Making a small business sustainable, and in a scalable way, is an important aspect of being a business owner in modern day Britain. There can be huge positives to your company growth should you pursue a route of sustainability throughout your business, but at a stage where you are still growing as a brand it is important to not overspend to implement the necessary changes to achieve this. There are a number of things that you can achieve quite easily in the workplace, changing the culture of your staff and inspiring not only them, but also your suppliers and customers to think in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable way.
Make Your Work Premises Environmentally Friendly
The first thing to look at, whether you are a sole trader working out of a home office, or on site with a team of employees in a work premises, is ways in which you can reduce your carbon footprint. Are there things you can do to help reduce your energy consumption right away? The windows can be double glazed if they are not already installed at the property, a smart meter can help you gauge your energy consumption and then tweak your approach to working in order to reduce that consumption. Another option is to look at how you can source renewable energy suppliers to reduce your carbon footprint even further.
Disposal of Business Paper Waste
Even the smallest of businesses creates a lot of paper waste on a daily basis. Seek out a local company that provides a confidential shredding service and it will soon become a cultural habit that all your employees are on board with. This method of disposing paper waste ensures you are adding to your credit as an environmentally aware brand, but that you are also complying with data protection regulations relating to the disposal of documents containing personal and sensitive information about employees, clients and suppliers.
Promote a Smarter & Flexible Way of Working
This can work in a number of ways in order to boost your sustainable approach to working. Some companies allow flexible remote and home working in order to cut down on travel costs and the carbon footprint associated with the commute, wherever possible. Incentivising car shares and cycling to work schemes as your company grows is another great way to promote a ‘green’ working culture whilst reducing the carbon footprint of your business.
If you choose to work with a local firm of confidential business document shredding experts you can easily set-up a new way of working day-to-day that encourages a shift in culture to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly approach to working. Your staff members will quickly pick up the processes required and it will soon become a habit that is hard to drop. Add to that a whole host of other incentives for your employees to think in a more sustainable way and to reduce your energy consumption, and you can soon see a vast reduction in the carbon footprint linked to your company.
Building a company that has a sustainable approach to work at its core, and in a way that allows for growth and development in a scalable way, does take hard work. It is much easier to implement these tweaks in processes and culture whilst a company is still growing, than waiting until the change for a large company will cost a huge amount of time and money in order to be successful.
Content written by Kylie Beckton