Sustainability has become an important part of modern society as we look to minimise our environmental impact, save money, and support local economies. Whether you’re running your own business or working for someone else, you have a stake in making sure that your industry or market continues to grow rather than stagnate or decline. Sometimes it is easy to compromise greener methods of running your business to save money, here are five tips on how to make your business sustainable.

1) Use recycled materials

Recycling is not only good for the environment, but also for your business’ budget.

Here are five tips to help you get started:

• Buy recycled paper for stationary, your printer and photocopier. Recycled paper is much better quality these days in terms of presentation, and it is more affordable!
• Supply your employees with recycled pencils or pens for writing with.
• If you are ever thinking of giving your employees a gift for Christmas, birthdays or performance, or your customers a promotional gift, consider giving them reusable cups for coffee or tote bags made with recycled materials. Not only are you giving a nice and long-lasting gift, but you are also supporting staff and customers to use less paper coffee cups and plastic bags, in and out of the workplace.
• Stock your toilets and cleaning cupboards with recycled toilet paper and paper towels or reusable cleaning cloths.
• Keep cardboard boxes and mailing materials from deliveries to repurpose for sending mail and products or for storage. There are amazing ways to make recycled mail materials look new again to impress your customers without costing more money.

By using less plastic, paper products, and recycled materials and following these guidelines, you'll be able to make your business sustainable and save money.

2) Use energy-efficient lighting

Energy-efficient lighting cuts down on both energy and electricity costs, which saves your business money. LED lights are more environmentally friendly because they use less plastic in their construction and are recyclable. If your business runs out of an office or warehouse, replace your existing lights with LEDs. If your team is working remotely, encourage staff to use LED lights at home. If possible, your business can subsidise your employees’ purchases of LED lights to ensure your staff have the means to switch their light sources and they can also live by your business’ mission statement and values and follow your lead.

3) Implement a water conservation plan

It's important to conserve water in your business. Not only does saving water benefit the environment, but it also saves money. Reducing water saves energy, which is needed to filter, heat and pump water to your office or home. Using less water keeps more in our ecosystems, rivers and lakes.

Here are the easiest ways to conserve water:

• Staff awareness – introduce water-saving methods, create posters (on recycled paper) near sinks to set reminders and emphasise the importance and benefits to the environment and to employees' personal lives and budget.
• In the toilets and showers – update shower heads with more modern and efficient shower heads. If your home or office has older toilets, you can use a device like a ‘Save-a-Flush’ bag or you can make something similar yourself, to save between 1-3 litres of water per flush, you can also convert cisterns to dual flush. Double check all taps, toilets, showers and pipes for leaking and get them repaired.
• In the staff kitchen or canteen – Use a dishwasher instead of washing plates and silverware in the sink, make sure the dishwasher is always full before starting a wash cycle. If you are washing dishes in the sink, fill a large bowl or container with water and soap to wash the dishes to avoid unnecessary water running from the faucet. Provide staff with a water cooler so staff don’t need to run the tap for drinking water. Another option is to keep refillable jugs of water in the fridge or by the sink to limit tap use.

4) Invest in renewable energy

Invest in a renewable energy source like solar panels, which will help your business operate more efficiently and reduce the number of harmful emissions being pumped into the air. If you are using paper products or recycled materials, invest in the recycling process.

If your business delivers products or services, consider switching your business vehicles to electric vehicles. There are many resources to acquire EVs in a more financially feasible way and public charging options are increasingly available, so your business doesn’t have to install charge points and you don’t have to rely on your staff installing a charge point at their homes. Paua offers a service to connect you with over 20,000 charge points across the UK, the app can show you your nearest EV charge point and its type, it allows drivers to start a charge session, and it also aggregates all your drivers' charging sessions into one invoice, so your business doesn’t have to spend hours or days hunting for receipts to reimburse your employees.

If you rely on a delivery service, consider using a company like Hived which exclusively uses electric vehicles to deliver packages. If your business offers delivery, optimise your drivers' routes so they can deliver more packages with less trips on the roads.

Review your suppliers and partners, check to see if they prioritise renewable energy and electric vehicle delivery. If they don't, this can be a discussion to help encourage your suppliers to take some steps to become greener or to consider switching services to lower carbon-emitting companies.

5) Educate your employees about sustainability

It's easy to feel like you're the only one trying to save the world, you're not! There are so many small ways that each person in your company can do to make a difference, each small step adds up! Make a point of having educational sessions with your employees on World Earth Day or organise a monthly meeting to monitor sustainability practices, share the benefits of each strategy, and share the metrics of the carbon emissions of your company and hopefully a downward trend will be a motivating incentive! You can set goals and reward your staff when the business collectively meets sustainability targets to create a social unity that supports your business’ values.

There are a variety of strategies to help make your business greener. It can seem overwhelming or expensive at first but in the long term, practicing the methods shared will reduce your company’s emissions and budget. The UK government can provide funding to support your business to become greener. You can check out the government’s requirements for a grant here. Small steps are better than no steps towards a greener future.

‍