Featured guest post by James Lewis –
Stay ahead of the curve in the new year by being environmentally conscious, building a greener business, and producing lasting benefits for your business and employees.
The motivation to act is integral to getting started and comes in a variety of forms, broadly: environmental, cultural and business. To provide inspiration, we have listed three reasons to take action below.
- Business and the environment are inextricably linked
The belief that businesses are part of the solution to broader environmental issues is gathering momentum. Occasionally, in everyday endeavors, we are surrounded by the evidence of climate change but are not conscious of the impact our business activities have. By shifting to a new paradigm where business is the environment, we take responsibility for business decisions that affect the environment. - Your customers are asking for it
Your customers and clients, whether they are businesses or individuals, want to know more about you. Position yourself as an industry leader by making a commitment to environmental action. Putting it on your website and providing accountability to clients and staff is a key way to gain respect and trust. Doing a carbon footprint analysis will quickly reveal which of your activities produce the most greenhouse gas emissions. Then, armed with that knowledge, you can adopt strategies that will have the greatest benefit. - Others are doing it
We asked some successful businesses to share their experiences and tell us why they started to manage their carbon. A couple of responses are recorded below:
“Our sustainability efforts were driven by the personal interests of an internal champion inside the company. The enthusiasm was contagious and now the whole company is on board, considering our overall carbon impact. Being a digital agency, we picked electricity as a place to start and purchased GoldPower renewable energy for our office. It’s a minimal cost and keeps us motivated, reaching for the next sustainability measure, one increment at a time.” – Peter Venero, Creatiq Digital Agency.
“We wholeheartedly believe climate change is the biggest environmental and humanitarian challenge facing our planet, so we are committed to strong action and advocacy to fight it. For us, our success in contributing to the common good is just as important as making a buck. We’re not perfect, but we strive to continually improve and live out our values every day.” – Mark Kindness, The Body Shop Australia.
Author bio
James Lewis is the Marketing & Sales Director at Climate Friendly, a profit-for-purpose company that helps businesses develop their own sustainability program. His background combines account management and business development with research and consultancy experience across a range of sustainability-related issues.
Image credit: Keoni Cabral, courtesy flickr
