Making Businesses Green, it’s not easy, or is it?

Ballards LLP Chartered Accountants, Digital Transformation Partner, Sean Devlin discusses.

Budgets are tightening, consumers are struggling, and you might be asking yourself if you can afford to be green. Then throw into the mix, the dizzying array of choices or approaches and seemingly contradictory advice; doing the right thing can feel impossible. Below are a few ways in which you might encourage some industrially green shoots.

Stop or reduce unnecessary activities

The easiest way to be green aligns nicely with lean principles… These are things like unnecessary transport, extra steps in processes, unnecessary checks, or leaving lights on. This sounds basic, but we so commonly find these small things add up to significant savings. More significantly reviewing your core processes can yield great green gains. An efficient process is inherently greener and cheaper.

Go digital

I know, I know, you have been doing it for years and there are so many good reasons to print paper and transport it back and forth between sites, but you really don’t need paper (in 99.99999% of cases). Yes, there is a footprint to digital products, but with the efficiency you can gain with digital products, it’s rare you wouldn’t more than offset this. Also, fewer physical assets mean more flexibility as to how and where you get work done.

Work with your suppliers

A huge and commonly ignored chunk of our carbon footprint are what materials and products we buy in, if you want to be greener ask your suppliers what they are doing to reduce their footprint. Maybe there are ways you can work together to be both cost-effective and greener.

Grants Grants Grants

There are loans and grants available and emerging all the time for SMEs looking to be green, ranging from renewables to insulation to technology implementations. Take a look and see what might be available for you.

If you would like any more information or to discuss some of the possible funding available, please don’t hesitate to contact Sean Devlin on sean.devlin@ballardsllp.com.