If you have long dreamed of starting a new business then now could be a great time to do it. However, before you go ahead you should consider whether your new business is going to help the planet or damage it. If you want to help it then here are some great ideas which will let you do so right from the very start.
Think About Green Energy
Will you be using a lot of energy in your business? The answer is that you probably will be, even if you don’t think so yet. Even a relatively small company can burn up a lot of energy with their lights, their computers and any additional equipment they use. This means that using green energy can save you a lot of money as well as reduce harmful emissions. The choice of green energy options is more extensive than you might think these days. As well as solar energy you could also think about using a system which uses the heat which is stored underground or one which uses organic materials such as plants and animal waste. Before you get started on fitting out your premises it is a good idea to check out a few different types of environmentally friendly energy sources to see which one suits your needs best.
Offer Carpool Incentives
How will your workers get to their place of employment? If you have even 10 or so employees who drive a long distance to work each day then that will result in a lot of damage to the environment over the course of a year. Even if all of the workers live fairly close together they are unlikely to come up with a carpooling idea on their own. This means that it is your responsibility to encourage them to do so. You can do this be offer incentives for those workers who are happy to share a vehicle on their daily commute. This could take the form of offering free or subsidised parking spaces to those people who share their car with co-worker. It is going to be cheaper for the employees to commute in this way too, so hopefully they will be happy that you have encouraged them to do it.
Reduce Paper
We have heard about how offices will soon be paperless for a number of years but there is still no sign of it happening anytime soon. Having said that, you can still make some efforts to use as little paper as possible in your business. The simplest way to start is by telling your workers that the policy in your company is to use paper responsibly. You could reinforce this message with some signs about the place telling people to think twice before printing and to re-use old sheets of paper whenever possible. Other ideas involve using a special program to automatically improve your use of paper on all printing jobs and to avoid using a fax. If you can get everyone into the habit of not using paper then you will find that it is easy to work this way.
Check Out the Local Hazards
Before you even start your business an additional step which will help make it greener is that of checking radius maps online like the ones edrnet.com offer to see whether there are any environmental hazards or issues in the area where you plan to work. This is important for anyone wants to review the environmental records of an area they are planning to build premises on.
Think about Green Business Ideas
One issue we haven’t touched on yet is that of the service or product you are going to offer. If you haven’t yet considered this then perhaps it is the perfect opportunity for you go a huge step further in helping save the planet. There are some terrific environmentally friendly new business ideas around these days. For example, there are lots of different ways you could offer a recycling or refurbishing service to help people re-use old goods instead of throwing them out. You could also offer a service to help people have a greener garden; offering organic compost or building ponds for local wildlife or some other helpful green service. There are many different business ideas floating around now which you could use to make your new company one which genuinely makes a difference when it comes to helping the planet
Have you ever considered started up a green business of your own? If so, what other ideas have you come up with to make it work?
Sam Mulder is an expert in environmental issues who has successfully started up a number of different green businesses in the past.