6 Environmentally Friendly Business Practices Your Brand Should Consider

Julie Starr • December 11, 2020



Business owners are being challenged by public opinions and global legislative changes to practice environmentally friendly business cultures. As a result, the commercial viability of your company may depend on green transformation. In fact, 58% of customers are more likely to follow a brand if they know that the organization cares for the environment. Are you looking forward to embracing eco-friendly business development strategies but don’t know where to start? Here are five environmentally friendly business practices you should consider.

  • Practice green procurement

A simple way to adopt an environmentally friendly business culture is to practice green procurement. Consider your suppliers and find out who produces their goods sustainably. Order recyclable supplies that don’t contain substances that are potentially toxic to the environment. You can also decide to cut ties with suppliers who excessively package their goods with tons of plastic and other materials that aren’t eco-friendly. If you’re a procurement manager, it is smart to be mindful of your suppliers and their goods to screen for sustainable business partners. 

  • Use eco-friendly cleaning solutions

Traditional cleaning solutions may release toxic chemicals into the environment. These can also affect your employees’ health and hurt the planet. Conventional cleaning solutions can cause pollution in your business environment. Switching to eco-friendly cleaning products could place your organization on a straight path to success. Greener cleaning products can minimize air and water pollution and lower the risks of climate change and ozone layer depletion. By using environmentally friendly cleaning chemicals, companies can reduce the amount of waste in landfills. Green cleaning products are more sustainable as they use less packaging.

  • Use reusable office supplies

In the US alone, over 4 million pens are discarded per day, which is terrible for the environment. The solution to this problem will be to switch to reusable pens to limit their plastic waste. Reusable pens are refillable with new ink if they run out of fluid. Your organization can also cut down its production of paper waste by using tablets in place of sticky note pads. Additionally, encourage your staff to take notes electronically instead of using marker boards. Ask your team to keep track of your business materials to help you understand what products are being wasted and how to green your office space. 

  • Adopt green advertising strategies

Technology has made it easier to do virtually anything. With regards to eco-friendliness, technology allows eliminating the use of certain materials. For example, in advertising, you no longer need to print your message to get it across. You can use social media platforms to achieve that. Similarly, when conducting research or receiving feedback from clients to establish your marketing strategies, you can use platforms such as MaxDiff survey templates or Google forms. By launching eco-friendly marketing campaigns, companies can distinguish themselves as environmentally friendly business brands. These suggestions are practical as a large number of the world’s population uses smartphones.

  • Reduce vehicular emissions

It’s no longer news to say that the transportation sector is a heavy contributor to greenhouse gas production. In 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that emissions from road vehicles and commercial aircraft accounted for 29% of greenhouse gases in the environment. 2016 had previously seen even more shocking statistics — one American Community Survey found out that workers drove at least 115 million cars to work every day. Unfortunately, more oil-powered vehicles on the road mean more emissions. 

As a means of building a sustainable company, you can encourage your workers to use commuting options that reduce emissions. For example, you could start carpooling systems and subsidize transportation for your workers to use public transport instead of driving their own cars. The use of public transport saves travel time and minimizes fuel consumption in urban areas. You can also incentivize employees who walk or cycle to work every day.

  • Break the addiction to plastic convenience

Collectively, humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic per year. You can help reduce that number by limiting your plastic waste usage and searching for alternatives. Recycling can help your business minimize waste, save more money, and contribute to a healthy environment. Perhaps the smartest decision you can make is to decrease the number of single-use water bottles and coffee cups in your work environment. Annually, the average office worker uses roughly 156 plastic water bottles and discards about 500 coffee cups. When your organization starts using reusable materials, you can limit your carbon footprint and decrease the volume of waste in landfills. 

The future of the planet and that of humanity hinges on sustainability. Therefore, consider going green.

