Eco-Friendly Business Practices: How to Go Green and Grow

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• Understanding Eco-Friendly Business Practices
• Practical Examples of Sustainable Business Strategies 
• The Economic Benefits of Going Green 

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Q: Why are eco-friendly business practices increasingly important? 

A: Eco-friendly business practices are increasingly important due to growing environmental concerns, consumer demand for sustainable products, and the long-term benefits these practices have on business sustainability and global ecological health.

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Sustainability is now the watchword across various business landscapes.  

But it’s more than a business trend; it’s fast becoming a widespread culture for people, regions, and countries, with various forms of regulations popping up to facilitate sustainability across the board. 

Businesses are at the core of green growth for one reason: they are the biggest sources of emissions and pollution that have destroyed global ecosystems to this point. In fact, as of 2020, about 20 corporations were responsible for one-third of all carbon emissions.  

Unsurprisingly, most enterprises that have been around for years are restructuring their value and supply chains to be sustainable and mapping out billion-dollar investments to incorporate green business practices in their operations—all in a bid to make amends for past and existing practices that are ecologically unfriendly. 

Today, most of the largest companies in the world have sustainability reports, with a lot of them pledging to reach net zero by 2050, according to Harvard Business Review. 

For small modern businesses, the path to environmental sustainability is much simpler and doesn’t require cost-intensive changes—unlike what big corporations are going through today.  

There are many reasons and opportunities to take the eco-friendly business route and cater to the demands of approximately 78% of US consumers who consider sustainability a necessity and are willing to pay more for sustainable products and services. 

For starters, your business will be making meaningful contributions towards eliminating carbon emissions and pollutants from your community and environment while countering the effects of environmentally unfriendly practices still prevalent in some industries. 

Over time, your business could become a sustainability champion in relevant consumer markets, maintaining a competitive edge and reputation that significantly boosts the bottom line—all without unnecessarily expendable capital.  

But before you go green, you need to understand what it’s all about, the practical ways to incorporate sustainable business practices, and the economic benefits to look out for and maximize.  

This helps you stay true to your green values without slipping into greenwashing or other practices that consumers frown upon. 

Understanding Eco-Friendly Business Practices 

Since small and medium-scale businesses are closer to consumers than most large corporations, they often feel the direct demand for sustainability from eco-conscious consumers who are willing to take their business elsewhere if unsatisfied.  

Therefore, it is important for business owners and managers to understand what these demands usually entail.  

We’ll discuss that across three points: 

• The significance of eco-friendly business practices  
• Factors driving the shift toward sustainability 
• The environmental responsibility of businesses 

Significance of Eco-Friendly Business Practices  

First off, what makes an eco-friendly business an eco-friendly business? 

An eco-friendly business, also known as a green business or sustainable business, aims for minimal environmental impact across all its operations, including sourcing, production, administration, and packaging.  

Environmental sustainability means different things for different businesses, but environmental considerations are a constant in all those meanings. For some, it may include the following: 

• Reducing waste 
• Reducing carbon footprint  
• Reducing the use of certain materials 
• Recycling materials 
• Reusing materials 
• Energy efficiency  
• Using green technologies  

As mentioned earlier, there are many opportunities for businesses to become eco-friendly. Some of these opportunities are industry-specific, requiring businesses to adopt specialized systems, tools, or measures to achieve sustainability. 

When businesses take up sustainability as part of their corporate sustainability, they are able to reduce their environmental impact and set the tone for a sustainable future in their communities and industry.  

The ripple effect is one that continues to spread beyond industry and communities to enhance the chances of attaining national sustainable development goals.  

Factors Driving the Shift Towards Sustainability 

It helps to reiterate that sustainability is not a passing trend.  

The concept has been around for decades and is now basically a norm. The transition to green development might seem like it’s all happening recently. But that’s mostly because people are now, more than ever, more aware of and feeling the effects of environmental degradation and can’t in good conscience continue to ignore it or ignorantly continue to sponsor those behind it.  

There are three key factors to extract from this: 

Environmental Concerns 

The evidence of climate change and other environmental degradation is now too prominent to be debated.  

