Going Green In Business
Purpose: A Corporation-Focused approach towards better ecosystems.
Description/Background: Given the always increasing importance of corporate social responsibility in the global business world, taking a greener approach for companies is paramount, not only for the financial benefits it represents when it comes to analyzing the statements, but for the major improvements and positive impacts these strategic moves signify for the overall company image, as this is also employed as a positive and powerful marketing tool by helping the company position its brand as a “company that cares”, therefore, attracting other interested customers to acquire its products and or services.
Scope: Analyzing the best options and giving recommendations on how the companies can become more environmentally responsible, by cutting down paper consumption and delivering paper based products that are fully justified, as well as saving paper to deliver more school based books for kindergarten level to high school students, through social responsibility programs aimed to improve and promote such constructive practices.
I. Main point 1: Going Green in today’s business world: Does this represent a challenge or is a necessity?
A. sub point 1: Effective methodology to achieve waste-production awareness and successfully change the way people do business with a more ecological thinking.
B. sub point 2: Understanding the key role new technologies play in keeping the paper waste at its lowest point on the 21st century.
II. Main Point 2: Corporate Social Responsibility towards the environment and its impact on society as the main actor of the market the company serves.
A. sub point 1: Reducing paper waste as a way of preserving the forests, reducing the carbon footprint, and therefore improving the situation of major ecosystems regarding global warming.
B. sub point 2: Socially Responsible Initiatives – Recycling paper waste and reusing it in the production of teaching material for kids and teenagers.
III. Main Point 3: Benefits and Inconveniences of taking an environment-friendly approach.
A. sub point 1: Review of repercussions on the financials – a Cost-Driven Strategy.
B. sub point 2: Managing resistance to change when turning green through the entire corporation: Is it impossible to change bad habits on people?
Recommendations to achieve paper consumption awareness on all businesses:
Nowadays, paper waste has become a major issue within our society, along with the general production of other types of waste, since it means that the more paper we use, the more trees are being cut down. It is in our hands to minimize this consumption and take it to its lowest level. As people belonging to any organization, and especially those who hold high-range positions within, we can promote among our coworkers the best practices that ensure a wiser usage of paper products and resources in general. The first of all recommendations would include sending communications to all employees encouraging them to only print out the necessary documents for their work. Also, making all the communications digital instead of printed, would represent large savings on paper purchases, less waste-generation and an overall reduced carbon footprint.Giving the employees directions to reuse paper (both sides printing), and reinforcing a culture of “paper only when necessary”, is another good way of reducing stationery costs and paper waste.
Corporations having a Public Relations department could develop a Corporate Social Responsibility program involving kids in recycling activities, and special games to promote the ecological culture, as well as planting new trees and reducing waste production. Another initiative many companies should implement is to promote the reduction of paper use in the offices stating it will allow the printing of school books, additionally; the inclusion of a paper recycling program in association with recycling companies, to reprocess used wasted paper, in order to be donated to foundations that print teaching materials for kids and teenagers, would not only strengthen the image of the corporation as a socially responsible one, but would allow the decrease of taxes due to donations.
Benefits of going green:
Many companies underestimate the benefits of adopting a green-friendly culture and putting this approach into practice is not an easy task, mostly due to resistance to change. Nonetheless, a change in paradigms is compulsory in order to get adapted to new trends, as more and more environmentally-responsible companies adopt new measures to reduce all kinds of waste and reduce their carbon footprint, several countries give tax-related incentives and grants to those entities that can demonstrate their efforts put in taking care of the environment.
Corporations going paperless benefit not only from the reduced amount of purchase of paper, folders, clips, hooks among other types of stationery and filing infrastructure, but having digital files instead of the regular old filing system, makes possible to share information internally faster and more effectively among the working teams. Bigger companies may save on costs by overriding the hire of archiving personnel as well, given that filing would become a task performed digitally on a daily basis by the employees generating the information.
Other improvements observed by companies that take the step into to “the green side”, are the ones related to the workplace environment. Greener companies that use sustainable materials for clean-up and achieve to reduce waste, ensure their employees suffering from chronic allergies enjoy a cleaner and healthier place for work, improving the overall experience, and providing a better working environment which consequently guarantees improvements in the efficiency of the teams.
