The WoW Style

It’s very important to do your part to protect the planet. 

However, did you know that certain everyday processes in factories can cause immense damage? If you are a business owner, it is important to understand and limit your carbon footprint.

Your carbon footprint is the level of greenhouse gases generated by your business. Some essential parts of business like production and manufacturing can cause quite some environmental damage.

The question is how do you reduce it? What can you do to ensure that you avoid harming the environment?

In this article, we will take a look at seven key practices you can incorporate to help you get started.

1) Measure Your Carbon Footprint 

Start by measuring your business’ current carbon footprint. Once you are actively aware of your greenhouse gas emissions, you can plan and carry out the necessary steps to reduce them.

Do some research into local energy assessment services. If you’re in London, it’s worth looking into London energy assessors who can evaluate your business’s current energy efficiency. 

Based on the report, you will be able to understand what more you can do to help your business become more sustainable. 

2) Use High-Quality Machinery

While this could be heavy on the pockets, choosing the right machinery can go a long way in helping your business go green. 

For starters, check the energy requirements of every machine pre-purchase. By doing this, you can make sure you’re only making smart, energy-efficient purchases. Along with this, choosing the right machinery also helps boost overall efficiency.

Another important factor is ensuring that you conduct regular maintenance checks. Many high-grade, industry-level machines use tremendous amounts of energy, causing harm to the environment. With regular machine maintenance, you can confirm that your machines are functioning optimally and using energy efficiently.

Not only this, conducting regular maintenance checks can also help keep costs down in the long run.

3) Make The Most Of Automation Software 

While technology has affected business operations in many ways, it has also brought along many environmental benefits.

With the rampant rise of digitisation, going paperless has become easier. Before the increased use of technology in everyday operations, businesses relied solely on paper-based records. Not only was this inefficient, but it also generated a lot of landfill waste. Now, with technology, the use of paper has decreased significantly.

With automation tools and software, businesses are now able to create centralised databases for employees to work on. For example, if you own a garage, you can organise all client and customer data effectively with the help of garage workshop software.

Not only would you minimise the time needed to locate important documents, but you’d also save on physical office supply purchases like ink, folders and paper clips. With automation software, you can achieve better productivity while also ensuring your business does its part to protect the environment.

4) Use Green Energy And Optimise Office Equipment 

Switching to a green energy provider or using solar panels can be convenient ways to reduce energy usage. 

Additionally, you could also optimise your current office equipment. For example, switching to LED bulbs can greatly reduce your energy consumption. By investing in motion sensors or time-based lights, you could ensure that lights are used only when necessary. 

A simple yet effective tip to put into practice is enabling energy-saving modes on all PC and mobile devices. You could also encourage employees to dress in seasonally appropriate attire. As a result, you can save on air conditioning costs in the summer and heating in winter.

Another way to cut back on energy emissions would be to consider implementing a hybrid work structure. If you allot some days for working from home, your carbon emissions are sure to reduce significantly.

5) Reduce, Reuse And Recycle

Once you have a clear understanding of what contributes the most towards your carbon footprint, you can take action and set some measurable goals. For example, consider reusing and recycling.

When it comes to reusing, it may be simpler than you think. You may discover multiple single-use items that can be replaced with their multi-use counterparts. For instance, while new furniture for your office space may sound appealing, buying second-hand is more sustainable. 

Similarly, using recycled materials is a great way to boost sustainability within your business. When you recycle, you can cut down on raw materials used to create products in bulk. A little goes a long way in helping save our planet.

6) Use Sustainable Suppliers And Transport

When aiming for end-to-end sustainability, the supply chain across sectors becomes very important. Carefully evaluate your suppliers to check if they value actively improving resource efficiency and reducing wastage. Try to use certified suppliers wherever possible.

Besides this, it’s also important to examine the environmental impact of your transport vehicles. With environmental protection becoming more important, standard MOT inspections have become stricter.

A Ministry of Transport (MOT) evaluates your transport vehicles to see if they meet environmental safety standards. MOT tests play a vital role in regulating the level of harmful substances released by vehicles into our atmosphere.  If you’re interested in cheap MOT, Northampton is home to multiple facilities that can help you out. 

Aside from this, you could also consider gradually transitioning to the use of hybrid or electric vehicles (EVs). If you’re not too eager to commit to this change, these vehicles are available to lease when you need them.

7) Carbon Offsetting

Another popular method to balance overall greenhouse gas emissions is by offsetting your carbon emissions. With this, you can also achieve carbon neutrality by offsetting your emissions to net zero. While costs may vary based on your carbon outputs, your business could partner with a professional to find a cost-effective solution. 

With carbon offsetting, there are different schemes to choose from. In these schemes, your money will be utilised to help develop new technologies that minimise carbon emissions. Or, the company you’ve partnered with may also plant trees in your business’ name. 

It’s best to do your research to identify the solution that best suits your business. However, carbon offsetting alone cannot hope to make up for years of neglecting to manage your organisation’s carbon footprint. 

To make up for this, you can also introduce environmental policies and other methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

To Wrap Up

As a business, reducing your carbon footprint should be a top priority. 

Before making any move towards sustainability, it’s worth auditing your company’s carbon emissions. This then acts as a benchmark for you to track progress and identify where changes are needed within your organisation.

Cutting down on your business’s carbon footprint is a huge process and you ought to be proud of pursuing it no matter your pace. It is a taxing task that involves much time, effort as well as resources from your company.

Running a business is no piece of cake and can involve various environmental expenses. Yet, you shouldn’t have to sacrifice sustainability in your pursuit of success.