Business Benefits of Going Green

A simple first step is to find out the criteria used by various environmental ratings systems (NABERS and Green Star) and environmental awards (The Green Building Award, Sustainable Building Award and Banksia Award) and use them to develop a tip sheet or checklist for your own business. Even if you don’t see your company as award-winning material these criteria will give you a great starting point.

Your checklist will enable you to conduct your own mini-audit of the entire footprint of the place your business occupies within its environment. Some of the issues that may crop up include:

• your company’s use of refrigerants;

• its impact on water;

• its waste disposal system;

• how it impacts upon the landscape;

• its use of transport systems;

• the design of your building; and

• the materials chosen for your building.

While some of these things may be difficult to adjust in the short term, others may not. When examining each aspect of your company’s footprint, look for opportunities to reduce waste, reduce consumption of energy and resources, and improve design and systems.

How to go Green

The old 80s management clichÈ, the 80/20 principle holds as true for energy, waste and water as it does for sales results. The vast majority of your energy and waste inefficiencies and therefore potential savings will come from a very small number of issues that you discover.