Business Tips
Businesses can do many things to help contribute to Sustainability.
Here are a few simple tips.
Sourcing
- Whatever it is that you are selling, try to source it as locally as possible.
- Hire locally and train if needed.
Food
- Try to get healthy local food into your business.
- Eat at local restaurants that support local food systems.
- Compost your scraps instead of sending them to the landfill. In the landfill, organic matter creates methane gas and burps up chemicals. Yuck!
Travel
- Reduce your airline travel.
- Try to reduce your commute if possible.
- Use public transportation.
Finance
- SRI – Keep your investments in Socially Responsible Investing funds.
- Credit Unions/Local Banks – Keep your money recycling locally and out of corporate banks.
- Use green materials for remodels or new projects.
- Try to reuse and reduce materials, reduce the amount of construction waste going to landfills.
Water
- Harvest your rainwater for your landscape.
- Zeriscape with native and edible plants.
Reduce your energy usage
- Eliminate phantom power. Put power strips on anything plugged in and make sure to turn it off when not in use.
- Outdoors, install flood motion censored lights instead of leaving lights on overnight.
- Turn off computers and printers when not in use.
Renewable Energy
- Locally generate energy through Solar PV, Solar Thermal, Wind, or Geo-Thermal with PV.
- Reduce your energy usage through changing light bulbs to Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL). Please make sure to recycle your used CFLs because they contain the toxin mercury. Even better - invest in LED technology to replace CFLs.
-Taylor Selby
