Ways to reduce your business carbon footprint

With global warming very much in our headlines, businesses both large and small are looking at how they can reduce their carbon footprint. This focus is not only being driven climate change legislation but also by pressure from customers as they become more environmentally aware and want to know that who they do business with, are environmentally conscious.

No matter how many staff you employ, how many offices you may or may not have, reducing your carbon footprint can make a difference to our environment. Here are some steps you can take to get you on the path to sustainability.

Reduce your waste

The best way to move towards zero waste is to start with a waste reduction strategy and focus on reducing, reusing and recycling. Look at every aspect of your business that creates waste. From moving towards a paperless office to recycling old office equipment, from refilling and reusing ink cartridges to removing throw away cups, there will be plenty of opportunities of where you can reduce waste.

Travel

The pandemic this year has undoubtedly changed the way we work (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0797-x). Where once we would have had to be present in an important board meeting come what may, nowadays a virtual meeting is the new normal. Travel by car, train or plane, are amongst the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions and post-Covid we should all take the time to think long and hard about whether we do need to travel for business after all.

Office Lighting

If you have an office a quick win to become more energy efficient is to swap to LED lighting. Natural light should be used where possible as this saves energy and has greater health benefits for staff. For large office you may also want to consider motion sensors which will automatically switch lights off when they are not in use.

Review your data storage options

If you currently have a data room on your premises make sure you review the temperature of the room as it may be set to high. Lowering the temperature by just 1 degree can save 8-9% in energy costs. You can easily reduce your carbon emissions by using the services of an eco-friendly data centre. An eco-friendly data centre will be incredibly energy efficient making significant gains in reducing your carbon footprint.

Heating and Cooling

Our weather has been extremely unpredictable over the last couple of years. With a sustained drought in 2018, the beast from the east in 2019 and a long hot summer in 2020, here in the UK we don’t know what we will be dealing with next. Make sure your heating timings are set to ensure that your office is not being heated without anyone working in it, and conversely make sure someone is responsible for turning off any air conditioning units before they leave the office at night.

To find out how sustainable your business is visit the SME Carbon Trust Footprint Calculator: https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/sme-carbon-footprint-calculator

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