These days, going ‘green’ is a trend for any industry, and the environmental impacts of businesses (especially the larger ones), are being more and more profiled – leaving consumer minds full of thoughts about company products such as:

“How will this affect the environment?

“What was used to make this product?”

“What steps is this company brand doing to help the environment?”

Because of this tendency to be concerned about the environment, businesses these days can’t avoid the matter. Although some businesses have been practicing sustainability for years, only now has it become important to identify and aggressively educate their market about their earth-friendly efforts.

So what does this mean for you? While practicing sustainability holds some inhibitors, such as financial cost, for example, it’s best to start with the little things and work your way up to the big things. In particular, take a look around you – is your work environment green? Since this is the area you are closest to every day, implement these changes – and don’t forget to mention your efforts to your customers!

Your reception area: is it full of magazines and sprawled with newspapers? How many of these papers do you believe get read by customers? How many customers sit in that area at any given time? Will they be sitting there long enough to read through all 20 publications your office subscribes to? Save paper by reducing the amount of subscriptions you receive, and when picking which ones to keep, go with the ones that have the longest shelf-live, such as books and sturdy magazines.

Your accounting department: Did you know that these days you can actually send invoices electronically? It’s true! Use software to manage your accounting department. Not only will it save the environment, it will save on time by automating your processes and speeding the delivery of information. You can also do your banking online and accept online payments through your website.

Your desk: Hands down, this has to be the place where most useless paper gathers. Before you recycle the unimportant documents, have a look at them. Did you need these printed in the first place? Did you collect someone’s marketing material just because it was available? Remember companies have websites with that information on them now. And best of all, e-mails don’t have to be printed, simply store them away in your electronic mail folders. Faxes can come in electronically now too, so you can avoid that paper waster.

Your notes: Everyone has a note pad of some sort sitting on their desk, but have you ever thought of taking notes electronically from now on? Especially for those with fast typing skills, there’s no excuse! Get a laptop if you can and take that to your meetings for note taking. Need to take a message for someone out of the office right now? E-mail or text them instead of writing it down.

Your kitchen: If you have a dishwasher in your kitchen, make sure it is full before running it. Otherwise, make sure you soap your dishes all at once and then rinse, leaving the water off while you clean. Make a dish of soapy water to draw from instead of running the tap.

And there you have it, simply by looking around our usual day-to-day office environment, we’ve already thought of small ways we can go green bit by bit. It might seem insignificant, but you know what they say, when everyone participates it makes a big difference.

Author Bio: Queenie Ormidale works at Central Park Business Centre, which has been offering Vancouver office space, administrative services and virtual offices to businesses since 1986. You can republish this article without this last sentence so long as you credit the author with a link to their website at www.executivesuite.ca

Category: Marketing
Keywords: office, green, paper, save, environmental, business, sustainable, image, customers,