Small business is challenging. Sustainability is even more challenging. Luckily, these two things aren’t mutually exclusive — you can make your small business more sustainable while also ensuring it continues to thrive. These days, it’s not enough to have a business — all companies need to be sustainable if they want to continue operating. This blog post will talk about the many ways you can make your small business more sustainable, step by step. Keep reading to discover more about the benefits of doing so, and then get started right away!
Set goals
Goal-setting is an integral part of any business, but it’s essential for sustainable companies. Setting goals will give you a clear picture of what you want to achieve and will help you measure your progress. If you’re going to be more sustainable, start out by setting goals for how you want your business to look 5, 10, and 20 years from now. Every day can be spent working towards something specific instead of shooting in the dark.
Reduce energy usage
One of the easiest ways to make your small business more sustainable is to reduce your company’s energy usage. Things like LED lights, motion sensors, and solar panels are a great way to do so. As you can probably imagine, reducing your company’s energy usage can save money on utilities — and it can also save the environment by reducing pollution from fossil fuels. Not only that but changing out traditional light bulbs for LEDs could get you a tax deduction!
Use sustainable packaging
A good step in making your business more sustainable is to use sustainable packaging. You can purchase items for your packaging from environmentally-friendly companies and choose items such as white boxes for shipping with low environmental impacts, such as recycled paper, recyclable plastic, or soy-based ink.
Be creative with what you use on a daily basis when it comes to packing to help you reduce waste and reduce your carbon footprint too.
Work with more local suppliers.
When you work with more local suppliers, you make your business more sustainable. When you do so, your business is less likely to experience disruptions in the supply chain caused by large-scale natural disasters or global unrest. You’re also more likely to have an easier time finding specialized supplies that can be difficult to find when shopping overseas. Plus, you can reduce the number of carbon emissions by shipping a shorter distance and cut down on costs by working with closer to home suppliers.
Reduce waste
One of the easiest ways to make your business more sustainable is to reduce your waste. This might be an obvious one, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. Creating less waste can lead to lower costs and less work for you — not to mention a cleaner planet! In other words, reducing your waste will help you save money, protect the environment, and make your life easier. Easy ways to reduce your waste are using reusable water bottles instead of buying bottled water, recycling paper and plastic instead of throwing them in the trash, and composting food scraps.