It’s a new year and that means that it is a great time to start making some very important changes to your business. One of the most important changes you can make, to improve your profits, public image and carbon footprint, is to take a far more ‘Green’ approach to your business.

There are many different ways that you can do this, here’s a quick overview of the changes that can have the most impact:

Change your way of working

How are your current products being made? Are you using eco-friendly or renewable energy sources and materials? If this isn’t something that you’re currently doing then that is exactly where you need to start!

Check out your suppliers and manufacturers and look into alternative fuel and material sources – often there are government grants available to help businesses make this move. Not only does that make it more financially sustainable for your business to do, but you can save money in the long run with cheaper fuel and less tax.

eco-friendly-packaging

Make cut backs

Excess is waste, there are no two ways about it. One of the easiest ways to make your business more environmentally friendly is to make changes to remove any excess. This could be by ensuring that your delivery drivers take the most direct, economically friendly route or by cutting down the amount of packaging you use or even making sure that every computer is turned off overnight.

Reducing the amount of excess your business has will not just mean that you produce less waste, it will also actively save you money. Take a good, long look at your business and find out where your biggest issues lie – it may be that you’re already very streamlined or that you have a lot of work to do in order to be efficient. Here’s a really good infographic showing packaging waste in the UK, It’s quite the eye-opener!

Replace Outdated Units

Similarly to the excess point, if you have old and outdated machines then chances are they’re using more energy and operating less efficiently than a new unit would. While the initial cost may be high, you will save money on your running and operating costs and may find that your production ability and speed increases.

How much you will save depends largely on the size of your business and the amount of wastage you currently have. Even if you’re saving just 5% on every unit, if you replace 10 units then you’re effectively cutting your waste in half.

biodegradable-packaging

Invest in Biodegradable Packaging

Can’t avoid or cut down on the amount of packaging you need to be using? Why not change the material entirely? This will not have any effect on your customers or products and it is much, much better for the environment. Because of the way that traditional packaging is disposed of, it creates a huge environmental problem – biodegradable packaging literally wastes away to nothing but water and air, making it much cleaner.

Your environmentally conscious customers will really appreciate this shift, while those who don’t care won’t even notice – there really is no downside to this solution. If you’re really serious about making your business greener for 2016 then talk to Charlotte Packaging today and find out how we can help. With a wealth of products that will work to lower your emissions and waste, we have everything it takes to make your business be more green.