Making your business’ operations more sustainable can be greatly beneficial, not only are you saving costs but you are also contributing positively to the environment. The future is looking green and with this guide you can get your business moving in the right direction.
1. Energy Management
An energy management system allows you to physically see what level of energy you are using, giving you a good idea of what your company's consumption of energy is. This is something that will be integrated into your business’ operations, measuring any energy that has been used. The system should be used throughout the day, week, month and year. This device is user friendly and will be on the go all of the time, keeping an eye on the things you can’t. You should definitely look at investing in an energy management system as this can save you money, not only in the short term but also in the long term. By taking a look at the energy you are using you can choose to reduce it which will in turn help the environment. As you are becoming more aware of the energy your company is using you can look to make changes to what you are using and how you are using it. This system allows you to make informed decisions about how to move forward with your energy use.
2. Waste Management and Control
This may seem like a simple suggestion, but by providing an appropriate amount of recycling bins across your site it encourages more organised disposal of plastics, and has more of a chance of ending up in a place where they can be broken down and removed effectively.
3. Plastic Use
Utilising the re-use option when cutting down on plastic is a great one as it doesn't require huge operational or behavioural changes. This can be from simple things such as encouraging employees to use reusable water bottles and hot drinks' containers, or reusing plastic stationary such as files and boxes.
4. Seek More Sustainable Alternatives
Alongside reusing items, you can also seek alternatives. For example, if you use a lot of plastic bags and files, perhaps try using paper bags and paper files. They all achieve the same purpose, but one provides more sustainability. During your plastic audit you can have this in mind, to identify which plastic use can be replaced with other, more sustainable, materials.
5. Plastic Audits
By doing checks on your business' use of plastic, it allows for an understanding of where plastic is being used, how much is being thrown away, and exactly what type of plastic is being consumed. Do you provide plastic packaging with your products? Does your company have a high usage of plastic bottles? Are plastic files being used unnecessarily? These are just a few questions you can go through to determine how much your business may rely on plastic, where it could function exactly the same just by making a few changes.
