“And we’re making the world a better place” – said every progressive entrepreneur at the end of their pitch. While this often times sounds great, these businesses aren’t necessarily making the world any better. Its no secret that our planet’s overall health is declining at an alarming rate. If you truly want to make the world a better place, here are 3 ways for your business to go green.
Only Buy What You Need
Americans love to spend. Often times we buy more than we need, a lot more. All this extra “stuff” either ends up taking up space or in the trash.
A great way to stay on mother nature’s good side is to only buy the essentials. This will help both the environment and your pocket book.
A good way to go about implementing this strategy is to use a list. When you’re able to get your ideas down on paper, you’ll be able to better visualize them. Use The Lean Start-Up methodology, what’s it going to take to produce the minimum viable product. If everyone conducted business like this, we’d see a huge decline in environmental waste.
Go Paperless
Thanks to the internet, we are able to conduct more of our business practices online. This is a great way to minimize our reliance on paper resources and other wasteful products. Here are some ways your business can go paperless:
- Google Drive: Google Drive allows you and your team to collaborate on various online documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
- Online Billing: With plenty of online invoicing platforms available, there’s no reason why you’ll ever need to send a paper invoice. Not only does this save paper, but it saves you from an accounting and filing nightmare.
- Online Payments: There’s no need to send a paper check when you can easily send an eCheck. ACH transfers make it easy to perform tasks like billing, payroll, recurring payments, and much more.
Be a Role Model
If we want to make a positive impact on the environment, we have to think outside the box. If you’re set on running a socially and environmentally progressive business, make sure you influence others to do the same. Here are two ways you can inspire others to follow in your footsteps:
- Charitable Donations: Be very public with the reasons for your philanthropic efforts and choose relevant organizations.
- Build “Green” Products: If you aren’t building software, make sure you use environmentally friendly materials in your products and or in the production of them.
While it’s always important to focus on maximizing profits, we have to keep every stakeholder in mind. One of the most important, is our environment. Without an Earth to run our businesses, no one will make a dime.
