The Benefits of Going Green

Want to cut costs in business? Try going green! I run a newspaper-subscription service, and we recently made some changes to offset our carbon footprint. What started out as a fun way to help the earth turned into a project that increased our operational efficiencies, saved us money, motivated employees and fostered a more collaborative office culture? Here are some of the key things we did:

• We cut one quarter of our paper costs by encouraging employees to print only when necessary, and to use the backs of printed sheets as scratch paper.
• We installed a faucet-mounted water filter in the break room, which drastically cut our need for water-cooler jugs.
• We installed recycling bins in our break room for plastics, aluminum and paper packaging.
• We implemented a paper-recycling program to ensure all of our paper waste is being put to good use.
• We made the switch to reusable dishware.
• We switched to recycled toner cartridges and started recycling our pens.
• I bought rechargeable batteries for all employees.

In the beginning, I anticipated a lot of staff resistance to these changes. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that going green generated a lot of energy among our employees. All in all, I’ve been pleased with the results of the measures we’ve put in place, and I encourage others to consider implementing green practices for better business.

Frank Vega is the owner of Newspaper subscription services lP/ green Business Bureau. E-mail Frank at vega@nsslp.com.