You can make your business life carbon-neutral by scrapping the real office, and renting a virtual address. The new PO Box.
There’s no way around it—businesses have a responsibility when it comes to climate change and the environment. Elements of successful business operations like commuting, using fossil fuels to manufacture products, using significant energy, and making political contributions all impact the environment, and usually not for the better. Here’s the 411 on how business operations affect CO2.
The impact of the daily commute
Even if your workers use public transit, commuting presents a significant fossil fuel usage issue, one that business leaders must consider. Why are companies that could transition to a virtual operations model still clinging to outdated in-person work in the digital age?
Some business owners might not know about the countless tools available, like these, to streamline, facilitate, and secure virtual work. For example, virtual business address technology empowers leaders to maintain their professional image and manage their correspondence without paying a monthly lease or enforcing a daily commute.
While not every sector can embrace virtual work, in-person working is becoming obsolete for various business roles like marketing, mail management, and accounting. By transitioning to remote-first business practices, companies can reduce their carbon footprint by eliminating some employees’ needs to travel to and from the office.
Fossil-fueled manufacturing
Fossil fuel production is categorically at odds with efforts to reduce global temperatures, a critical aim of the environmentalist movement. Unfortunately, numerous industries and companies still rely on 100% fossil-fueled manufacturing to build and assemble their products.
The world’s fossil fuel supply isn’t limitless, and the primary way businesses can ensure longevity is a comfortable reliance upon green energy sources like wind, solar, and hydroelectric power.
Creating and implementing a move away from fossil fuel manufacturing is one of the most significant ways businesses can divest from planet-destroying commerce.
Significant energy use
Businesses require significant energy to complete everyday operations. Whether your company operates with people sitting at computers or workers operating heavy machinery, enterprises use a massive amount of energy to offer products and services to consumers.
To become a greener business and reduce your impact on global energy stores, devise and implement an energy use reduction policy for your company. Whether you hire a green energy consultant or crowdsource ideas from employees, any reduction in energy use at your workplace will make a positive impact.
For instance, turning off lights and computers in facilities when they’re not in use, installing low-flow toilets and sinks in facilities, and making efforts to reduce workplace garbage can all lead to an overall decrease in a company’s energy use.
Political contributions
Businesses that make political contributions have significant power to change the political outlook for climate change reduction efforts. Consumers are prioritizing companies who share their values in our current economy, including committing to building a greener earth.
The next time you write a check for a local, state, or federal government candidate, research their position on climate change. Donating to candidates that prioritize environmental progress will help you maintain an eco-friendly customer base and ensure that your representative will legislate in the planet’s best interest.
Wrap up
Businesses affect the environment in nearly every element of their operations. Even so, reducing employees’ commuting needs, divesting from fossil fuels, reducing overall energy consumption, and making more eco-conscious political contributions can lead to a reduced carbon footprint for a green-minded enterprise.
