How to go green and reduce your carbon footprint as a small business owner

If you want to make your business a little greener, check out these top tips.

 

Use recycled paper

Use recycled paper to print marketing materials on. Recycled printing papers can be used when printing pamphlets, flyers, and any other marketing literature.

 

Hold virtual meetings

Tools like TokBox, Skype, etc. provide excellent video conferencing capabilities over the internet.  Consider holding virtual meetings to reduce the need to come to the conferencing all. You can do this with both external vendors and colleagues alike.

 

Switch to email

Don’t use paper newsletters, send an email instead. Switching to an email marketing service will not only help save the environment but also cut down your business printing costs significantly. The other good thing with using electronic newsletters is that it provides vast insights into how a marketing campaign is performing. It is however almost impossible to monitor progress with printed flyers. Email marketing programs can show how many of your emails were received and read.

 

Try recycled marketing materials

Use recyclable paper flyers if you have to. Recyclable flyers are recommended when you have to use paper flyers for your marketing campaign.  It would also be advisable to indicate that the leaflets are recyclable at the back of the printout.  Although it may seem obvious to some, many people still need to be constantly reminded. Using recyclable flyers reduces the need to cut down trees to produce more papers.

 

Source locally

Use locally available materials for marketing. Using local materials should save your business shipping costs, and is good for the environment too.

 

Be sustainable

Use GreenSeal.org products:  Green Seal uses lifecycle-based standards for product sustainability. They also offer 3rd party certification for products, companies, and services that meet the criteria.  Using products from green seal, and other certified products, therefore, translate to reduced carbon footprint from your company.

 

Go ecommerce

Set up shop online: While it may seem obvious, thousands of companies and businesses are yet to embrace the online platform. Setting up a virtual shop online not only expands your customer base but also increases chances of selling beyond borders. In addition to this, you never really have to have an office or warehouse where staffs come to work. With an online shop, customers and clients can log in and make orders at any time of the day. You, therefore, aren’t restricted to the regular working hours.

 

Buy ‘green’ products

Buy products that encouragbehaviourbehavior directly. An excellent example of this is water bottles. Instead of using disposable water bottles, consider ordering reusable branded water bottles or coffee mugs. By doing this, you will be reducing plastic waste to garbage sites while your company gets visibility from the same. Allowing other people and companies to reuse the water bottles continues to promote your business even more.

 

Find green-certified supplies

Log on to TheGreenOffice.com. This is an e-commerce site that enables customers to shop for a wide range of green-certified office products. Many of the items and supplies here come in handy in any type of offline marketing.

 

Try eco envelopes

Use recycled post-consumer envelopes for all direct mails. You can get your supply of these from ecoenvelopes.com. This should help reduce mailing costs and also have a positive impact on the environment.

 

Get to work without emissions

Consider energy efficient mode of transport.  Whether marketing a product or traveling for a trade show, consider using fuel-efficient vehicles and cars. Cars with more mileage (electric or hybrids) are the most preferred option if you wish to lower your carbon footprint. Read about it more in the blog from Cavendish.

 

List your products

Enlist your products on GoodGuide.com and GreenSeal.org. These platforms give consumers access to green and certified products. Most of the products listed here are eco-friendly, a mark that many environment-conscious shoppers are always looking for.

 

Get your customers involved

Encourage customers to participate in green-campaigns. Coupons and vouchers are considered the best incentives you can use to encourage shoppers to buy green products. One way to do this is by offering a certain percentage discount on all green actions and products. More and more people will want to get a piece of the offer, hence find themselves shopping for green products only. You could also use these coupons to encourage them to participate in community cleaning events.