With climate change causing more and more damage across the globe, many people are becoming more aware of the ecological and environmental impact. This has also had an impact on business, as more people are expecting them to have less of a negative impact on the environment.
Because of that, business owners, as well as other staff, are doing their best to ensure that their business is as environmentally friendly as possible. While many might expect that this might hurt your business’s profit margins, it turns out that this isn’t the case.
How Going Green Can Help Your Business
Even those businesses that just decide to go paperless are seeing some positive results, although many are seeing more and more positive effects the greener they go, and it’s not just down to the fact that it’s better branding. Many businesses have seen a whole host of benefits after they’ve gone green, and they look certain to thrive in 2019 because of that.
It Increases Profits
Reducing your business’ carbon emissions, even by doing something as little as reducing or eliminating paper usage, has been shown to increase your profits year on year. To take just one example; in a case study of Proctor and Gamble, after they signed up for a science-based reduction in their emissions, they reportedly saved up to $500 million in their first year.
Others who have signed up for the same kind of carbon emissions reduction have also reportedly saved money, although to varying degrees.
So far, it also looks like this saving is set to improve with each passing year, although there’s no evidence yet as to whether or not there’s a cap on how much money businesses can save by going green. Having said that, though, by saving money this way, it ends up increasing your business’s profit margins, so from even just a financial standpoint, being environmentally friendly is the way to go.
Legal & Tax Advantages
While this will vary greatly from state to state, as well as from country to country, there are several legal and tax incentives for businesses to go green. This is especially true across America, where several states offer several incentives for businesses to become environmentally friendly.
For example, Florida offers a sales tax exemption to companies that use a certain amount of green energy, such as from solar panels or other forms of renewable energy. America’s federal government also offers a tax incentive of up to 30% for companies that use either solar or wind energy for the majority of their power.
Not only does this mean that your business’s electricity bills will be lower, but you’ll be saving even more where taxes are concerned.
Attracting More (And Better) Employees
As we’ve already mentioned above, more and more people are becoming increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of what they do, and that includes their workplace. Because of that, many potential employees are more attracted to businesses that are more environmentally friendly.
Because of that, if your business has some form of positive environmental impact, you’ll be better able to attract and keep better candidates for positions in your company. With that in mind, you’ll have less employee turnover, and you’ll end up needing to replace employees a lot less often.
According to some studies, about two-thirds of people said that being environmentally friendly in the workplace was important to them, meaning that if you don’t have any procedures in place to help the environment, you could risk ending up alienating the majority of your workforce. Because of that, you may end up losing top talent to many of your competitors.
It Differentiates Your Business
Everybody wants their business to stand out, and not in a negative way. Because more and more businesses are going green, if you don’t catch up, you end up needing to play catch up with many of your competitors.
According to several studies, many small businesses that went green ended up getting a bigger market share than competitors that didn’t, and a lot of that was down to the fact that they went green. According to these reports, almost 80% of these small businesses said that going green had an extremely positive effect on their business.
These businesses also saw extreme growth once they became green, with a vast amount of that growth being solely down to their environmental initiatives. While many of these studies were conducted with larger companies and international brands, many small businesses also saw similar growth after they became more environmentally friendly.
It’s More Efficient
Going green has also been shown to make many businesses more efficient, with one of the key areas being in a major reduction of energy usage. Even simply turning off lights and other electronic devices when they’re not in use is not only environmentally friendly but will end up having an extremely positive impact on your electricity consumption, not to mention your bills.
On top of that, solar and wind energy tends to be a lot cheaper than more traditional methods of generating electricity, so if you were to switch over, it means an even further reduction in your expenses every month. While you may need a certain amount of upfront investment to become more dependent on these kinds of renewable energy, over a few months, you’ll end up making that money back, plus more.
With all of that in mind, what kind of business owner wouldn’t want to go green? Between lower taxes, higher profit margins, and a happier workforce, many businesses will have everything they need to make their businesses successful.
On top of that, your business may end up having a better reputation among potential customers, so you may end up attracting more customers solely due to how environmentally friendly your business is. Because of that, becoming environmentally friendly will end up making your business thrive.
