Green is good for so many reasons as many businesses have discovered. Save the planet, save the rain forest, reduce carbon emissions, etc. We all have now (hopefully) been exposed to the vital importance of doing what we can in business to give back to the ever and always giving planet. If you weren’t already sold on green business just for the basic “it’s the right thing to do” mentality, here are a couple of great money saving and productivity boosting reasons to give it a shot if you haven’t already.
Good PR
Publicize your deeds to your planet and let people know what your environmental initiatives are. This will not only boost the image that people may have of you but will also add a new value to your company that could make your worth heavier in the business world. Just make sure you’re actually doing what you’re saying to avoid green washing, be open and honest with your green efforts!
Boost Morale and Productivity
Employees like hearing that the company they work for cares. It has been proven that companies that are dedicated to reducing their carbon footprint and that give back to their planet have higher productivity rates and less absenteeism. It is not only good for your planet, but for the overall health of your company.
Saving the Dough
Not only is going green good business, but it can reduce cost of operating in the long run. It includes but is not limited to reducing paper use, changing the way you make copies, reducing energy used to run an office and of course reducing the amount of water consumption. A typical office disposes of about 350 pounds of wastepaper per employee per year.
Businesses gone green and saving money
Ghirardelli redesigned their packaging to incorporate reusable plastic totes for chocolate shipments, and has as a result, saved the chocolate company $520,000 annually.
By reducing the weight of ATM receipts from 20 pounds to 15 pounds,BOA saved transportation and storage/handling costs just around $500,000 a year.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
The 16th busiest airport in the United States increased its recycling from 100 tons diverted from landfills in 2001 to 900 tons diverted in 2005, resulting in an annual savings of $178,000.
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI)
GM and Toyotas $2 billion of North American automobile venture decided to incorporate energy conservation, waste reduction, material efficiency and recycling into their company standards. This later helped the company save somewhere around $4.5 million in 1999. They now ask their suppliers to use reusable shipping containers for the shipment of parts, which reduced their consumption of cardboard by 60 percent in 1999, accounting for $2.5 million of the company’s savings that year while also avoiding 11,000 tons of waste.
Oakland Processing and Distribution Center of U.S. Postal Service
This branch of the U.S. Postal Service is saving $500,000 a year by taking steps to remove recyclables from their waste stream and increasing the efficiency of energy and water use.