Society is becoming more and more aware of the importance of learning about climate change and eco-friendliness. As they learn, they’ve been putting pressure on corporations to do business in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.
Implementing a corporate-wide green initiative may seem difficult for your business. There are a lot of budgeting, logistical, and operational changes that you’ll need to make. All of it sounds like it’ll be a daunting effort.
But it doesn’t have to be. Today, we’ll explain how your business can have a greener way of operating.
Benefits of Implementing a Corporate Green Initiative
You’d think that with society increasingly pushing for businesses to have a green thumb, businesses would respond with greener initiatives. But some businesses are hesitant and for a decent reason.
Going green takes a lot of planning and budgeting. For smaller businesses, that’s difficult to do. But very soon, you’ll see…
Why Going Green is Worth It
In a societal sense, going green puts you at a competitive advantage. With people being more aware of environmental health, being able to promote your green initiatives puts you above your competitors, which means more business for you.
When it comes to logistics, just start small; you don’t have to make complicated, drastic changes immediately. Start by educating the staff about sustainable activities, emphasizing recycling, or promoting greener transportation. Start small and work your way up.
Cons and Pros
A major concern that businesses have when it comes to going green is sacrificing more resources.
They spend a lot of time implementing green projects, educating and training staff to practice sustainable efforts, and replacing equipment.
They do a lot of planning. You’ll read next on how green initiatives require high attention to detail to how current operations run. Planning changes takes up time as well.
They have to spend a lot of their money…
…upfront.
Yes, the switch will be a bit expensive. However, after the changes have been made and time passes, businesses will see that they actually are saving money with greener operations. For example, the average cost for commercial solar panels is around $250,000.
As time passes, the panels will gradually pay for themselves. That allows your business to reduce costs and make changes in other areas of operations.
Decide Your Key Performance Indicators
Before making the transition to greener operations, you need to have a plan. Where do you want to focus your sustainability initiative efforts?
You can make some changes right away like using compostable material, putting in recycling bins, or changing to LED lights. Other changes take some logistical examinations like partnering with environmentally cautious suppliers or offering employee training on the matter.
Create a document that outlines what your sustainability plans are. It should include the environmental goals for the company, programs or action steps to achieve the goal, and a mission statement.
However, make sure the goals are realistic. Greener operations won’t happen overnight. Ensure that whatever goals you have that you educate your employees. This will help them understand how to help the company move forward in sustainability efforts.
Once you’ve decided which areas you want to go greener at, set your green goals. From there, you can determine what your key performance indicators are. Once you have them, monitor them and make changes as necessary.
Conduct an Eco-assessment
By now, you should have your goals, plans, and KPIs in place. Next is to assess your business.
Go around the building and do the following:
- List everything that consumes water, energy, and other resources
- Jot down areas of improvement and areas of excellence
- Quantitatively judge the sustainability of operations with a rating system, scorecard, etc.
Wherever you see an area of operation that’s doing great, acknowledge it so everyone can keep it up. If an area needs work, assess what actions to take for improvements to be seen, then communicate those actions with everyone.
Switch to Electric Lawn Care
One simple way to have greener operations is to upgrade the equipment you use to more sustainable tools. A great transition is going from traditional to battery-powered lawn mowers.
Just by making this switch, you increase the air quality of the area being landscaped by a lot. If you were to keep using gas-powered lawn mowers, you’d pollute the air 11 times more than a car according to the EPA. Traditional tools are so bad for the air that some states are slowly banning their use of them.
Read: what you need to know about small engine bans
Transitioning to robotic lawn mowers and other landscaping equipment majorly cuts back on the hundreds of tons of emissions Americans release with traditional tools per year. This transition alone will do wonders for your green initiative.
As a bonus, you’ll save money on energy in the long run. While electric tools are more expensive upfront, you’ll see the savings quickly when you compare the cost to fuel up traditional tools versus the cost to recharge electric tools.
Go Paperless
The more time passes, the more technology advances, and the less we need paper.
Nowadays, the average person or business doesn’t even need to have physical copies of essential documents. Sure, it’s convenient to have, especially when you place it somewhere that you know you can easily grab when needed.
But just as easily as you can keep a paper file in a folder, you can create a specific folder on your hard drive to find and store the document. Making copies is easy, too; just right-click, hit ‘copy’, and send it to whoever needs it.
On top of this, your documents are going to be more secure and have less risk of loss. Paper documents can get damaged, stolen, or accidentally thrown away.
By going paperless, you can store your necessary files on external hard drives. Or you can invest in cloud storage.
If you’re on the fence about using cloud storage, consider these:
- Your network or servers could get hacked, meaning you’d lose everything without cloud storage
- Sharing things on the cloud is much easier than with paper
- Many cloud storage providers encrypt your data to secure your info even if your computer or external storage is stolen
Consider Getting Certified
Look into LEED certifications. This socially recognized certification demonstrates that a project, building operations, or structural design fit certain eco-friendly criteria. The level of certification your business gets depends on how many points you earn. Those points essentially tell you how well you’re reducing your carbon footprint.
Read: How to get LEED Certified
Getting LEED certified has plenty of pros:
- You’ll save money by reducing the use of water or electricity
- People, especially potential clients, will see that you care about the environment
- You’re helping to reduce the amount of waste ending up in landfills
Create a “green team” for your business: a group whose focus is to implement green changes within the company. The individuals can get LEED accreditation if they choose, which will last for two years after passing the examination. Having a team who knows how to implement a green initiative will help make your business greener easier.
Companies That Went Green With Robotic Lawn Mowers
Greenwich, CT Town Hall: The small town had a town hall ribbon cutting for the introduction of a robotic lawn mower that they call Farmer Joe. The purchase was part of the town’s recently passed climate change initiatives. The mayor is encouraging residents to make similar purchases.
NatureWorks Landscaping: The landscaping company has made local headlines for its transition to robotic lawn mowers as part of its fleet. The switch has reduced their lawn maintenance time while increasing the health of the yards they manage.
Get Started on Your Green Initiative Today!
Robotic lawn mowers are a fantastic way to reduce your business’s carbon footprint. Autmow has the resources you need to get you up and running smoothly. Let’s upgrade how you do lawn care today!