How to go Green as a Small Businesses: 5 Tips to Get Started
If you’re a small-business owner, startup, entrepreneur, solopreneur, freelancer or just someone who wants to live a more eco-conscious life, I’ve put together some great tips for infusing green practices into your work or business. Some of them are small – like volunteering to pick up trash – and some of them are big – like investing in buying wind or solar energy to power your business. No matter what your capacity is for implementing these changes, just remember that every little bit counts and is creating a positive impact on our planet and its people.
Graphic that says practice what you preach: live sustainably at home
1. Practice what you Preach: Live Sustainably at Home
Going green starts with the changes you make at home.
I can’t stress enough that this is a journey, not a destination! Every little bit helps and making small changes every day, moth or year is so powerful. Talk about these tips with friends and family, bring them up at the water cooler – spread the knowledge and inspire change.
Buy organic and/or local food if it’s available to you. Organic food is grown using higher agricultural standards that support biodiversity and sustainable farming. Local food is great because it helps support local farmers and has a smaller carbon footprint since it’s grown close to where you live. Next time you eat strawberries from a local farmers market or a banana from Costa Rica think about how many miles that food traveled (and gallons of gas it took) to be in your kitchen.
Kick plastic! Less than 10% of plastic actually gets recycled so our next best option is to reduce. Look for products that come in glass, paper, cardboard packaging. Some brands are offering packaging using 100% recycled plastic, this is actually really cool because it’s reusing plastic that already exists. The process is using recycled plastic actually costs a company more than “new” plastic, so when you see labels for packaging made from 100% recycled plastic, know that it was a conscious sustainable choice and investment made by a brand. Check out this blog for tips on pretty much anything: My Plastic Free Life
Buy in bulk. This helps cut down on the amount of single use packaging. Save your jars and refill them with bulk foods to help keep things easy-to-access and fresh. Check out this great list from Litter Less with state-by-state listings for bulk health food stores.
Make your own cleaning products. There are a lot of basic household products that you probably already own that are great for cleaning – like baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice. Look for recipes for DIY cleaning products like these Real Simple (it even has an awesome graphic chart). Make this a twofer and wash out an empty spray bottle and reuse it.
Get creative with upcycling and reusing packaging. Empty tortilla bags become dog waste bags, plastic strawberry containers become storage bins in a craft drawers. Bubble wrap and padded shipping envelopes? Hoarded in the back of a closet until it can get a second, third or forth life. Newspaper? Save it for wrapping presents (that’s an oldie but a goodie, for sure). Sometimes it’s easy to feel like stuff needs to look pretty and curated, free yourself of this mindset and enjoy the creativity and practicality of reusing these materials.
Turn down the heat. If you live somewhere cold, invest in a wool sweater & socks this winter (make sure they’re 100% wool, not a blend). Even better, look on Poshmark or ThredUp to find something second-hand. Using an electric blanket while sitting at your desk is more efficient than a space heater or turning up the thermostat. And drinking tea always keeps your warm from the inside out.
Consider lifecycles. Before making a purchase, think about where the product comes from, who made it, how far it traveled to get to you and where it will go when you’re done with it. Was it made ethically by someone paid a fair wage? Was it made from quality materials that will last a long time? What happens to it when you no longer have a use for it, can it be passed on to someone else or be recycled or will it go to the landfill?
Buy second-hand. Saved the best for last. Goodwill, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are your best friends when it comes to buying used household items, furniture, clothes, sporting gear, children’s toys, etc. Start normalizing owning second-hand items, it’s one of the easiest, cheapest and most fun ways to go green. Sure, it’s always easier to just pop into Target to get a new pair of jeans or set of dishes for the kitchen but think of what you’ll save by buying used.
Find your eco-passion
2. Do what you enjoy, find your eco-passion
Hone in on issues that resonate with you, this will make it easy to genuinely talk about it in your marketing.
There are a lot of possible subjects to focus on in you’re eco journey, don’t strive to become an expert in everything, it’s just too much and can easily make you a victim of burnout and eco-anxiety. For example, High Mountain Creative focuses on working with clients conservation, restoration and sustainable agriculture. Through gaining knowledge in these topics, I’m able to better serve my clients and together maximize our positive impact on the planet.
