Implementing environmentally sound work practices not only shows that your business is conscious of our impact upon our climate; it can also save significantly on monthly expenses as well. In fact, since most ‘green’ technologies are designed to be as efficient as possible, adopting them is often extremely cost-effective. Here are several areas in which businesses can increase their use of green technology.
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Electricity Consumption
An obvious first step is to limit the amount of electricity the business draws. A few inexpensive ways to do this are installing more efficient light bulbs and “smart” power meters that carefully track energy draw and indicate problem areas.
Computers are some of the biggest power consumers at many modern businesses. Newer desktops are being designed with power consumption in mind, with some specialty computers using astonishingly small amounts of power compared to their older and more bulky predecessors. To save even more power, businesses can replace desktops with laptops. There are many specialty “green” laptops on the market now that are optimized to conserve as much energy as possible.
Paper Consumption
Another big area of environmental improvement for almost all businesses is the amount of paper they consume. Increasingly, the modern office is going paperless, with a “scan once, print never” policy for incoming paper. Businesses not ready to take that leap can at least introduce print quotas and mandatory recycling standards to both save on the amount of paper used and reduce the amount of paper wasted. Additionally, the cloud-based collaboration and productivity software discussed below enables workers to edit and share documents without printing extra copies.
Commuting and Working Remotely
The cost of commuting is often high to both the employee and the environment. Fuel, parking, and public transportation costs all must be taken into account, and all of these raise environmental degradation to some degree. Many businesses are adopting by increasing their use of telecommuting.
With nothing more than a high-speed Internet connection, a headset, and a suite of office software, many office workers are able to perform all of their tasks from home. Highly advanced cloud-based collaboration software enables each worker to have a virtual “desk,” inbox, and task list, and some even allow workers to collaborate together on editing a document in real-time. Even requiring employees to work from home one day per week can create a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
For businesses engaged in high volumes of outbound calling, creating a virtual call centre could dramatically increase environmental friendliness and efficiency. Cloud-based call centre software uses queues to assign calls to workers remotely, which complete them with VOIP web-based telephone software. Automatic dialling, recording, and remote monitoring are all features of these platforms. Running a virtual call centre eliminates the need for maintaining a brick-and-mortar building with all of the associated environmental costs.
