In preparation for Earth Day, we are proud to host this guest blog from Torben Lonne that discusses the benefits of Going Green for B2B businesses.
Sustainable business practices are nothing new. They’ve been around for decades, but it’s only recently that both B2C and B2B have started recognizing the potential of adopting them.
You can attribute the rising concerns about the negative impact of business activity on the environment to the increase in CO2 emissions by 50% since 1990 or to the awakening of global consumers to the need to hold companies accountable for their disregard of social corporate sustainability policies; the bottom line is that waste-free living is here to stay and companies wishing to remain relevant will have to adapt to the new eco-friendly demands.
In the case of B2B companies, this need is as urgent as ever. Operating as a green organization requires you to find suppliers with a similar ethos so that customers you’re doing business with never question your commitment to sustainability.
Acknowledging that you need to create partnerships with businesses that share your environment-based values is the first step towards becoming green. The second one is to find them and reap the benefits of reduced costs, scalable operations, and satisfied customers.
Easier said than done, but the change doesn’t have to be that radical from the get-go. Start by cutting down on coal and natural gas that contribute to global warming the most and you can jumpstart your ‘going green’ process without having to install a somewhat costly clean electricity straight away.
Once you allocate the funds for investing in solar and wind energy - or find partners to share the expenses with - you’re one step closer to becoming a more environmentally-friendly B2B company that takes reducing its electricity-linked emissions seriously.
It’s about time companies go plastic-less. Sure, choosing plastic is convenient, but not at the expense of the 381 million tons of waste the world produces each year. Around 8 million tons of it end up polluting oceans. As a business dealing with other businesses, it’s your responsibility to reduce the amount of plastic you use in your manufacturing processes and go for alternatives that won’t end up in landfills.
Take it from Nature Nate’s Honey Co. whose CEO claims that the bottles for the honey they use are made from 100% recyclable materials. The same goes for their shipping packaging that is often overlooked in the industry.
If selling tangible products, offsetting transport emissions when delivering the goods should be your number one priority. Given that you’ll often be supplying companies with products in bulk, it’s that much more important to invest in low-carbon shipping.
One way to reduce your logistics-related carbon footprint is to learn exactly how much pollution is created by your company. This will help you understand where you can cut down on non-electric shipping vehicles and what old vehicles can be reused to neutralize the carbon-emitting transportation process.
P.S. Keep in mind that fast shipping comes at a cost of additional fuel that doesn’t benefit the clean environment.
The transition to sustainability - just like becoming successful - doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a village, or, as it is with B2B companies, business partners that share the same sustainability values and are thus capable of driving change together.
But while you’re on the journey to adopting more environmentally-friendly business practices that are slowly becoming the new normal, take this time to do your research and evaluate what company policies you can tweak today so that you can profit from being a green business down the line.