Between temperatures rising due to heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases and rising sea levels, nations and industries now acknowledge that it’s time to be proactive to stabilize the environment.  

These environmental impacts are not without effects on businesses.  

For instance, in regions experiencing extreme temperatures, businesses are spending a lot more to cool their buildings, and employees are becoming less productive due to the discomfort of working in hotter temperatures.  

Rising sea levels are causing huge supply chain disruptions, power outages, loss of customers, and infrastructural damage. 

These instances and many others call for a shift to sustainable business practices to help combat climate change.  

Ethical Concerns 

As the effects of environmental degradation are becoming more evident, businesses are acknowledging that there is no morality in continuing with the old ways. This is especially true considering that they are harming the people—target consumers—as much as they are harming the environment.  

Although most businesses cannot quickly switch their processes to be more environmentally sustainable, they are creating transition plans that will see them on the right track in the next decade.  

In the meantime, they are incorporating eco-friendly business practices across various levels of their operations, gradually creating sustainable supply chains and value chains. Some are also investing in sustainable third-party projects and businesses that help offset their carbon footprints.  

For the eco-conscious consumer, there’s no point giving their money to businesses actively trying to harm the environment.  

Consumer Demands  

In many ways, the factors above have redefined how many consumers make their purchases. As of 2015, 66% of U.S. consumers said that people have to make major changes in their lifestyles to reduce the effects of climate change, according to the Pew Research Center.  

This demand for changes spanned across our use of water, fossil fuel-powered vehicles, and electricity, as well as how we handle waste.  

American consumers are making these personal changes despite certain levels of discomfort, and they also expect their product and service providers to make necessary changes.  

In nearly a decade, the demand for more sustainable businesses has seen a substantial push. As of 2022, 71% of consumers reported making modest to significant changes in their lifestyles by buying sustainable products more often. Another 18% reported making minor changes in that direction.  

Therefore, it only makes sense that, as a business owner or manager, you move along with the consumers.  

Environmental Responsibility of Businesses 

Businesses have many roles to play in combating climate change, and these should be well-reflected in their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies and strategies. 

The common environmental responsibilities of businesses border on the following: 

• Carbon emissions: What is the carbon cost of doing business? What can you do to offset your business’ carbon emissions? Should you consider hybrid work? Should you consider vehicles that use clean fuel? 
• Energy consumption: Is your business using more energy than it ordinarily requires? What are some of the top energy-consuming gadgets you can do without? How do you incorporate renewable or clean energy in your processes? 
• Pollution: In what ways does your business contribute to environmental pollution? What can be done to minimize or totally eliminate the sources of pollution? 
• Waste reduction: How do you approach waste disposal? Are there more sustainable alternatives to some of the single-use materials contributing to a lot of waste from your business? Should you embrace sustainable packaging to reduce waste at consumers’ end? 
• Resource depletion: In what ways is your business unnecessarily contributing to the depletion of natural resources—especially rare raw materials? Are you contributing to deforestation? What is your business doing to replenish these resources? 

These points guide businesses on how to address their sustainable corporate responsibility and become eco-friendly businesses. Depending on the nature of your business, there may be more points to consider. 

Practical Examples of Sustainable Business Strategies 

By knowing the environmental responsibilities of your business, you’ll have insights on ways to approach environmental sustainability.  

Below are some practical examples you can modify to fit your business.  

Sustainable Practices for Sustainable Businesses 

Being sustainable can sometimes mean something as simple as using less paper in the office or as complex as overhauling your entire supply chain to be more environmentally sustainable.  

Let’s consider the practicality of sustainable business practices across three points: 

• Energy efficiency: Here, you can always start small: turn off lights and gadgets in unoccupied spaces and everything that doesn’t need to stay on during off-hours. The point is to reduce energy consumption without affecting business productivity or employees’ comfort. A great step would be integrating renewable energy into your energy system by using smart devices or energy-saving electrical appliances.  
• Waste reduction: Here, the mantra should be “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”  

How can your business reduce waste without compromising operational efficiency? One way is to go digital, which can reduce the use of paper.  

