An increasing amount of companies worldwide voluntarily adopt corporate social responsibility measures or concepts that increase their eco-friendliness and sustainability. But what exactly is it that motivates a company to voluntarily apply self-restraining measures that benefit its customers and, ultimately, society? While some businesses might be heavily influenced by the philanthropic character of their founders or CEOs and for this reason improves their sustainability, the fundamental purpose of any business remains to make profits. Although this might sound contradictory, sustainability offers a wide range of possibilities not only to cut costs but also for internal improvement.
Going Green
While an effort to become more sustainable provides opportunities to save money, businesses should always be wary to also stay competitive with non-green companies. However, this should not be too difficult as many green ideas are effectively cost cutting measures, such as saving paper, switching to energy-saving bulbs, or using energy-efficient hardware. But simply replacing wasteful electronics and urging employees to use less paper doesn’t make your business fully sustainable, it is merely a start. Instead, what a business will need is to develop a strategy to achieve maximum sustainability in a certain time-frame, because it is important to try out what eco-frienldy methods or practice works for a business and which don’t. A crucial step is to analyze a company’s energy consumption and their respective carbon footprint. With this knowledge, companies can work on reducing the negative eco impact they have. One basic investment in that direction is the implementation of green technologies that will even help you to cut costs in terms of utilities, such as Trina Solar solar panels. They will provide green energy and almost free in the long run, thus take a big chunk out of a company’s utilities bill.
A Joint Effort
When going green, it is important for a company that everyone is on board, from the average employee to the CEO. Simply enforcing green measures will certainly not fail, but if something is advertised as a duty, it is not as well received. Instead, the staff should be incentivized and motivated to participate, not only by explaining the implications of sustainability but also by way of further corporate social responsibility measures that will benefit the staff directly. A green company provides employees with an ideal to which they will gladly contribute, which in turn is a basic factor of improving productivity and the workplace environment. Ultimately, a company’s effort to go green, benefits everyone involved.
The bit about it being a joint effort is key. My company got rid of the water bottles from the break room and gave everyone a permanent bottle. It was definitely greener, but everyone hated it because nobody got to offer input into the decision.