How Businesses Can be More Sustainable – Five Easy Ways

Knowing how businesses can be more sustainable is fast becoming a vital practice. It’s a timely and vital question for any entrepreneur or freelancer to consider. This article takes you through three tried and tested techniques that will dramatically reduce your business’s carbon footprint.

Why it’s Important to Know How Businesses Can be More Sustainable

More often than not, switching to sustainable practices won’t involve any extra time or effort. Ultimately, it boils down to who you work with and how you operate.

In a world of uncertainty and global climate change, folks want to see that you’re doing your bit. Additionally, as a business owner, you take on a certain responsibility. Big or small, your company needs to demonstrate that it cares about the environment that we all live in.

In recent years, we’ve already been seeing larger organisations pledging their path towards net zero. In other words, a fully carbon-neutral infrastructure and business.

Nike, a member of Race to Zero partner, the Fashion Charter for Climate Action, has made remarkable progress in reducing GHG emissions, using environmentally preferred materials in their products, and diverting waste from landfills.

With a focus on innovation, they have developed low-carbon materials, decarbonized their value chain, adopted alternative fuels, reduced air freight, improved energy efficiency in Nike spaces, and embraced circularity.

climatechampions.unfccc.int

Implementing and being aware of how businesses can be more sustainable will significantly improve your longevity and trust as a company. With this purpose in mind, it’s most important to apply the following techniques whenever possible.

Five Sustainability Practices

The five steps below are processes I’ve implemented as a small business over the last ten years. Three don’t cost extra money, and none require additional time or effort. They are simple, practical changes that significantly improve your business’s sustainability.

1. Working With The Right Suppliers

First up, choosing who you work with and why you work with them is everything. The types of businesses you need to partner with will vary depending on what you offer as a service or product.

However, the premise remains the same. Working with companies aligning with your sustainability goals will only strengthen your credentials.

If you’re a product-based business, packaging is a prime example. It’s becoming more accessible and easier to source sustainable materials for your business at no extra cost.

You could work with packaging partners and others to ensure your sustainability targets are met and engage your supply chain to implement the necessary changes.

British Business Bank

2. A Website Powered by Green Energy

Did you know that most websites churn out way more carbon than needed? Each time someone visits a web page, a big old data centre needs to work its magic. Of course, if this data centre is powered by green, renewable energy, this will instantly reduce the amount of CO2 produced every time someone loads a page on your site.

You can go ahead and test your website at websitecarbon.com. The first step is to be aware of the situation and have a long-term plan.

On the positive side, switching to a green web hosting service is one of the most significant steps towards a greener site.

If you’re using WordPress, I can highly recommend rocket.net. Your website will then be powered by renewable energy. Furthermore, they’re one of the fastest web hosts on the planet.

Additionally, the Green Web Foundation has a list of web hosts that use sustainable energy. This step is undoubtedly crucial for making businesses more sustainable in a primarily digital world.

3. Sustainable / Eco-Friendly Print

New up, let’s talk about eco-friendly and sustainable print. Most businesses will need to print at least once or twice per year, even if it’s just the good old annual Christmas cards. However, many other companies that rely on leaflet marketing still need it more regularly.

Either way, this is an easy switch to sustainable or eco-friendly options. But what on earth is the difference?

Sustainable paper stocks are always traceable back to a sustainably managed forest from a supplier with the relevant FSC® certification. Furthermore, eco-friendly paper stocks are fully recycled. Bonus!

This step is especially important for the businesses here in Derby and Burton that regularly carry out leaflet distribution campaigns. With large numbers being printed and delivered, working with a supplier that provides 100% sustainable paper stocks is essential.

4. Stripe Climate

Did you know that you can contribute a small percentage of your turnover to help fund the next generation of carbon removal? Stripe Climate helps you easily do just that.

If you use the popular payment provider, you can enable Stripe Climate in your settings and choose the amount you’d like to contribute per payment. For example, 0.5%, 1% etc.

They’ll also make you a rather snazzy website page, just like this one. Furthermore, you can keep up to date with how they’re using these funds.

5. Planting Trees

Lastly, could you offset some of your business emissions by planting trees? This small yet mighty gesture will have a substantial impact if enough businesses get behind it.

Lot’s of organisations these days make it easy for a business to plant trees. One that I use and reccomend is Treeapp.

We support hundreds of brands with their sustainability goals by funding climate projects and planting trees where they’re most needed.

Treeapp for Business

Simply set up your chosen amount of trees to have planted each month, then sit back and enjoy all of the goodies that come with your generosity.

Want a tree counter widget for your website? You got it. Your own business dashboard, assets and a certificate are also included for you to use as you please.

Conclusion – How Businesses Can be More Sustainable

Some or all of the above ideas can be implemented in absolutely any business. Simple, effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint and increase your sustainability as a business.