Green Initiatives For Small Businesses and Mum-preneurs

Just because you’re a small business or WAHM, doesn’t mean you can’t do your bit for the environment. Every little helps, so why not implement a few green strategies and make the world a better place?

• Have your boiler serviced

Summer might be on its way, but it’s never too late to have your boiler serviced – particulalrly if you didn’t get round to it over winter. A Gas Safe Register will check everything’s working efficiently and stop your company from throwing money down the drain on high emissions. The cost is normally covered by decent central heating insurance, so read the terms and conditions of your policy.

• Start a recycling scheme

Believe it or not, we generate about 228 million tonnes of waste every year in England alone. This means our resources aren’t being fully valued both financially and environmentally, so it’s essential to do something about this. The government have many plans in place, but you can make a difference by introducing a recycling scheme.

• Save paper

With paper usage in many parts of the world on the rise, our rainforests are in considerable danger. This in turn effects animals, rural communities and can contribute towards climate change, so try to keep your usage to a minimal. Only print, scan and process documents when absolutely necessary and instead rely on PowerPoint presentations and computer programs to get the job done.

• Say goodbye to standby

Leaving electrical appliances on standby creates around one million tonnes of greenhouse gases every single year – that’s enough to CO2 to fill over 20 million double decker buses. This is a significant amount of pollution, so you must unplug all computers, scanners, printers, telephones and other workplace equipment when they’re not in use.

• Switch to energy-saving lighting

Most working environments have to be well-lit, but you don’t have to rely on traditional incandescent bulbs to do the job. In fact, these have now been banned by the European Union, so if you’re still using them, switch to compact fluorescents. The latter are a lot more energy-efficient and will help light up your workspace without leaving you with a massive electricity bill.
It’s the duty of every company and employee to protect the world we live in, so it’s worth putting these energy-saving strategies in place.