5 Ways Your Business Can Benefit By Going Eco-Friendly

One of the best things you can do for the environment and your business is to lean into eco-friendly solutions to the things we do everyday. It turns out our daily chores really put a hurt Mother nature.

Let's explore how businesses of all shapes and sizes are benefitting from eco-friendly initiatives and practices.

We'll touch on remote work a little later in this piece, but there are even more innovative ways to reduce overhead, improve efficiency and minimize your brand's negative impact on the planet.

Take a deep dive into your warehousing, manufacturing, and tech stack. The Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance and Technology has compiled a number of case studies on corporations who drilled down on improving efficiency:

• "Columbia Manufacturing Ine...eliminated the use of 147,000 gallons of water per day in their plating operations, saving $3,000,000 in water and sewer fees by upgrading the plating equipment and integrating a zero-discharge wastewater treatment system. [The upgrades]...enable the company to recover and reuse 98% of the plating chemistry that would previously have been lost, resulting in a drastic reduction of hazardous waste generation."
• "[Polartec]...incorporated toxic use reduction and resource conservation into its operations and developed an Energy Management System (EMS) for energy efficiency. Polartec's combined savings from its energy conservation projects is just under $1 million per year. In addition to the savings, Polartec's carbon footprint was reduced by about 21%, with nearly 12,000 tons of CO2 reduced since 2006."

Going paperless is all the craze. Digital records in the Cloud allow team members to collaborate from everywhere, ensuring they're always working on the latest version of their work product.

Plus, the less paper you use, the less you'll need to worry about stocking ink, toner and other printing supplies. 

One of the most difficult challenges is connecting with a growing audience to improve market share. The average person is exposed to between 4,000 and 10,000 ads every 24 hours. So, how do you stand out?

Deliver a message that matters and helps the audience feel like they can take part in doing better for the planet by engaging with your brand. Dan Steiner, CEO of Good Laundry, shared:

"When we launched our brand, we were up against some pretty massive players. By leaning into the causes our brand supports and the eco-friendly nature of our plastic-free laundry detergent and supplies, we've been able to carve out an audience in a competitive space. Our customers LOVE engaging with causes that help the environment by making an easy change to something they already do every week - their laundry!"

Apple has done an excellent job of showcasing this with their trade in program, and now other brands are following their lead.

By empowering customers with smaller wallets to engage with your brand, you expand market share and develop new revenue streams. After all, the real money is in the recurring subscriptions these products generate for Apple and its partners.

Plus, keeping used electronics out of the landfill is great for the environment, and allows Apple to make substantial environmental benefit claims in their marketing.

65% of employees want to work in a hybrid environment, coming into the office as little as possible. The reasons are pretty obvious:

• Long traffic-filled commutes grind on the soul and rob us of a ton of time each week.
• Fitting in chores or watching the kids in-between meetings allows us to excel at work, while feeling more connected and engaged with our home lives.
• Companies get to reduce their overhead by leveraging hot desks and combining resources into a smaller footprint. (Also great for the environment!)
• When team members feel relaxed and comfortable, they get more done than in a hectic office environment - especially on solitary tasks.