Environmental Responsibility Series Part 2: 7 Ways Your Business Can Reduce Its Environmental Impact

We only get one planet earth. That’s why, at PK Tech, we believe in doing our part as a business to reduce environmental impact through small, thoughtful actions on a daily basis. You may think your business is “just” a small business, but imagine if every small business did just one thing that positively impacted the environment? The net sum would be powerful! 

Here are 7 Ways Your Business Can Reduce Its Environmental Impact. We challenge your business to initiate just one of these as a starting point! 

1. Reduce Paper Use. Or better yet, go completely paperless! 

• Recycle your used paper and buy recycled paper. For confidential documents, use a shredding company that recycles (ask for “Secure Recycling”).
• Print both sides of the paper.
• Encourage e-documents and e-signatures whenever possible to reduce printing.
• Scan important documents instead of making paper copies.

2. Reduce Plastic by Providing Filtered Water for Your Employees. 100 employees? Imagine if you just simply reduced use of one plastic water bottle per employee, per week. That’s 5,000 saved plastic water bottles per year! Having a filtered water station for employees to use and fill up their reusable water bottles is a great way to play a part in reducing use of plastics. Bonus idea? Provide each employee with a branded company reusable water bottle as part of onboarding.

3. Install Energy Efficient Light Bulbs. The next time you need to replace lightbulbs, consider energy-efficient replacements. If you own your office building, or can communicate with your landlord, consider installing automatic sensored light switches so that lights go off on a motion-sensor when employees leave the room. You will likely also reap the benefits of a lowered electric bill every month for your efforts!

4. Intentionally Near-Source Key Vendors. All businesses require resources to function, whether it is office supplies or raw materials for manufacturing. Transporting these resources to your door uses energy and creates emissions. Near sourcing—using vendors close to your business—is a growing trend that can reduce your environmental impact and may save you money as well.

5. Ship Goods More Efficiently. If your business delivers products, consider ways to reduce your shipping emissions. Ground shipments, by rail or truck, are generally more fuel-efficient than shipping by air. Fewer, full ground shipments will use less fuel than frequent light loads. If you do not have enough goods for full shipments, consider teaming up with other local businesses (see #4).

6. Travel Less. Employees driving to and from work produce a substantial amount of air pollution. Encourage (or subsidize) employees to use public transportation or organize carpools, and allow employees to work from home whenever possible. Minimize business travel through web conferencing, email and other low-emission communications.

7. Recycle Electronics. We wrote on this here. Long story short: Go through the proper channel and do not toss electronics in the trash. Your old electronics can be recycled, re-used, and if necessary, destroyed in a safe manner.

Related blog: Environmental Responsibility Series Part 1: What To Do With Old Electronics

For questions or tech support services, contact PK Tech.