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A sustainable company is one that demonstrates a commitment with concrete actions, not just values. Truly green businesses increasingly position themselves as a tangible example also to their clients and consumers, who seek products and services with a reduced environmental impact.
By adopting a Green Marketing strategy, a company can launch various initiatives to promote products, services and activities with low environmental and social impact, demonstrating to the public its commitment to sustainability values.
The first step is to start with a more sustainable production with low CO2 emissions, reducing energy consumption. At the same time, it is useful to adopt other small daily commitments: waste sorting in the office, promotion of events and initiatives with low environmental and social impact, and the choice of sustainable materials and packaging.
There are many and cross-cutting strategies to implement. Here are 6 tips on how to make your company more green.
1. Small good habits: waste sorting in the office
Place separate waste collection bins in common areas and inside offices (at least for plastic, organic waste, paper and general waste). It is extremely important to recycle as much office waste as possible and encourage people to change some wrong behaviors. Most likely, once the new habits are adopted - and understood! - employees will also follow them at home.
2. Less plastic, more recyclable materials
It is really important to eliminate plastic from your company as soon as possible, as it represents a serious environmental problem. Not by chance, every year on September 12th there is the World Day Without Plastic Bags.
Alternative materials exist, there are many, and they do not require excessive investments. For example, you can encourage your employees to eliminate single-use plastics from offices: remove plastic cups, plates and cutlery in favor of water bottles, glass cups, recyclable lunch containers, fabric bags and fabric bags to bring their lunch from home.
3. Smart use of paper
Make your office paperless by encouraging the use of digital devices - computers, tablets, smartphones, digital whiteboards - to avoid excessive paper use. If it is not possible to avoid, you can choose to buy recycled ecological paper or reuse old sheets written on only one side.
4. LED lighting and reducing waste to save the environment (and the bill!)
Not only the excessive use of plastic and paper, but also energy consumption and CO2 emissions harm the environment and must be reduced as much as possible.
What can you do in your company?
To reduce energy consumption, you can use LED lights, which require less energy and last much longer than halogen bulbs. You can reduce printer use and put computers in standby during breaks: small measures that will have positive long-term effects, both in reducing consumption and on cost savings on the bill.
5. Investments and incentives to reduce CO2 emissions
Unlike other measures that can be implemented with low expenses or simply by changing habits, reducing CO2 emissions may require some investment. Options are many. You could invest in installing thermal insulation for the company building, which limits heat loss and excessive use of air conditioning, and encourage Smart Working and carsharing to reduce air pollution.
6. Plastic-free packaging and promotional items: long life to natural materials!
Good packaging can increase the perceived value of the product and communicate your brand’s values. Therefore, the choice of packaging materials is very important. Among the various types of ecological packaging to choose from, fabric can be a perfect substitute for traditional plastic packaging. Not by chance, many companies in various sectors - working in areas you might not expect - use fabric packaging and fabric bags.
Hemp, jute, linen, bamboo, cotton: choosing a bag made from these materials, possibly also with Oeko-Tex certification, instead of plastic packaging, can make a significant difference if your target customers are attentive to sustainability, especially in sectors such as cosmetics, luxury, food, and bio. Moreover, these materials are all as durable and versatile as plastic. For trade fairs, meetings or corporate events, you can also choose to use plastic-free promotional items that communicate your commitment to sustainability.
For further reading: Which plastic-free promotional items to choose for your corporate event
6+1. Final tip: to make your company sustainable you need to involve everyone!
Reducing your company’s environmental impact is not possible without the active involvement and participation of all employees, your partners, and even your customers: it is not enough to make production operations sustainable for your company to be more green, but it is important to strongly encourage the adoption of more ethical and environmentally respectful lifestyles, not only as a company but also as individuals, and to bring these habits beyond the workplace into everyday life.
