Four Reasons Why Going Green is Good for Business | Glaze & Save
The world is changing. And with it, business needs to change too. The environmental concerns of the planet have naturally filtered to the business world: although it seems that many are still slow on the uptake. But in these economically turbulent times, some of the best business sense enterprises small and large can invest in is their green credentials. We take a look at four reasons why going green is good for business.
Reduced Waste and Decreased Costs
Whether it’s through recycling, energy efficiency or sourcing more sustainable working practices: going green inevitably means reducing wasteful consumption. And that is great for businesses. Making a concerted effort to reduce your resource consumption, or to reduce the waste generated will inevitably lead to decreased costs for you, and ergo increased profits.
Don’t think that reducing your resource consumption and waste production needs to be a headache. Implementing a policy of behavioural changes can really trim the fat from energy bills and office costs: only turning on lights when needed; printing less or not at all if it can be helped; refilling ink cartridges and offering hybrid vehicles are all ways to reduce your energy consumption.
Take energy efficiency: a product like our InvisiTherm secondary glazing can reduce energy bills by 22.5%. Or how about recycling, where you can literally sell on your waste products (we already do this at Glaze & Save, where our waste polycarbonate from our installations is collected and passed onto a third party to be made into other products). Finding ways to reduce your waste and resource consumption can really boost the finances of your company.
Increased Employee Productivity
If you don’t want to go green for the environment, go green for your employees! Providing a healthy atmosphere for your employees, including better air quality, efficient heating and lighting systems, can help you ward off some of the most common of office complaints such as office colds, asthma and headaches. Green cleaning supplies are not only cheaper than their regular counterparts, they also lack chemicals such as sodium hydrochlorite and nitrobenzene which have been shown to be connected to physical problems.
A commercial client of ours saw inadvertent increases in employee productivity after we installed InvisiThermto reduce heat loss: the accompanying noise reduction made the office so quite that employees could get on with their jobs in peace!
If you’re looking to hire the best and brightest, environmental and ethical credentials are often a key issue for young talent seeking out new opportunities. So get the best people, and keep them healthier while they’re working for you, by going green.
Access to Funding Opportunities
Energy efficiency, renewable energy, recycling, the circular economy…all buzzwords in today’s rapidly changing economy. Governments across the globe have recognized the importance of the commercial sector in reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption and often provide funding for these measures, meaning your business often benefits without being out of pocket. In Scotland Resource Efficient Scotlandhave an interest free loan available for SMEs to install energy efficient measures to their premises. The Carbon Trusthave funding available for businesses participating in low-carbon initiatives through their Green Business Fund. Next week we’ll be going into more detail about how to find funding for energy efficient measures for your business, so be sure to check that out.
Sustainability
Ultimately, going green is about the health of the planet. Undertaking more environmentally conscientious business practices can prevent the waste of natural resources, helping stabilize the rate of our resource consumption in the long run. Businesses can also make the choice to switch to renewable sources of energy such as solar or wind energy, preserving natural resources and ultimately buildings a more sustainable economy.
Public Response to Environmentally Ethical Businesses
At the top of the blog, we mentioned our changing world and how we need to respond to it in business. But the good news is that the public in turn respond extremely positively to businesses with green credentials.
Positive public image arising from green credential is highly likely to increase sales. Studies have been show that where businesses undertake green initiatives, profits increase. However, it’s probably not advisable to go green purely for the positive public affirmation.
Even notoriously controversial companies like Walmart have seen the benefit of incorporating green initiatives into their business practices, where increasing recycling, reducing gas consumption and offering a wider range of eco-friendly products so their sales increase by 20%.
