Being a great business leader involves making ethical and practical decisions that positively influence your company’s impact. One approach to this that many managers, executives, and entrepreneurs are adopting is eco-leadership. This recognizes that companies have a responsibility to protect the health of the planet. Not to mention that environmentally-friendly operations can both minimize overheads and bolster the brand’s reputation among consumers.
Establishing energy efficiency protocols is an important part of eco-leadership. However, it’s important to recognize that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to this. You need to tailor your activities to meet the needs and challenges of your unique business.
Let’s dive a little deeper into how you can best drive your company’s energy efficiency.
Commit to Audits
As a business leader, you can’t tailor your approach to energy efficiency with guesswork. You need to gather some reliable data to base adjustments and new protocols on. This isn’t just in the interest of finding the most relevant measures for your company. Rather, it also helps you communicate the importance of your plans to other decision-makers and staff, which may improve buy-in.
Gathering data requires you to commit to auditing your business. This could focus on the following areas:
- Review your current energy consumption and what the major sources of it are. Depending on your businesses, this might involve lights, heating, manufacturing, transportation, and break room appliances among others. Compare these consumption levels to what is considered peak efficiency for each device and activity.
- Investigate areas of potential energy wastage. Look at the insulation of your premises to establish heating or air leakage. Review the processes each member of staff performs to see whether their energy use is streamlined. Assess the energy-efficiency rating of each piece of equipment your company uses.
- Assess not just your internal practices but also those of your supply chain partners. This is important because their actions influence the holistic energy efficiency of your organization. This is also something unique to the specific ecosystem of your business operations.
These steps give you solid data on which to base a tailored action plan. Create clearly defined goals. What are particularly problematic areas that must be a priority for your efforts? What adjustments in staff behaviour could be effective? You must also outline when you intend to perform follow-up assessments so you can track your progress.
Design Your Path to Carbon Neutrality
Carbon neutrality is being embraced by a lot of today’s business leaders. This is about taking steps to ensure any carbon emissions you produce are mitigated or negated by other positive environmental actions. Carbon-neutral actions can be a tool for ensuring that your business is energy efficient, too. While there are some generally good practices, you need to design your business’ individual path to carbon neutrality to best optimize your approach.
Your first step to becoming a carbon-neutral company is to calculate your company’s unique carbon footprint. The investigations you performed into energy efficiency can provide you with good data to inform your measurements here. But you should also examine the 3 scopes of emissions. These are:
- Emissions created directly from the production of your goods or services.
- Emissions created through energy consumption. This includes electricity use, heating, and air conditioning.
- Emissions that aren’t created directly from your businesses but are still connected to its actions. For instance, if you manufacture vehicles, the emissions those vehicles will eventually produce.
From here you should adopt the most relevant carbon footprint reduction processes for both your industry and your individual business. For instance, if your travel is part of your operational practices, consider ways you can minimize the energy expended and the carbon produced. This might include assessing whether staff can travel to meetings by train or electric vehicle rather than plane.
Another element you can include in your business sustainability objectives is a carbon offset program. This measure involves investing in sustainability projects to directly offset unavoidable carbon emission production in your business. It can be wise to focus on projects that are relevant to how your business impacts the environment. For instance, if your company uses excessive amounts of energy, you might consider offsetting with local renewable energy projects.
Adopt Relevant Tech
Technology plays an important role in business energy efficiency. Certainly, overuse of any equipment can disrupt efficiency. However, taking a tailored approach to investing in cutting-edge technologies can influence your operations for the better.
Start by examining what technologies are positively impacting energy efficiency in your industry. Some of these could include:
- Solar panels: Various types of organizations — whether based in office buildings, manufacturing facilities, or retail stores — are installing solar panels on their roofs. Having access to this source of renewable energy can boost the overall efficiency of your business.
- Fuel-efficient and electric vehicles: If you’re in the shipping or transportation sectors, some of your energy use is likely to be your vehicles. Investing in fuel-efficient or even electric vehicles can mitigate excessive energy from nonrenewable sources.
- Automation: Automated tools are increasingly accessible across a range of industries, not just manufacturing. The sales sector can utilize automated lead management platforms. Sensors in the Internet of Things (IoT) enable automated inventory tracking in e-commerce and other sectors. Automating repetitive tasks can minimize time and human error. This results in greater energy efficiency during their execution.
It’s also important to regularly assess the tech your company uses. After all, the specific needs and actions of your business will influence how you use your tech. Review whether your tools are optimized for energy efficiency and make adjustments where necessary. But also seriously consider whether your current tech is the most effective available. Investing in newer tech may be more conducive to sustainability and your success.
Conclusion
Implementing energy-efficient practices is a vital part of being an effective eco-leader. Tailor your approach through workplace assessments, mindful carbon-neutral measures, and adopting relevant technology. This helps to ensure that you maximize your positive impact both on the environment and on the specific goals of your company. Remember, though, that eco-leadership is an ongoing challenge. Just as your business evolves, so too will its energy use. Commit to regular assessments, investments, and adaptations.