What can businesses do to reduce their environmental impact
Being eco-friendly is high on many businesses’ agendas. Not a day goes by without reminders in the news about the damaging effect that we are all having on the planet. However, many businesses struggle to know exactly what they can do in practical terms to reduce their impact. The Right Fuelcard Limited have set out some key ideas to help you get started.
Cloud storage
Moving away from paper and embracing cloud storage, any business can easily reduce their reliance on storage and the products involved with doing so. Document Management Software (DMS), is available online and keeps the same look and feeling of paper but is accessed via the internet, updates automatically and requires no specialist equipment or maintenance. All documentation is readily available, and alongside the environmental positives lie space savings, reductions in the cost of storage areas and printing, and even time savings, as information needed can be instantly found.
Going paperless
Embracing cloud storage and DMS is of course a major step in a move towards creating a paperless office, something many businesses are striving for.
Alongside taking documentation to the cloud, considerations can be made as to whether notes of meetings can be recorded electronically, whether unnecessary printing or photocopying is occurring, and if internal documents can be shared without the need to make physical versions of them.
Remote working
While many organisations are somewhat reluctant to embrace remote working, since the Coronavirus pandemic this has changed, a lot are looking to it as a way to reduce their carbon footprint as well as enhance satisfaction amongst their employees.
As mentioned above, documents can be found on cloud storage anywhere, anytime, freeing up the need to be office based.
Employees not travelling means less fuel used and therefore less pollution. Businesses are also increasingly offering travel incentives to their staff, which range from organised car sharing schemes to subsidised public transport.
Local sourcing
For the many businesses that rely on suppliers for goods and items, a move towards sourcing locally and using businesses that don’t involve things being transported long distances is occurring.
The benefits are of course environmental but importing things in that are geographically near can also save time and money; products can arrive quickly, possibly at late notice, and transit costs are not passed on.
It has also become somewhat of a matter of pride for many businesses that they can claim to be supporting smaller independent operations based locally, as part of a larger PR drive.
Energy efficiency
Thinking carefully about how energy is used is arguably the easiest thing for a business looking to reduce their environmental impact.
Simple things can be implemented such as energy efficient lighting, whether the buildings are well insulated, installation of new windows, air conditioning, boilers and ensuring that water is not wasted.
Those wishing to push things a little further are installing their own solar panels, wind power generators or other ways of creating energy, or looking at exactly who supplies their energy and whether they are the best company to do so.
Like so many environmentally friendly policies and approaches, while lessening the impact on the planet is the core concern, saving money is also a major benefit for those making every effort to be energy efficient.
It’s up to us all to take the first steps towards saving time, money and reducing our company’s environmental impact.
