Living in the modern world is harder than ever, isn’t it? It feels like every way we turn, we are faced with more problems than we know how to solve. From pandemic to global warming, it’s easy to feel powerless and unable to know what to do about it. In the face of all this, you also want to pursue your own personal goals, finding happiness and success in both your personal and professional lives. These concerns can seem irreconcilable - and yet there are steps you can take to help save the world whilst you follow your dreams. Though you might be one person, your business may be much larger, and the changes you make could have a great impact. Even if you’re a one-woman band forging your own path, every individual choice that people make adds up to collective action that could make a massive difference to the world we live in. Don’t let indecision and fear stop you - here are some simple considerations for how to make your business as environmentally friendly as possible.
Home Working
Many people have had to resort to home working over the last few months due to the spread of the pandemic. Whilst it does present its own problems, one result of this is that many companies and individuals have found it much more efficient than they suspected. Some businesses are currently questioning whether they should ever move back into offices, or simply keep this option open for their employees moving forward. The benefits of home working are more than just environmental, as you may save on office rent and travel costs. Alongside this, you are lowering the emissions created from powering an office space alongside your homes, and you may be greatly reducing fossil fuel output as you are no longer driving to work every day. This is a simple and cost-effective solution that can be implemented to improve the eco-friendliness of your business.
Marketing
Marketing your business can be one of the most wasteful processes you have to undertake. Producing marketing materials such as leaflets, business cards, and other physical objects, all use energy and materials to create what are essentially single-use, disposable items. How can you combat this? The simplest way is to invest instead in online marketing as much as possible. Targeted ads on social media, using blogging to drum up website clicks and engagement, having a strong presence on social media; all these methods can produce maximum results with minimal impact upon the environment. If you do need to produce any physical items alongside this, make sure you are using recycled or recyclable items for promoting your business. Actions like these can make a massive difference to the carbon footprint of your company. By implementing these changes, you can feel good about yourself, and also know that you are improving your brand’s reputation amongst consumers as an eco-friendly business.
Your Products
This might be the hardest action of all, but it is potentially the most impactful when it comes to truly making a difference to the world. It might be time to examine the products or services your business offers, and to what extent these are environmentally viable moving forwards. If, for example, you run a business selling cheap plastic bathroom items, then no amount of home working or online marketing is going to put even the smallest dent in your environmental impact. Now, it’s important not to panic, but also not to bury your head in the sand and try to ignore the truth. Over the pandemic, we have seen many companies pivot towards making masks and PPE, and even making a profit selling these items to other companies and individuals. It is never too late to change. The eco-friendly market is booming, and shifting your business’s focus into this area may prove lucrative as well as ethical. Consumers are hungry for environmentally friendly options. If you sell the plastic bathroom items mentioned above, why not start offering bamboo toothbrushes? Changing your business does not have to happen overnight. By gradually replacing products and services with eco-friendly options, you can make a difference without putting yourself at risk. In addition to offering eco-friendly alternatives to plastic products, you can change your packaging. Consider using sustainable packaging materials such as recycled cardboard or biodegradable materials. If you sell products that are typically packaged in plastic, like candles, you could offer customized candle boxes from Arka made from sustainable materials instead. These small changes can greatly impact the environment and attract customers who prioritize sustainability.
Conclusion
We are all responsible for the world around us. The future might seem scary, but it is also full of possibilities. If we all take our own individual actions, in our personal and professional lives, we can make the world a much brighter, safer place. By shifting your business to a more environmentally friendly model, you will be improving your reputation, your impact, and potentially even your profits.
