Green Your Business Baby
“There is no business to be done on a dead planet.” David Brower (Sierra Club Executive Director)
Fact: Most businesses are not making much of a positive contribution to the longevity of the planet. Strangely, if you ask some of the people who are responsible for much of the environmental destruction in the world and our communities, “Do you love your children and grandchildren?”, their answer would most likely be an aggravated, “of course I do, what do you think!!??” But what is the true legacy being left to our children?
The complication here is that what feels good today, is left for coming generations to cleanup. Okay, so maybe we hear enough about the problems in the world everyday. Where to start? Start where you are at. If your business has been in place for ten or thirty years, introducing change can take a little more effort than for startups. The effort is worth it though. You can conduct business in a way that you can feel good about and that you can proudly share with your offspring if you have any.
Greening your business can start as simply as buying paper that is 100% recycled or paper that has a higher recycled content. Even office chains like Staples now offer 100% recycled copy paper. Use less paper. Read your document drafts on your desktop before printing. There are always misprints, so use the backs of them for note paper. Make sure that your company has a recycling program. Bring dead CPU’s and monitors to your local transfer station (the dump), and inquire about the proper disposal of them. The fee you pay for disposal is tax-deductible and simply throwing them in the trash may plant more chemicals in your local ground soil and rivers.
There may be community recycling resources in your area that accept unwanted business supplies. Ruth’s Reusable Resources in Portland, Maine is one such undertaking.
In Ruth’s words, “Maine has a long tradition of “neighbor helping neighbor.” That spirit has been the foundation of Ruth’s Reusable Resources (3R’s) for 13 years. Businesses and industries have provided their excess supplies so that school teachers, students and nonprofit organizations have access to practical and creative materials they would not have been able to find or afford elsewhere. As a result, over 70,000 students and 7,500 teachers have benefited from from resources from over 400 companies.”
Recycling is simple, smart and saves us all money in the long run, not to mention having a healthier living environment.
Here is a short list of easy to implement changes to GREEN your business from http://www.recycleworks.org/:
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Buy only recycled content paper and copy double-sided
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Use efficient lighting systems to save energy
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Promote walking, biking, taking public transit or buy alternative energy or hybrid vehicles for your fleet
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Remodel with green materials such as using low-Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paint
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Conserve water with low-flow toilets and faucet aerators
Do your best.
JB