Also check out the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for more inspiration.
Know your stuff: Become an Eco-Expert in your Trade
3. Know your stuff: Become an Eco-Expert in your Trade
Know the impact your trade has on the environment.
Find groups, courses or organizations within your trade that focus on sustainability. Below are a few examples of some great resources for designers. Have something industry-specific to add for your line of work? I’d love to add it here, please leave a message for me in the comments.
Green General Small Business Resources
Check locally for Green Business Networks like California Green Business Network
Green Graphic Design Resources
Green Literature & Writing Resources
Green Photography Resources
graphic that says earn your keep: give back to the planet
4. Earn your Keep: Give Back to the Planet
Most of us financially benefit from the planet's resources in one way or another.
Do what you can to reduce, offset and give back.
Volunteer. Do a roadside cleanup, collect river data, help get signatures on a petition.
Create a strategy for donating services. Set aside a certain amount or hours, products or services that you want to donate to a nonprofit organization each year. Be realistic with your offering and don’t overextend volunteering your expert services leaving you without capacity for paid work.
Create an annual giving strategy. Platforms like EarthShare make giving easy – and easy to track – by allowing you to add a set dollar amount to a fund dedicated to charitable giving. For example, if you decide you want to designate $500 a year to charitable giving, you can add $500 to your EarthShare fund and donate directly from the fund to any nonprofit of your choice (they have several hundred “in-network” nonprofits, but you’re not limited to donating only these nonprofits). This is a super easy way to keep track of your annual giving – especially if you tend to support a lot of different causes in a $50 here, $100 there sort of way. The platform also has employee engagement programs, which can be used to empower employees to partake in giving by delegating funds to them which they can use to donate to a cause of their choice. Be strategic and don’t give more than you can afford (trust me, I’d donate all of my money to the bears and the trees if I don’t check myself). Chat with your accountant about how to make these donations tax-deductible.
Become a sustaining member of groups like 1% for the Planet. In addition to being an easy way to give back to environmental causes this can also be a great marketing tool because of the expansive network of like-minded business members.
Consider talking to your accountant about becoming a Certified B Corp. Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. source: B Corp website
graphic that says leave a small footprint: explore green business practices
5. Leave a small footprint: Explore green business practices
Infuse your business with honest sustainable green practices to attract like-minded clients who give a hoot about the planet. Include messaging in your marketing about your green business practices to set you apart from others in your industry who are not practicing sustainability.
Find ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Use the Arbor Day Foundation’s carbon footprint tool to measure your daily impact and learn about ways you become more efficient and lower your carbon footprint.
Practice Green Printing. Print business cards or marketing materials on FSC Certified or 100% recycled paper plant-based inks. Read more here about green printing.
Source office supplies locally. Supporting local businesses is good for the planet because it helps keep money and resources in the local economy. Avoiding the big box stores and large online retailers and buying from a small business will keep your neighborhood shops very happy.
Donate or recycle electronics, buy used or refurbished when possible. Recycling varies by location, here are some tips from the EPA about donating or recycling electronics. Shop for refurbished products at places like Apple, Best Buy, B & H
Purchase wind or solar energy if your electric company offers it. This varies greatly by region so do some research in your area to see if it’s available to you. Here are some tips from Energy.gov.
Create guidelines for the types of clients you will and won't work with. Make a list of the values that are important for you to share with a client. Are you okay with working with a corporation that is polluting rivers or contributing large amounts of CO2 to the environment? What about companies that are greenwashing customers? If these things feel yucky to you, make it a rule in your business not to work with these types of clients. You have the power to choose how you use your talents and share your skills, choose wisely!
Release an annual Sustainability Report. This is especially useful if you sell food or products and have a supply chain to track.
Host your website using carbon-neutral web-hosting: GreenGeeks, greenhost, kualo. This is still sort of a new concept and it’s not totally dialed yet.
You can also calculate the carbon of your website: websitecarbon.com
Green website tips from Blue Raspberry Design
