Even small businesses can start to make a real difference to carbon emissions by taking a few simple steps. And don’t forget many of them will give you the added bonus of reduced costs.
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Driving down emissions - If your business is still using petrol and diesel vehicles, reduce the amount of fuel you use and cut emissions by carrying out regular servicing, ensuring engines are running efficiently and even simply maintaining correct type pressures will make a difference.
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Is your journey really necessary? - Not making the journey at all is the most effective way to cut down on transport emissions. Consider whether a face-to-face meetings can be done online through Zoom, Skype or email. You could also encourage employees to use public transport, cycle to work or work from home where/ when suitable.
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Reduce energy consumption - Look into green energy suppliers, ensure the heating is turned down low overnight and weekends or when premises are closed.
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Cut the paper - Using less paper saves trees and cuts down emissions from vehicles used to deliver it. Use cloth towels instead of paper ones, do as much admin as possible online, and when you do need to print, set to two-sided and use 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
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Carbon offset - Use carbon offsetting to balance out your business’ carbon footprint. A tree-planting scheme works well since trees use up CO2 directly from the air. With The Billion Trees Project, you can show customers that you’re taking positive action against climate change, they’ll be happy to support and you’ll get GDPR compliant data in you return for you to market to later.