Responsible business practices for International Earth Day 2021

As more and more people become more conscious of being green, we take a look at the ways that you can become a more sustainable business in order to do your bit for the planet.

Recently the awareness of being green has risen massively. With television documentaries highlighting the effects and damages that we are causing to Mother Earth, it is important to know and understand what small changes you can do to help lower your damaging input.

No matter what size business you are in, you should be conscious and interested to know what ways you can make yourself sustainable. Being sustainable does not mean that you must instantly ditch all known modern ways of life and revert to the days of Adam and Eve, but just be more aware of the things you do and if they are necessary to operate.

At Franchise Supermarket, we have made some small individual changes that we believe are helping the environment. Firstly, our Director Ben has decided to cycle into work the past 18 months as he lives in Norwich. Regardless of wind, snow, sun or rain he has pedalled his way to work and managed to get fit whilst doing so. Jamie, our other Director has become more conscious of what he eats and now limits the amount of meat and fish he consumes, as well as not doing as many Deliveroo/JustEat deliveries! I have started working a couple of days a week from home as I live over 30 miles from the office to help reduce my carbon footprint.

How to make your business more sustainable?

Bills – What if you could be more sustainable and save money at the same time? Well, you can. Turning off lights, switching off plugs, turning the heating down or off will all help save you money on your bills and help reduce wastage.

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle – Depending on what type of industry you are in, you may go through a lot of packaging. As oppose to chucking it all in your rubbish bin, try and put what you can in the recycling one. Also, be on the lookout for the other things you can such as bottles, lightbulbs and batteries which all have dedicated recycling areas that get disposed of properly.

Power down – At the end of the day, it is very easy to just switch off your monitor and go home. But not turning it off is just wasting electricity and for the sake of a couple of minutes at the start of the day turning it back on, it seems unnecessary to just leave it on. A shut down also helps your computer do updates and free up vital memory and processing power.

Paperless – We have also decided now in our office to become paperless where possible. Apart from receiving wage slips, we have decided to eliminate all paper print outs to reduce the amount of paper wastage. Can you send it as an email instead? Can the document be viewed online? Can the edits be made with software? These are all things you should try first before clicking print.

Workplace – Similar to our Director Ben, can you implement a cycle to work scheme? Or like me, can you allow employees to work from home a couple of days a week? The previous year should be a good indicator as to whether people can work from home or not, and if productivity and work ethic has not been affected then look to install these methods.