What can be reused? You can opt to provide individual coffee cups/mugs and water bottles for everyone instead of single-use bottles and paper cups. You can opt for services that refill inks instead of buying new cartridges. 

Provide recycle bins at your business premises. Take note of suppliers that accept the return of old gadgets or other supplies for new materials at a discount. More importantly, can your products or product packaging be recycled? 

• Sustainable supply chain management: Because businesses often use third parties across their supply chain, making sustainable changes is not always within their power. One way to go about being sustainable is to go for supply chain partners that are doing all they can to be sustainable. Another way is to measure carbon emissions across your logistics systems and run eco-friendly projects to counter those emissions. You can do this by engaging in or sponsoring tree-planting activities.  

Note: When incorporating sustainable practices, it’s important to involve your employees and team members. In the absence of collective effort, sustained practice may be impossible. 

Businesses Successfully Implementing Sustainable Business Practices  

As stated earlier, environmental sustainability means different things for different businesses. Let’s take a look at what it means for some exemplary businesses.  

Interface  

The manufacturing industry serves as the source of most carbon emissions. For Interface, a global manufacturer of modular carpet tiles, the story wasn’t particularly different until they took painstaking steps to change it.  

Today, Interface has achieved 100% renewable electricity across all factory locations and 75% renewable energy use across all its manufacturing sites. This significantly reduced energy consumption and reduced market-based greenhouse gas emissions by 96% in their manufacturing operations.  

The company also uses recycled materials and recycles used carpet tiles into new products through a closed-loop recycling system.  

This has made their operations more efficient while further establishing their authority in the commercial flooring industry.  

Ecoslay 

Ecoslay is a small business that has earned recognition for its commitment to delivering eco-friendly hair products in recyclable pouches. 

They also go the extra step of establishing a recycling program that encourages their customers to pour their products from the pouches into mason jars. Then, return the pouches to points that translate to discounts the next time they buy Ecoslay products.  

As a result, they are becoming increasingly popular in the curly community both for the quality of their products and their eco-consciousness. 

The Bare Home 

This is another small business making steady moves towards being a fully eco-friendly business. The Bare Home acknowledges that cleaning products are essentials that people buy often, resulting in a lot of packaging waste.  

The company takes a two-pronged approach to sustainability: making environmentally friendly soaps, accessories, and detergents and also offering at-home filling stations, which allow customers to save 40% on their cleaning products when they refill instead of buying new products.  

Actionable Tips for Incorporating Eco-Friendly Practices  

Incorporating environmental sustainability in your business requires careful consideration of your value chain to determine what needs changes or improvements.  

The tips below can help you take sustainable steps when you find those aspects.  

It also helps to know how much positive impact you are making with your chosen sustainable business practices. There are various eco calculators for small businesses that you can use to measure and offset carbon emissions in your small business.  

The Economic Benefits of Going Green 

Going green might seem daunting, but the numerous benefits immediately offset the hard work.  

Financial Benefits 

Cost savings and profitability are two key benefits of being an eco-friendly business. These benefits are evident across multiple considerations, including the following: 

• Competitive advantage and brand loyalty: Consumers are opting for sustainable products, and that gives eco-friendly businesses a competitive advantage and brand reputation that translates to a boost in their loyal customer base—along with the cashflow that comes with a bigger customer base.  
• Investment interests: In a sense, sustainability is a bit of a scarce commodity that investors looking to build long-term portfolios or offset their carbon footprints want to throw their money at. Thus, this provides opportunities for small, sustainable businesses to grow debt-free. 
• Reduced operational costs: By opting for reusable and recyclable materials and reducing energy consumption, your business can save a lot of money across various operations.  
• Business sustainability: As the drive towards a more sustainable future becomes more intensive, eco-friendly businesses are presented with numerous opportunities to easily adapt to the changes that come with it. In essence, they become future-proof and resilient enough to keep going even in the face of drastic changes or regulations that might knock other businesses off.  

Additionally, sustainable business practices often result in enhanced operational efficiency and productivity, allowing businesses to provide more products and services and record more turnover. 

