Reduce your company’s impact on the environment: simple ways to make a positive difference

Business

Even our simplest everyday actions produce carbon dioxide emissions, as well as other types of pollution, and no one better than ourselves to turn that situation around and start taking initiatives. As companies, we need to think of ourselves as groups that can make the difference together, but how exactly do we make that difference?

Carbon Offsetting

Carbon offsetting is a newer concept that offers companies with less time but more financial resources to make their business greener. The idea is that, by buying carbon credits, which are usually sold by a price per metric ton of carbon dioxide reduced, the companies can compensate their carbon emissions by creating an equivalent carbon dioxide saving somewhere else.

This can be done by planting trees, building windmills or funding the replacement of outdated machinery in less fortunate countries. Amazon, Delta Airlines and Nestlé are among the biggest names that have adopted this practice.

Pollution Prevention

Different from carbon offsetting, the concept of pollution prevention is to actually avoid polluting in the first place instead of compensating it. It’s more accessible for general businesses, since this practice can start with something as simple as saving water and power.

The key to prevent pollution is elaborating change. We can study the way our company currently functions and develop a plan to decrease everything that is unnecessary or too harmful for the environment, like switching to recycled plastic and paper, plant-based ink, more sustainable packaging and cleaning products, or even start to pay our bills digitally to reduce the amount of paper spent per month.

One of the most effective ways of saving power is by replacing conventional light bulbs with LED lights. As much as they are indeed more expensive, they offer more benefits in the long run, since they offer cleaner energy and last about five times more.

It is also a smart choice to look beyond our companies, at our business partners and providers, and choose to work with people who also have environmentally friendly practices.

Changes like these don’t happen overnight, but it will be easier if we make it a team effort, so it’s important to include all of our co-workers while we are promoting a change of culture in the office, this way we can create a collective conscious behavior.