Currently, sustainability and energy has become part of our daily lives in business. Many organizations are contemplating reducing their carbon footprint and energy use because both employees and customers demand sustainability when doing business. Those businesses which cannot adapt to this will encounter significant problems in the future.
So whether you are a small, medium, or big business. I mean curtailing greenhouse gas emissions must be your priority. Therefore, here are five ways to decrease your footprint and save energy.
1. Get an Energy Audit
An energy audit will help you understand your baseline energy use and give you a clear guideline to save energy at your business premises. Most electric utility companies will provide you with a free energy audit if you ask them. Therefore, they will send a professional to visit your premises and inspect the area to check for insulation problems, air leaks, and opportunities for installing energy-efficient equipment and lighting.
2. Use Energy-Efficient Lighting
Lighting your business is not cheap. Lighting alone accounts for up to 40 percent of most businesses’ energy use. So if you are wise in the way you implement your lighting, you could save lots of money.
- Ask your staff to switch off the lights when they’re not using the room. Although this sounds obvious, many people don’t practice it.
- Switch from the traditional incandescent filament light bulbs to the modern CFL, LED, or halogen bulbs. Although they are a bit more costly, they last longer and save your business energy.
3. Recycle
Recycling in your company is a straightforward way to trim your carbon footprint. Recycling reduces the number of raw materials used to make new products. For instance, recycling one tin can lets you save enough energy required to power a computer for one hour. Remember, you can recycle tin cans unlimited times. Moreover, one ton of recycled paper protects 17 trees from being cut down and helps save 4,000 kWh energy, four cubic yards of land, 400 gallons of oil, and 7,000 gallons of water.
Creating recycling collections at your premises also helps enhance a greener work culture. This helps boost your employees’ morale and is attractive to your customer base. Studies show that 73 percent of individuals want their workplace to improve sustainability measures, while 24 percent will turn down a job at an organization with lousy sustainability records.
4. Invest in Green Energy and Use Green Office Equipment
Investing in green energy and adopting green office equipment is an excellent way to lower your company’s carbon footprint. Currently, many energy providers offer a green tariff. Alternatively, you can set up your renewable energy sources. If your business has sufficient cash, solar panels are an excellent option.
Moreover, you can generate the energy to power your computers, coffee machines, phones, and hand dryers. Using solar energy permits you to reduce your carbon emissions without increasing your energy costs.
For your workspace:
- Enable battery-saving and energy-saving modes on all your computers and mobile work devices.
- Use kitchen appliances such as dishwashers and refrigerators with a high energy rating.
- Lower the room’s thermostat temperature. Lowering the temperature by just one degree will reduce your heating energy by 13 percent.
Employing a radiant barrier and other energy-saving technologies will also help you cut down your energy consumption by a significant margin. For example, you can employ QSFP28 to SFP28 splitter cables to transfer large chunks of data at high speeds while using less energy.
5. Switch to Fully Electric or Hybrid Company Vehicles
Now is an excellent time to consider investing in a hybrid or electric vehicles for your business. Car manufacturers are investing heavily into developing electric car models, and electric cars are no longer pipe dreams. Moreover, many affordable electric car models are now available, and now businesses of all sizes can own electric vehicles. You can also lease electric cars for your company.
Passenger cars emit about 763 million metric tons of CO2 in the US alone. This does not consider the emissions produced by fuel refineries and other related processes. If all individuals and businesses switch to using electric cars, this will significantly lower the country’s carbon footprint.
As a business owner, talk to your team about the environment and invite them to suggest how your company can help fight climate change. This will encourage them and help get them on board with your environmental plan. Your workforce is your best asset in your ecological efforts, and their involvement and ideas are crucial to ensuring your business succeed in saving energy, reducing emissions, and recycling.
Author: Sheryl Wright
