April 22nd is World Earth Day, the one day of the year, organisations around the globe raise awareness of the worldwide environmental movement, helping many take into consideration the earth and what it is that they can do to help the environment, throughout the rest of the year.
Making sure that ecommerce business is eco friendly is becoming increasingly important, with many businesses taking into consideration their carbon footprint when running their business. With even huge brands like ASOS, eBay, Amazon now acting as leaders in the industry creating greener ways of running their operations.
There are plenty of ways online businesses can make themselves greener, helping play a role in benefiting the environment, as well as doing so in a cost effective way.
Reduce Packaging
It’s becoming a much bigger deal for brands to now deliver their products with as less packaging as possible, in fact many have even been called out for using too much, packaging unnecessarily when items have been delivered. Using too much packaging can cause huge amounts of waste, around the globe, damaging the planet but also wasting large amounts of money in the production of unneeded packaging. Not only can you reduce the amount of packaging you use, but you can also look into re-using packaging, including cushioning materials that has come from returns and through other deliveries.
We know it’s important for many ecommerce stores to make a big deal out of their packaging and want it to look bespoke to their business and while you shouldn’t get rid of this, instead you should look at how you can offer the same great experience without having as much material included.
Digital Office
Developments in technology are allowing businesses to lower the amount of paper and packaging used within the workplace, with many people now using computers and tablets to become more environmentally friendly. By using cloud storage systems such as Google Drive, Dropbox and iCloud, businesses are automatically reducing the amount of paper that is used by storing documents digitally, saved for workers to access later, rather than through printing out documents.
By eliminating the need for paper copies of work and encouraging employees to store their information on computer systems, you can help not only benefit the environment but you also reduce costs of paper and packaging, as well as helping improve productivity of your team.
Be Encouraging
One important way you can make your business more eco friendly is through encouraging your customers and making them aware that your packages and even products are recyclable or even produced from recycled products. By telling your customers about this, you can increase the chances that your customers will recycle this packaging appropriately once they are aware. Passing down information about recycling and benefitting the environment extends the chain of information and can encourage more people to think about how they can help the environment.
You can also encourage your employees to work in a more green way, through the ways suggested above in regards to cloud storage, but you can also encourage your team to partake in activities such as bike rides or shared commutes, in order to act greener.
With more and more discussion going on about the environment and the state of the planet, it’s a good idea for businesses to start thinking more about how they can help the environment and act in an ecologically friendly way. These days people are more likely to judge a business based on their ethics and they run things, by showing your business as a more sustainable and eco friendly organisation, you’re much more likely to come across as trustworthy and ultimately more profitable.
