Many companies around the world are taking action to reduce their emissions and tackle climate change. Internally, businesses are seeking to get a better understanding of the risks and opportunities of a changing climate. Externally, they are engaging customers, suppliers, and key stakeholders, as well as publicly reporting emissions and energy-usage data and management strategies.
If you are looking to make your business more eco-friendly and take action on climate change, there are a few key steps you can take. The tips below will help you cut operating expenses and attract more environmentally-conscious employees, and, most importantly, create a strong sustainability culture.
Develop Climate Action Plans
The first essential step for many companies is to create climate action plans across the organisation and for individual business units. In general, the elements of a climate action plan depend on your type of business and the goals it seeks to achieve. However, there are a few common decisions that every company needs to make. For example, you will need to determine how targets fit within other environmental management activities. Also, you should consider to what extent the plan will feature market mechanisms, such as internal carbon pricing and external carbon offsets. Think about how you are going to use research and development resources to drive innovation.
Build A Culture Of Awareness
It is important to make sustainability part of your culture so that it can become the norm both in and out of the office. To achieve this, you may need to look for ways to expand your knowledge in climate change risk, adaptation measures, and low carbon innovation. Participating in an online short course from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership can help you navigate the business risks of climate change. This learning will unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation, allowing you to build a culture of awareness in your organisation. Through this type of course will also gain insights into real-world examples of successful, low-carbon initiatives and improve your company’s awareness of key environmental issues.
Reconsider Your Waste
Consider how you can reduce the amount of waste that is generated by your company on a daily basis. For example, you can eliminate paper handouts and avoid using too many takeaway containers. Encourage your employees not to print emails and draft documents by switching to doing everything electronically instead. It may also be beneficial to consider introducing a company-wide ban on single-use water bottles. You can add filtration to your water system, which will make it easier for employees to get fresh water. Waste reduction will also reduce the costs associated with both purchasing and waste disposal.
Set Goals And Targets
An increasing number of companies have begun to adopt climate-related targets and goals. The type of targets your company chooses will depend on your products and production methods, business models, and policy environment. While some targets may focus on reducing greenhouse gases, others may be related to energy use. In addition, goals and targets may apply to supply chain purchases or the use of company products. You may find that addressing climate change makes good business sense, as greenhouse gas targets might help you save money and improve operational efficiency.
Work With Sustainable Suppliers
Each company also has a responsibility when it comes to the partners and suppliers it chooses to work with. Therefore, you should make an effort to choose sustainable suppliers with good environmental practices. You may even decide to reward a supplier who has exceeded your expectations by providing a more sustainable product or service. As a result, working together on sustainability can position the business for better marketing to customers and clients. To measure continual improvement you can set supplier targets and key performance indicators.
Improve Energy Efficiency
Efficiency strategies may refer to internal operations, products and services, and supply chains. Most of the time, when companies calculate their carbon footprint, they realise that their energy consumption accounts for the great majority of their directly measurable emissions impact. As a result, energy efficiency may become a sustainability imperative for your business. There are many daily actions that you can take to make a difference, such as switching off the lights in the office in the evening or slightly reducing the use of heating or air conditioning when it’s not needed.
Reduce Your Travel
Travel, particularly air travel, can be detrimental for the environment. It might be beneficial to look for ways to optimise employees’ transportation. For example, you may encourage them to use public transportation or travel with other colleagues living nearby. Reducing the number of cars on the road can have a significant effect on reducing pollution and carbon emissions. In some cases, you may even be able to conduct business virtually with the help of video conferencing technology; this will make it easier to connect with co-workers around the globe and reduce your impact on climate change.
Choose Greener Equipment
You should also focus on choosing more environmentally-friendly infrastructure and equipment. As a result, it may be possible to set up a fleet of hybrid, or even electric vehicles according to the latest environmental standards. When the time comes to buy new printers, laptops, screens, bulbs, or other office equipment, it will be important to choose the most sustainable and efficient brands available. Moreover, items made from sustainable materials have a much longer lifecycle, which means they won’t wind up in a landfill within a few years. Although it may seem like a more expensive choice at first, you will be able to save money in the long run.
Encourage Remote Working
Promoting environmentally-friendly ways of working, such as remote working, has many ecological advantages. If your employees work from home, they won’t have to commute every day, which will result in fewer emissions. Moreover, digitising documents for remote workers can lead to less paper usage, drastically reducing the huge amount of paper used each year.
Put Sustainability At The Heart Of Your Business
Sustainability shouldn’t be a simple check-box exercise or opportunity to make your business more impressive. It is crucial to introduce a paradigm shift which sees your organisation consider environmental implications in every business decision. All of these strategies provide an effective framework to achieve this. Focus on staying consistent and putting sustainability at the forefront of your business agenda so that you can enrich the global community and the earth itself. This will give you and your employees something to aim for, increasing the likelihood of achieving your business goals.
Analyse And Measure Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Another important step to consider is analysing and measuring greenhouse gas emissions so that you can identify the best solutions for your company. There are many private agencies that are carbon neutral certified, which can help you measure your impact. Once greenhouse gas emissions are known, take your time to analyse them in detail in order to determine which of the organisation’s activities are the highest pollutants. Following the analysis, you can begin to consider different strategies to reduce emissions and tackle climate change.
Conclusion
There is plenty that can be done to help your business take action on climate change. You should be setting goals and analysing your current measurements to find out what you need to work on. It will be in your best interest to change specific company policies to transform the business to be more sustainable. Follow the tips we outlined and your business will be on the right track.
