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Five top tips for going green on the cheap

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15th Jul 2009
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Steve Adams of Protus offers tips for companies who want to reduce their carbon footprint on a budget.

With the focus today on cost cutting, many small businesses are sidelining environmental initiatives in favour of ‘cheap’ alternatives. However, many clients are still looking for service providers with demonstrable green credentials and who are proactively reducing their carbon footprint, which means that being green can actually help when it comes to securing new business.

Traditional thinking is that ‘green’ does not mean ‘lean’, but there are a number of easy-to-implement process and policy changes that will immediately help you to eliminate waste, reduce your carbon footprint and cut costs at the same time.

Reduce energy waste

It’s the little things that count, and what may seem like minor wastage can actually add up to a big bill for the company in the end. For example, a single PC left on 24 hours a day can cost up to £50 (at 6p pkw) a year, yet the average PC is in use for just eight hours a day. This results in 2,044,000 watts of wasted electricity, which costs £3,212 a year (figures based on an office with 30 PCs). There are a number of things you can do in the office to reduce the level of waste and save yourself a bit of cash in the process:

  • When purchasing new equipment consider a low energy, reduced footprint model made from recycled and/or recyclable components
  • Turn heating down and close windows. By turning heating down by just one degree, and keeping windows closed in air conditioned rooms, you can immediately save hundreds of pounds in electricity bills (up to 8%), preserve utilities and reduce carbon footprint
  • Fix all dripping taps. A constantly dripping tap can waste 500,000 litres of water a year – costing business approximately £400
  • Turn off unneeded lights and fans
  • Turn off office equipment at night
  • Replace traditional light bulbs with low energy bulbs
  • Set power saving options on PCs and office equipment
  • Keep the fridge door closed, and don’t over-fill the kettle

Swap office equipment for online or outsourced business services

Most business processes are now PC-based so there’s little need for businesses to maintain consumables or energy-hungry fax machines, colour printers and binding machines.

  • Replace fax machines with subscription or pay-per-use online fax services (SaaS), which send faxes as PDFs from PC to fax or fax to PC
  • Save electricity and time by using local business centres to print and bind documents. Look for centres with collection and drop-off services to save on petrol
  • Most banks offer paperless online banking, and many suppliers offer discounts for web-based accounts. Not only will you get better rates, you’ll save paper, as well as the cost and time needed to request cheques and administer postage

Replace mail shots with emailed PDFs and viral marketing campaigns

This will immediately eliminate production, paper, ink, consumables and postage and distribution costs, whilst enabling the delivery of better targeted campaigns with increased response rates.

Conduct meetings online

Where possible, replace face-to-face meetings with calls and video conferences using Skype, supported by webinar technology to host presentations. This will cut travel and subsistence costs, eliminate carbon footprint and better utilise employee time. Where Skype is used, the meeting will become cost-free.

Introduce green incentives to your daily routine

  • Introduce car share and walk-to-work incentives. If possible, offer season ticket loans to encourage the use of public transport
  • Centralise purchasing to enable bulk buying of recycled stationary, paper and toilet rolls
  • Consider shopping at supermarkets. These are competitive and often have promotions, while some offer extra reward points on green and Fair Trade items
  • Forego paper cups for reusable ceramic mugs

Becoming more environmentally friendly doesn’t have to cost your business much and most importantly, won’t cost us the earth.

Steve Adams is vice president of marketing for Protus, a provider of software as a service (SaaS) communication tools for SMEs, including the award-winning MyFax, the fastest growing Internet fax service. Email him or visit www.protus.com

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