How Do I Become a Carbon Neutral Business
Prioritising carbon neutrality is something many businesses are now doing; all wanting to play their role in saving the planet and recognising the considerable carbon footprint that businesses, in particular, can leave. Becoming carbon neutral means offsetting any negative impact your business has on the environment as well as simply minimising it.
Here, we advise on how to create some company-wide policies that you and your staff can work towards in order to achieve your carbon neutral goal. We also give you some hints on how to ensure you stay on track.
Choose a Responsible Energy Provider
A good starting point is to source the energy that fuels your business from a renewable provider. Begin by carrying out research into the responsible energy providers that are currently available. Companies like Bulb, Positive Energy, Hub Energy, and Octopus pride themselves on only sourcing energy from renewable sources such as solar power, wind or hydropower.
This is far better than using oil, gas, coal, and nuclear energy sources which are not only non-renewable but also cause the release of dangerous toxins during their production. While this particular objective could only be achieved by those who make the wider company decisions, sharing the progress with the company as a whole can set a great example of your motivation to become carbon neutral.
Make Sure Your Premises are Energy Efficient
Energy Performance Certificates are a great way to assess how energy efficient a property is. They take into account things like central heating, insulation, and the age of any boilers before assigning a score. Try to access the EPC of your current commercial premises and if its score leaves a lot to be desired, you could consider making a change of premises to somewhere more eco-friendly one of your company objectives
As well as the building itself, what’s inside also contributes to the overall carbon footprint of your business premises. For example, old or faulty electrical appliances will use more energy than those in full working order. Similarly, incorrect use of these appliances can have a negative impact, for example, switching on the central heating rather than closing windows, or relying on memory and switching the heating off manually rather than using a timer or thermostat, which would carry out the process automatically and therefore more reliably.
Furthermore, simple things like changing to more efficient light bulbs can make a big difference. LED (light emitting diode) and CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) lightbulbs are the most efficient and are very affordable now that they are so widely used. When it comes to smaller steps like this, taking the time to make the most of windows and doors can also be highly effective in reducing your carbon footprint. Opening and closing them should be the first port of call before reaching for the heating or air-conditioning controls.
Consider Taking a Paperless Approach to Business
A popular objective for lots of companies looking to become more environmentally friendly is switching to a paper-free approach to communication. An estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year to paper production, the equivalent of 20 football fields every minute. Considering that trees intake harmful carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, this has a colossal, negative impact on the ozone layer and it is, therefore, crucial that these figures are reduced as soon as possible. Businesses can help by ensuring that all of their communication is carried out via email rather than sending letters, and making the most of their website to provide information, rather than printing out fliers and brochures.
Swap to a More Sustainable Website Hosting Service
If you want to go a step further when it comes to sustainable operations, you can even look into finding an environmentally friendly website hosting provider. Until now, they have made up a significant proportion of the corporate carbon footprint thanks to energy-hungry servers, but lately, more responsible providers have been offsetting any damage, for example by funding renewable energy efforts.
Switch to More Sustainable Suppliers
Most businesses use suppliers, whether that’s suppliers of office materials or catering services for example. Through careful choice when it comes to who you partner with, you can cut down your carbon footprint by investing in other environmentally responsible businesses.
At Cymphony, we are proud to have achieved carbon neutral status through our own objectives and strategies. As a provider of communication services such as call handling, web chat, and virtual personal assistants, we can be a great option when it comes to outsourcing to other environmentally conscious businesses.
Set up Environmentally Travel Options for Your Staff
Establishing company-wide travel schemes such as car sharing, providing multi-person transport, or offering staff incentives for the use of public transport, can also help you towards your goal of carbon neutrality.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Recycling is a well-known path towards a greener way of life, and still highly effective when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint. Not only should you be providing and encouraging the use of recycling bins for your staff body, but you can also source recycled office supplies easily. If you provide food and drink for your employees, you should also consider how recycled materials could be incorporated, for example in the packaging of the products. Many food and drink providers have dedicated themselves to a greener way of operating, so supporting these suppliers is also important.
So, now that you have some ideas of the kind of objectives you could put in place as part of your new carbon neutral policy, it’s time to start thinking about how you can achieve them.
First of all, establishing a committee with the sole goal of achieving your environmental aims is a good way to ensure that you and your staff don’t lose focus.
It is important to make sure that all members of staff have access to the company’s carbon-neutral policy, goals, and progress so that they understand what they are collectively working towards and how they can help on an individual and departmental basis.
It wouldn’t be fair or realistic to expect your staff to understand and implement your strategies straight off the bat. Investing in training is the best way to engage their interest and motivate them to play their part, as well as helping them to know how to do so.
Breaking down your overall strategies into manageable targets is a good way to make them seem more attainable.
Just as with any targets you set, incentives go hand in hand. Celebrating the success of those who hit their targets is key.
Finally, having a support system in place will help to ensure continued success. This is where team-based strategies are effective as staff will motivate one another when they’re working towards a shared goal. Team events can also help to support your strategies as they unite your employees in a relaxed and enjoyable environment which they then associate with the overall aims of your new policy.
Hopefully, now you have a better idea of how you can go about creating a carbon-neutral strategy for your business, that will lead you to a greener, brighter future. Creating clear and realistic objectives is an important first step, followed by considering the strategies that can be put in place in order to achieve them. The ways in which you can motivate your staff to play their part is also crucial, as is providing them with the support they need to see it through. 46% of UK businesses have made plans to become carbon neutral by 2050, can you achieve it sooner?
