Protect the Environment and Promote Your Business
by Danny Brown on March 25th, 2008
Take a look at any of the major news stories or political agendas, and you’ll probably find that the environment is at the top of everyone’s priority list. From ozone layer depletion to the effect of harmful emissions, it’s an important topic that’s at the top of many agendas. As a business owner, this also includes you, as you’re directly responsible for how you affect both the local environment around you, as well as in general.
Local governments as well as federal government laws are looking to come down hard on any businesses that fall foul of the new and proposed laws. However, far from this being a financial burden on your business, you can actually benefit and market your business as a green and environmentally friendly company. This will keep you on the right side of the law, as well as potentially increase your sales as customers look for greener options.
Go Green and Get Results
So how can this work for you? Aren’t there some businesses that are more suited to this approach than others? Not necessarily – even the smallest change can make all the difference. Yet you also need to have a plan in place that will make your business sustainable as well as environmentally sound. Then you need to market your business properly and to the right audience.
For example, say you’re a wholesaler that provides cardboard boxes of all sizes and shapes to various industries, as well as consumers. If you’re not already doing so, change your manufacturing techniques to use only recycled paper that can then be converted into cardboard. If your electricity bill is high due to the amount of power needed to run the machinery that you need to compress the cardboard, consider switching to either solar power or wind power.
This needn’t be as expensive as you might think, either. Once you pay out the initial costs of installing solar panels or wind turbine generators on your site, you have no more outlay – all your energy is provided by natural power. Solar panels are particularly useful, as they will store unused energy to be used later, which means that contrary to what their name suggests, solar panels will allow you to work throughout the night.
Effective Marketing
There are many ways that your business can change over to greener options and market itself at the same time. Use either your business cards, website or emails to promote as well as more traditional marketing techniques.
For instance, say you have a large fleet for transportation needs. Make sure you change over to unleaded or green fuel, and then advertise that on all your lorries or trucks with a logo “Powered by green technology” or similar. Release a press release that tells how you’re pioneering a green working environment both in your business and with your partners – the resulting news feeds could make a big difference to your business. Just make sure that you’re making all these changes for the right reasons, and not just to make a quick profit – people will soon figure that approach out.
