulted in the production of more sustainable materials and production methods. Taking the time to learn about alternatives to your current product formulas and components can help you revamp your current assortment and develop new products that are more sustainable.
Evaluate Internal Processes
What are you doing to control resource consumption throughout your organization? Learning about ways that you can control consumption will not only save money for your business, but also it may lead to processes that prevent the waste of materials and energy. Here are some areas to consider:
- Recycling: Place blue recycling bins around the office for easier trash disposal. You can also provide smaller containers for recyclable materials along with individual employee wastebaskets. Demonstrate your support for sustainable products by asking your office manager to prioritize the purchase of office supplies that contain recycled materials.
- Reducing consumption: Encourage employees to minimize waste by reducing unnecessary printing, turning lights off in rooms that are not being used and bringing their own mugs and reusable water bottles from home.
- Facility selection and development: How green are your facilities? Whether you are in a warehouse, office building, retail storefront or have a presence in multiple structures, buildings matter. Does the building pay for a recycling service to regularly haul away recyclable materials? Is the lighting energy efficient? Take all of these things into consideration when making decisions about leasing or purchasing a commercial property.
- Travel policies: Travel uses fuel and other resources. Are there ways for your company to cut back on unnecessary travel and make use of technology, such as video conferencing, instead?
- Commute options: Does your company offer incentives for car pooling or using public transportation to get to work? What about allowing some workers to telecommute one or more days per week?
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Reviewing Your Supply Chain
Ownership of your manufacturing standards and internal processes is just one aspect of developing sustainable business practices. Your supply chain, which includes sourcing materials, manufacturing the products, and then distributing them to retailers and consumers, also has an impact on the environment. Ask your suppliers, logistics companies and manufacturing partners about their sustainability practices.
Consumer Education
Sharing your commitment to sustainable business practices with consumers is important. Not only will your product stories and explanations enhance your brand image, but also, they can influence your customers to live more sustainably.
An energy audit is a procedure for assessing how your business uses energy and identifying ways to increase efficiency and save money. A typical audit entails collecting historical data of costs and consumption for all energy sources, comparison to benchmarks and identification of opportunities for improvement and potential solutions. The audit procedure can be repeated after implementing energy-saving projects to verify whether the intended savings were achieved.
Define the Scope
- Decide what the purpose of the audit is and what your expectations are for the final report. Is it to be be an overview, or do you expect detailed analysis of energy usage per widget? Set the boundaries by defining the scope of the audit. For example, in a manufacturing plant you may limit the scope to office areas only or one of the manufacturing lines. A broader scope may cover the entire manufacturing plant.
Collect and Analyze Data
- Before deciding what needs improvement, measure the existing situation by collecting and analyzing data. Take an inventory of what types of energy your business uses, and where each one is used. Gather all of the invoices and energy consumption data for the last year and compile it in a spreadsheet. Analyze the data for trends in consumption over time and look for patterns.
Compare to Benchmarks
- Best-practice benchmarks have been published for specific industries. Compare your business’s energy performance to these benchmarks to determine if there is room for improvement You may choose to set new targets and work toward those by making changes in your energy consumption.
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Identify and Implement Opportunities
- Energy-saving opportunities can be addressed by either technological or process changes. Technological changes include replacing old machinery with energy-efficient equipment and improving insulation in physical plants. Process changes include shifting production schedules so that more electricity is used during off-peak demand times. See what other businesses like yours have done and compare results. Once improvements have been made, the audit should be repeated to confirm energy savings and identify further opportunities.
RESOURCES
The Definition of Sustainable Business Practices
As more consumers demand products and services that do less damage to the environment, companies are adding “sustainability” to their core operating principles. Investors are also pushing corporations to be more sustainable, leading to a more unified understanding of what this means.
Understanding how to create sustainable business practices will not only help you impress customers and clients, but it can also help you attract more committed employees who are looking to work for socially responsible businesses.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Sustainability falls under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility. CSR refers to business practices that promote fairness and assistance in local communities and countries where they operate. Examples of fairness include diversity in hiring and promoting employees, and selecting vendors and suppliers. Examples of assistance include donating money to local charities, helping employees get healthier and reducing a company’s impact on local environments and the overall planet, as well.
Sustainable Business Practices
Sustainable business practices are those that allow companies to reduce their negative impacts on the environment while still allowing the businesses to make a profit, according to the University of North Florida’s Center for Sustainable Business Practices. Sustainable business practices can be internal and external.
Internal efforts might include beginning an in-office recycling program, reducing energy use at an office or factory, switching to natural gas or electric fleet vehicles, or mandating that purchases (such as paper products and fleet vehicles) give preference to “green” options (such as recycled paper and electric cars).
External sustainability efforts might include switching materials used to create products to those that cause less damage to the environment, based on how they are mined, made, fished, grown and the energy needed to produce them. In addition to choosing green vendors and suppliers who have green products and services, companies can award production contracts to businesses that have green internal business practices.
Benefits of Sustainable Business Practices
Sustainable business practices can help you reduce your energy costs, improve your brand image and customer preference among specific buyers, generate positive media coverage for your company and help you attract workers who want to work for businesses that practice CSR.
In some cases, you might be able to get loans or grants from government or private organizations, or get tax credits or rebates. For example, adding solar power or a green roof to your building might qualify you for local or state tax credits or other monetary deals.
Environmentally friendly brands also can become suppliers of choice to other businesses or government agencies that are seeking to purchase more green products and services.
How to Go Green
Even small businesses can make significant strides to becoming more sustainable, explains The Thriving Small Business. Invite your gas and electric utility providers to visit your place of business and conduct an energy audit. Adding energy-efficient light bulbs, ceiling fans, low-flow toilets and programmable thermostats can help you reduce your energy use.
Reviewing your regular purchases can identify products you can buy that offer green options. Starting a recycling plan is simple, low- or no-cost and helps employees feel they are engaged. Environmentally friendly organizations often offer to pay all or part of commuter passes to encourage employees to reduce their commuting impact on the environment.
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