If you are starting a new business, it’s a good idea to strive to be as eco-friendly as possible. Often this is not as difficult, time-consuming, or expensive as you might assume.
You will be following in the footsteps of many well-established businesses that are making a concentrated effort to find ways to be more eco-friendly. They understand the value of conserving resources to improve the progress of civilization and planetary-wide survival.
3 Examples of Eco-friendly Businesses
Fortunately, despite the predatory business practices you often see exposed in the news media, there are many large, successful businesses that are quietly doing their part to make this a better world. Here are three examples:
- Hewlett Packard: This computer maker and printer manufacturer has a program in place to recycle toner cartridges.
- A.J. Weller: This company provides makers (pre-manufactured) and users (after-market) of heavy machinery away to increase the life of some components. Wear blocks assist large industrial companies that use heavy equipment from having to replace machinery parts so often.
- IKEA: This Swedish furniture manufacturer sources about 50% of their supply of wood from sustainable forests.
3 Reasons to Develop an Eco-friendly Business Philosophy
Here are 3 reasons why you should strive to create an eco-friendly business:
- You are sustaining survival. Living in a megalopolis, we often feel disconnected from nature. However, this is an illusion. The more our businesses pollute the atmosphere or our water supply or our soil, the more we make our air difficult to breathe, our water clean enough to drink, or our foods nutrient-dense enough to be useful to our bodies.
- You are supporting nature. The less urbanized an area, the more nature we have around us and the better we feel. Walking in a park or by a river has an almost instant calming effect on our minds. Without realizing it, we destress from our habitual anxieties. Nature does more than provide for our biological survival, it also contributes to our mental and emotional well-being.
- Your business will attract more goodwill. You will easily stand out from competitors in your industry since it’s a sad fact of our modern industrialized life that most businesses only focus on increasing the bottom line and have never stopped to consider how their manufacturing or distribution system may be degrading the environment. As a result, your eco-friendly business will brand you as a champion for a better earth, and you will be more likely to win the loyalty of customers who will go out of their way to support your business model.
Corporate Social Responsibility
What is good for people and the planet is also good for business. In an effort to understand the relationship between a corporation and the people it serves, whether it’s a local business or a multinational, here is a checklist of questions to ask yourself to build a business that takes the idea of corporate social responsibility seriously.
- Do your business goals include a way to give back to your community?
- Is your business built to benefit from short-term profits or does it have a long-term view of its own future and that of the environment?
- Do your business practices aim to contribute? In other words, are you sincere in all your business dealings with partners, vendors, and customers?
- Do you strive to improve market conditions by the way your business manufactures, distributes, or advertises products?
The purpose of asking these questions is to steer your business in the right direction. They will help you think about how to run your business in a responsible, ethical, and sustainable way. They will also help you to come up with creative strategies to improve the community it serves, specific strategies to establish high standards, and practical strategies to use resources wisely.
Your Business Legacy
If you carefully think about your business’s founding principles, you will leave the planet in good condition for your progeny and the rest of the human race. By your clear understanding about the value of thinking in terms of sustainability and ecosystems now, when you are just starting your business, you will be able to make well-intentioned and well-informed decisions on how you to grow your business. Consequently, when your business becomes a large, well-established regional, national, or international one, it will have a positive impact on the environment. Building an eco-friendly business will help you do your part in making this a better world.