Paperless office

Becoming a paperless office is one of the biggest changes that you can do. Instead of sending documents and letters in the post, wherever it’s possible, send an email or think about whether it’s necessary that you need print something out.

Additionally, another benefit of becoming a paperless office is that you will also be saving on costs (paper, postage, printer and ink).

Switching to LED lights

Another change for your office or business premises is switching your lights to LED bulbs. The more energy efficient bulbs are not only good for the environment but will reduce your energy bills.

The initial cost for a LED light bulb is more than a halogen light bulb, not by much but they last up to 50,000 hours. In comparison to an incandescent bulb and halogen bulb that last up to 2,000 hours, you won’t need to worry about changing the bulbs for a long time.

Refurbishment of Your Work Premises 

If you’re looking to make big changes, refurbishing your work premises to a higher energy rating can reduce your carbon footprint and running costs in the long run. Some of the things that you can do are:

• Upgrade your windows to double or triple glazing
• Add insulation to your walls and ceiling
• Install an energy efficient boiler
• As mentioned before, switch your lighting to LED bulbs

The refurbishment doesn’t need to stop at the ‘building works’ type improvements, the furniture that you chose is something else to think about. You can opt to go down the route of picking recycled office furniture such as desks and chairs and electronic equipment such as your telephones, laptops, desktop computers and phones. 

From the refurbishment to furnishing and supplying equipment, this can all add up quite quickly – finance can be arranged for your building works, furniture and equipment. 

Make a pledge to plant trees

One method to offset your carbon footprint is pledging to plant a tree. When you plant a tree is up to you, you can pledge to do it every time you have a new customer, take on a new team member, expand your fleet of vehicles or hit a certain sale figure.

It’s completely up to you and there are lots of organisations such as Forest Nation who can assist you on your tree planting pledge.

Installing solar panels or renewable energy sources

One of the biggest impacts that you could do is installing renewable energy sources such as solar panels or biomass boilers.

Renewable energy sources will allow your business to become more self efficient and produce its own power to run your business. Once the solar panels or biomass boiler has paid for itself, you’re basically producing free power for your business.

Installing renewable a energy source can be quite expensive however, you don’t need to purchase the assets outright. Finance options are available which allow you to retain working capital and make affordable monthly instalments for your new investment.

Recycling

Another addition to your work premises could be recycling whether it’s in the kitchen area, staff rooms or in the office place, there is plenty that you can recycle within your business.

As well as recycling, you can choose to use recycled items such as recycled papers and workwear. Also, to reduce your waste as a whole, you can opt to go for sustainable choices opposed to single use items. For example, use travel mugs instead of plastic and paper cups, swap paper and plastic straws for metal ones, silicon plastic coverings instead of clingfilm and tinfoil.

Switching to electric vehicles

As technology advances, electric vehicles have come a long way with batteries lasting longer and vehicles being able to do more miles. If you’re thinking about upgrading or adding to your commercial vehicle fleet, it might be time to consider electric vehicles.

With the prices of fuel rapidly increasing, electric vehicles could be saving your business or your drivers quite a hefty saving. In addition, fully electric cars are exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty but you’ll have to pay Benefit in Kind Tax of 2%.

Walk, cycle or car share to work

For many businesses, their biggest carbon footprint could be their employees travelling to and from their workplace. If it’s possible, encourage them to walk, cycle or even car share to work.  Employees might not wish to change their routine but you can always offer them an incentive to do.

Hybrid Working

Following on from commuting to the office, another option is to introduce working from home or a hybrid working approach. With many people working from home during the UK’s Covid Lockdowns, many businesses know if they operate from home.

Even if your employees work from home once a day, this could reduce your company’s carbon footprint significantly as well as fuel costs and utility bills. You will need to figure out if your business can work from home, it might be worth providing your employees with laptops to make it easier to adapt to any type of working location/environment (laptops are eligible for lease finance).

Join Our Mailing List

See our privacy notice for more information on how we take care of your information.