Moreso, employees feel like they are a part of a worthy process, which boosts their satisfaction and retention rate and potentially saves your business thousands of dollars annually.  

Long-Term Economic Outlook for Green Businesses 

Following the terms of the Paris Agreement, many nations and global businesses aim to reach net zero by 2050.  

A quick look around the global marketplace shows that more emphasis is being placed on sustainable business practices.  

Businesses that have adopted or are planning to adopt green business practices today are giving themselves nearly a 30-year head start in a race that will inevitably reshape how industries operate in the near future.  

Today, sustainability is still in a voluntary phase where most businesses are not particularly bound by eco standards and regulations.  

Interestingly, most global industry leaders are currently committing billion-dollar—and even trillion-dollar—investments to propel sustainability, and we are already seeing many green innovations across these industries.  

So, it’s only a matter of time before these industry leaders start lobbying for legislation that would set new standards and demand some degree of sustainability expectations from small and medium businesses in the industry. 

A 2020 Forbes article indicates that these environmental sustainability demands are already a thing in capital and corporate markets. That much is already evident in how today’s venture capitalists are screening startups.  

Soon, these expectations will become commonplace across other industries.  

Therefore, in terms of business resilience, sustainability, and profitability, now is the best time to go green. Being an eco-friendly business will cushion you from any regulatory shock that might occur in the future. 

Challenges in Implementing Sustainable Practices  

Although implementing sustainable business practices might appear like a lot of hard work, it is usually easier in medium and small businesses. However, that does not mean it is something very easy to do either.  

Let’s address some challenges that small businesses might encounter when integrating sustainable practices. 

Confusing Regulatory Landscape 

Sustainability involves many players, including governmental agencies, industry regulators, and local boards.  

Although enforcement is mostly lax when it comes to carbon emissions, some aspects of sustainability such as waste disposal and pollution experience strict control in certain regions, industries, and communities.  

You might find out what really matters only after you’ve erred. It’s worth doing due diligence to know the regulatory standards that apply to your business and take the necessary measures to meet them. Where the laws are unclear, consulting with an industry expert may be helpful.  

The Temptation of Greenwashing  

Many businesses have been caught in the web of greenwashing, mostly because they have lofty expectations of sustainability and decide to go the way of high rollers without the finances to back it up.  

Eventually, they end up making bogus claims that are easily exposed for what they are by a critical eye.  

To avoid greenwashing, you should set realistic goals that your business can easily achieve simultaneously or consecutively.  

You can start by reducing energy use, going digital instead of paper, or simply planting trees around your office. Then, proceed to use sustainable packaging or delivery solutions.  

These little changes are worth the effort and worth celebrating publicly, especially when you acknowledge that you made real efforts for real results. 

Step by step, you’ll find your business blooming on its part to eco-friendliness without having to jeopardize your success by being untruthful to your customers.  

Difficulty Tracking and Reporting Performance  

Eco calculators don’t particularly measure carbon offset precisely because there are a lot of estimations involved. Still, they are helpful pointers for how your business is performing sustainability-wise.  

Rather than making estimates on your own and publicizing claims that make it seem like you are doing more sustainable work than you actually are, it is best to have a reputable eco calculator or consultant measure your environmental impacts.  

It may be necessary to indicate the calculator or consultant you used on your green marketing materials to portray credibility to your target customers.  

There are also significant challenges in adapting supply chains to fit sustainable business models, often requiring small and medium-sized businesses to go the extra mile to find supply chain partners that have established sustainable protocols across most parts of their operations.  

Key Takeaways  

Going green is a great way to future-proof your business while reaping the benefits of being a respectable environmental champion and the many financial benefits that come with being more efficient and having a loyal, eco-conscious customer base. 

Take as much time as you need to assess various operations across your value chain and discuss with your employees, team members, and a sustainability consultant how best to go green.  

Be open to building meaningful partnerships with other businesses sharing similar values. And always know that when it comes to virtual office solutions that will help you be more efficient, productive, and sustainable, Alliance Virtual Offices has your back!