If you’re a woman just starting the small business you’ve been dreaming up for years, now is the time to define your core principles. For better or worse, the values to which you commit early on tend to stick around as your venture grows. Transparency with clients, commitment to data, and other values are immensely important, but eco-friendliness deserves your attention. If you subscribe early on to eco-friendliness, you can do so much good for your world and gain like-minded partners and clients. Here are some ways to make your small business more eco-friendly so that you can build a durable culture of sustainability.
Use Renewable Energy
A small business requires electricity, period. Because you have no way around it, you should investigate ways you can put renewable energy to work rather than energy generated from expiring sources, such as oil and gas. In many states, utility companies now offer businesses the chance to make a portion of their energy green, produced by wind, solar, or another renewable source. If this isn’t an option, consider more directly implementing clean energy. If you can, installing your own solar panels—which are much less costly upfront than they were several years ago—allows you to harness the sun’s energy for your office needs.
Green Your Vehicle Use
You can also find ways to enact greener transportation and shipping. If you travel or operate vehicles or machinery, search for fuel-efficient alternatives to reduce your business’s carbon footprint. If you deliver your own products, taking care of your vehicles, streamlining transportation routes, and pursuing a
greener shipping strategy will help immensely.
Source Local Products
Another way to make your small business more eco-friendly is to source local ingredients, materials, and products. For one, buying locally cuts down on gas burned transporting what you need from a great distance. When you turn away from these nationwide suppliers, you’re more likely to cross paths with smaller operations that have the freedom to prioritize green manufacturing, recyclable packaging, and nontoxic substances.
