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From retirement plans to packaging, there are ways to make your business greener (Image: Getty Images)

Becoming a greener company is good for the planet – but it can also save you money and bring customers to your door.

Figures from management consultancy Deloitte show that more than a third of us choose brands because they are environmentally friendly and sustainable, while more than a quarter have stopped buying products that are not environmentally friendly.

“A year of consecutive lockdowns in the UK has had an impact on environmental awareness and consumer behavior,” said Emily Cromwell, Deloitte’s director of sustainability.

“Many are willing to pay more for goods and services from ethically and environmentally sustainable brands.”

But with so many different issues business owners busy, it can be difficult to know what to prioritize when greening your business.

Here we seek advice from experts to improve a company’s organic certification.

Sort out packaging

One of the first things customers notice about your brand is the packaging. Increasingly, they are likely to realize when it’s too much or cannot be recycled.

To reduce waste, more and more companies are re-using the packaging from their own shipments, and many are considering ways to reduce plastic consumption. Rhian Thompson, founder of baby clothing company Bibevie, says she has moved on to make all packaging compostable or biodegradable, including wrapping paper, mailers and brochures.

Sustainable and recyclable packaging is an important first step (Image: Getty Images)

“We don’t print out order information to put in the packaging, because everything goes to the trash can anyway,” she says.

“We have designed our processes in such a way that customers don’t need them. We also don’t automatically provide a return label, but send it to the customer when necessary to save waste. ‘

It is also possible to think green when transporting larger products, says Dominick Taylor, founder of the eco-surf marketplace Shaka Surf Store.

Instead of packing his products in plastic, he sends entire surfboards in Flexi-Hex, a kind of biodegradable and recyclable cardboard packaging.

“It’s obvious, but so many so-called eco-companies are still using an unhealthy amount of non-recyclable soft plastics in their packaging,” he says.

Dominick Taylor, founder of Shaka Surf Store, ships surfboards in special biodegradable cardboard packaging (Image: Shaka Surf Store)

Sustainable housewares company GreenNWhite uses bottles made from 97% recycled PCR (post-consumer resins).

“The nature of PCR as a recycled plastic makes it one of the most environmentally friendly packaging on the market,” said Jamie Chalmers, GreenNWhite’s director of marketing.

Simon Paine, CEO and Co-Founder of Rebel Business School, suggests that customers reusing packaging not only highlight eco-certifications, but also further promote their brand name. “It’s like a physical loyalty card,” he says.

Assess your supply chain

While you can be responsible for your own business practices, it is far more difficult to ensure that the companies you source materials from are environmentally and ethically sound.

Dominick of Shaka Surf Store says that by working in Australia with a larger surf brand and examining supply chains, he realized what he wanted to avoid in his own business.

” Your supply chain for the APAC region [Asian-Pacific countries] included making garments in India and China, shipping to Australian warehouses, and shipping back to central warehouses in Southeast Asia for further distribution to customers in Japan, Taiwan, etc., ‘he says.

“For my business, I keep the goods close to the source of my customers – most of them are in the UK, but also in Europe. For European customers, the product will be sent as close to them as possible. So when I get an order from Spain or France, it will be shipped from Portugal. This also helps with the Brexit tariffs that are levied on shipments from the UK. ‘

GreenNWhite’s Jamie also suggests keeping the supply chain as local as possible. “Companies with extensive supply chains – ranging from manufacturer to brand, distributor to retailer to customer – place a greater burden on the environment,” he explains.

“Not only does this business model require longer travel time, it is also much more difficult to reform effectively. Improving a five or six step process requires prohibitive effort and resources.

“Our model, on the other hand, only comprises two steps. We ship directly from the manufacturer to your home. By eliminating at least three links in the supply chain, we can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of our products compared to other popular brands. ‘

Appoint your own green champions

Harnessing the passion of employees who want to help your company go green can be extremely powerful. Dr. Shireen Kassam, environmentalist and founder of Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, recommends setting up a green task force.

At King’s College Hospital in London, where Shireen works as a consultant hematologist, each department has a green champion who shows ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

King’s also has an active tour group that aims to ensure employees have access to car-free travel options.

“I would recommend picking about five people from different roles or departments who are already passionate about sustainability and switching with new people every quarter if possible or necessary to bring new ideas and fresh perspectives,” says Shireen.

“This is also a great way to get to know your employees and an innovative way to retain them.

“The task force should be responsible for setting ‘green goals’, advocating for change and, most importantly, reporting and tracking progress.”

Promote reuse and recycling

Recycling waste products shows your customers that you care and improves your sustainability footprint.

Cosmetics giant L’Oréal recently launched new commitments to ensure that 100% of plastic packaging is refillable, reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, but smaller businesses can send the same message too.

Rhian, at Bibevie, adds name tags to clothing with extra lines to encourage shoppers to pass them on to new babies. Meanwhile, Su Morgan, who runs Dog & Hat Coffee, is encouraging customers to return packaging for recycling. “That saves a lot of waste on our coffee products,” she says.

Nutribuddy is now selling reusable stainless steel scoops instead of plastic scoops (Image: Nutribuddy)

Nutritional supplement company Nutribuddy has stopped providing plastic scoops with their products, and says customers have done well with their new system of purchasing sturdy and reusable stainless steel scoops.

Founder Ella McKendrick says, “We realized that building a collection of plastic scoops every time they buy a product is incredibly wasteful for customers, which is the standard practice for many shake companies.

“Our customers can now choose how many stainless steel buckets they want and keep using them.”

More: Metro newspaper

The green power of old-age provision

For larger employers, one of the biggest environmental differences is not something seen by customers, but something that is appreciated by employees.

By investing your pensions sustainably, you are helping the planet.

Most major pension funds offer more environmentally friendly or sustainable funds, and in some cases, especially during the pandemic, these have outperformed their less sustainable competitors.

Filmmaker Richard Curtis, co-founder of the Make My Money Matter campaign, which aims to convince more people to make their pensions sustainable, points out that a green pension saves 21 times more CO2 than becoming a vegetarian, giving up flying and change the electricity provider.

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