If you own a business, you’re probably obsessed with expanding it and increasing sales. Many business owners do not consider the environment. However, more and more consumers today want to support businesses that are concerned about their carbon footprint. In fact, according to a Nielson online survey, 81% of global respondents strongly believe that businesses should help reduce their carbon footprint.
Furthermore, lowering your carbon footprint will not only excite your customers but also helps you in saving thousands of dollars. Fuller pockets, happier customers, and a better environment are all win-win situations. And, if you don’t know how to reduce carbon emissions or the ways to make environment healthy, then don’t worry; there are a number of simple ways to help the environment.
Here’s How to Reduce Your Company’s Carbon Footprint.
But before that, let’s understand some basics.
What does a company’s carbon footprint mean?
The carbon footprint of a business is an estimate of the total number of GHGs (greenhouse gases) produced by its day-to-day operations, which include running the business and creating its products.
Greenhouse gases warm the planet by absorbing heat and locking it in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is the most common greenhouse gas emitted by businesses when fossil fuels are burned for energy.
Buying carbon offsets is one of the best ways not only for the company’s direct emissions but also for indirect ones. These are emissions from sources other than the company but on which the company and its operations have a direct impact. For example, emissions from other businesses in the company’s supply chain and supporting businesses.
The lower your company’s carbon footprint, the more sustainable it is overall.
How to determine your company’s carbon footprint?
Measuring your carbon footprint is one of the first steps toward becoming carbon net-zero, which is a critical component of any sustainability strategy.
Identifying your carbon hotspots will also assist you in identifying opportunities to drive change and improve your business practices, as you will be able to use key findings to inform your future strategy.
The work of a carbon footprint calculator is to collect data from various sources such as travel, logistics, and operations to provide a more accurate picture of the amount of GHG your company emits.
Collect the following information for the reporting year:
- Fuel consumption – all fuel consumed by your company in its locations and owned vehicles. This data can be found in bills, fuel card data, or metre readings.
- Energy consumption – the volume of power used on your site. Find this information by using metre readings and utility bills.
- Air conditioning unit recharges – many air conditioning units contain a type of fluorinated greenhouse gas with a high carbon footprint. Consult your air conditioning contractor for this information.
Once you have the above information, you can use a free carbon footprint calculator for business (like the one from Climate Carbon) to calculate your carbon emissions.
What is a company’s average carbon footprint?
Carbon emissions differ from one company to the next. A small office, for example, may not use as much energy as a large factory, but it may make up for it in other ways, such as employee travel emissions. As a result, the composition of each company’s carbon footprint can vary greatly, making it difficult to determine the average business carbon footprint.
Business advantages of carbon footprint reduction
When it comes to reducing a company’s carbon footprint, most people think only of technological solutions. Still, the reality is that small changes can help a company in a variety of ways. Businesses large and small must be aware of the potential benefits to reduce their carbon footprint as we approach an era of business in which environmental factors will play an increasingly important role.
Monitoring and reducing your company’s carbon footprint will benefit more than just the environment. It will also bring a slew of business advantages, including:
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It is inexpensive.
You will be able to identify key areas of high energy usage and other inefficiencies within your business by quantifying your CO2 emissions. Reduced greenhouse gas emissions from your business go hand in hand with increased efficiency and lower energy costs – it’s a win-win situation!
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Reduce waste and save money
Waste, whether in the form of a discarded product or squandered energy, is bad for business. When it comes to reducing your carbon footprint, it’s all about minimizing your environmental impact and being resource-efficient. Cutting costs by reducing material or energy consumption is one way for businesses to save money while also protecting the environment.
Businesses that focus on waste reduction will have an advantage over their competitors and will be better able to weather future financial storms.
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Improved environments at work
One of the most common ways for businesses to reduce their carbon footprint is to design offices that better reflect nature. Being mindful of the expectations of a changing workforce is critical for businesses looking to march forward into 21st-century success, and investing in office environments that complement carbon footprint is key to this change.
Future workers will prefer to work for companies that take concrete steps to reduce carbon footprint in their environmental impact and take carbon footprint reduction seriously. Businesses that demonstrate their green credentials to their employees can thrive.
How to lower your company’s carbon footprint
Once you’ve identified carbon emission hotspots in your organization, you’ll have a better idea of how to reduce your environmental impact.
Here are just a few of the options available to businesses seeking to operate in a more environmentally friendly manner.
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Recycling
Recycling is one of the first areas that many businesses consider when it comes to reducing the environmental impact of their operations. We can reduce the number of raw materials required to create products from scratch when we recycle.
We can install a custom-built extraction system. Paper scraps are sucked into the system and transported to the shredder, compacted into bales before being collected and recycled.
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Go digital
Many of us worked remotely during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns. This change not only gave workers an extra hour back in their day but also significantly reduced carbon emissions across the country.
According to DeCarbon8 research, during the lockdown, overall carbon emissions from commuting fell by 30 percent to 38 percent of what they were before lockdown. This demonstrates that working remotely and limiting staff commute times and travel costs could be an excellent strategy for lowering your company’s carbon footprint.
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Invest in Green Energy
Switching to green energy suppliers is another excellent way to make your business operations more environmentally friendly. Most energy providers include a green energy tariff as standard, so make sure to check with your current provider to see if this is an option for an even easier switch.
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Carbon Offsetting
Checking the results of the carbon offsets calculator is a great technique for balancing your business’s carbon emissions if you want to achieve carbon-neutral status. This can include investing in tree planting, preserving forests, and funding renewable energy sources.
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Go paperless.
With the development of technology, everyone is using a digital platform. Through this, the entire world can cut down the use of paper by up to 50% of business waste. Hence, it’s important for all of us to take the initiative to act immediately to reduce the amount of paper you use at your company. There is no longer a need to keep paper records with the technology and tools available today. The replacing of emails and messages with letters is the best example. Additionally, there are lots of tools and cloud-based platforms by which you can save your documents and use them at any time and from any location.
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Recycle your electronic waste.
With so many new gadgets being released on a regular basis, consumers have a tendency to simply toss their old phones, tablets, computers, printers, and other “outdated” electronics in the trash or recycling. However, if you or your company does so, you are not being environmentally conscious. Instead, consider whether you really need the latest and greatest — or whether what you already have will suffice for a while longer. If you still have e-waste (electronic waste) to get rid of, make sure you recycle it properly.
According to Statista (paywall), approximately 60 million metric tonnes of e-waste will be produced globally in 2025. Furthermore, small electronic equipment accounts for the majority of e-waste generated globally.
CONCLUSION
This article discusses some of the best ways to reduce your company’s carbon footprint, so you can rest assured that your company is doing everything it can to help the environment.
If you find it difficult to reduce your carbon emissions, consult Climate Carbon. It’s the only platform that has every solution to make the world carbon-neutral.