5 Simple Ways to Make Your Online Business More Sustainable

By Julie Starr • August 9, 2025
Running an online business can feel like a constant balancing act. You’re trying to grow, keep customers happy, and still have time for yourself. The trick to making it all work long-term is to build habits and systems that last. You don’t need a complicated plan or endless resources to do it either. Here are five straightforward ways to make your business more sustainable without overcomplicating things. Focus on long-term customer relationships If you want your business to last, you need customers who keep coming back. That doesn’t just happen because you’ve got a good product or service. It’s about making people feel valued every time they interact with you. Simple things like remembering their name, following up after a purchase, or sending a quick thank-you email can make a huge difference. People are far more likely to support a business they feel connected to, so keep those relationships personal and genuine rather than purely transactional. Make your marketing work smarter A big part of sustainability is making sure your marketing isn’t draining your time or money. You want it to be efficient and get results. This is where working with seo consultants can help. They know how to make sure people can find your business online without you throwing cash at random ads. Even if you can’t hire someone right now, you can start by focusing on keywords, improving your website’s loading speed, and posting valuable content that answers the questions your customers are already asking. Streamline your products or services It’s tempting to try to offer everything to everyone, but that’s rarely a good idea. The more you offer, the more time, money, and resources you’ll end up using. Instead, focus on the things you do best and make them as good as they can be. When you streamline what you’re selling, you can put all your energy into perfecting it, which makes it easier to maintain quality over time. Customers notice when you consistently deliver something great, and they’ll trust you more for it. Keep an eye on your finances No matter how much you enjoy the creative or customer side of your business, the numbers are what will keep you going long-term. That means knowing what’s coming in, what’s going out, and where you can cut costs without cutting quality. Set yourself a monthly check-in to look at your spending and profits. If you spot something that’s not working financially, don’t leave it for months, hoping it will improve. Tackle it early and you’ll avoid bigger problems down the road. Look after yourself You can’t run a sustainable business if you’re running yourself into the ground. Burnout isn’t just bad for you, it’s bad for your customers and your bottom line. Make sure you’re setting boundaries, taking breaks, and switching off when you can. That might mean scheduling a full day without work every week or turning your phone off after a certain time. The more balanced you are, the better decisions you’ll make, and the easier it will be to keep your business moving forward without constantly feeling like you’re in survival mode. Sustainability in business isn’t about doing one big thing; it’s about making intelligent, consistent choices that build over time. Start small, keep checking in on your progress, and before you know it, your business will feel a lot steadier and more future-proof than it did before.

Sustainable Choices That Heavy Industry Businesses Can Easily Make

By Julie Starr • August 8, 2025
Are you hoping to build a heavy industry business? It’s the kind of company that can have globally sweeping positive and negative effects. On the one hand, you’re contributing to the industry, ensuring there’s enough supply to meet demand, and you can do your best to operate in a sustainable way that prioritizes the environment. But on the other hand, the heavy industry has long been the most significant business polluter in the world. Despite advancements in industry technology and usage, their ranking relative to other sectors, such as food and beverage , and shipping and logistics, has remained unchanged as of 2025. Requiring extensive use of large, heavy, and expensive machinery, the fumes produced by heavy-duty factories in sectors like mining, aerospace, nautical, and metal production regularly cause harm to both human and animal life. It’s why anyone interested in investing or scaling within an industry like this needs to focus on their company’s carbon footprint. There are various ways to ensure you’re limiting your harmful output and waste, and you’ll want to use as many as possible within your operation. Check out our recommendations below. Work with Green Suppliers No matter what stage you sit at in the hypothetical supply chain, you’re likely to source at least part of your overall production material from a supplier. If that’s not the case, you’ll still need to work with companies that provide machinery and equipment, as well as replacement parts for these industrial items. All in all, to make as sustainable a choice as possible, you’ll want to commit to working with a ‘green’ supplier who makes eco-conscious choices at every step. Eco-friendly suppliers will strive to both implement sustainable practices within their production line, as well as provide sustainably made and/or extracted materials. The products and/or parts they send out are likely to be recyclable when they reach their end-of-life period, or they’ll run a scheme where you can send old or broken parts back to them. Offset Your Carbon Emissions Offsetting carbon emissions converts the waste output from your operations into something more positive. If you’re interested in programs like this , you can use official government platforms or climate charity websites to contribute. You’ll be able to find a variety of projects that have been undertaken to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, and they’ll be located in various regions across the world. You can choose to patronise as many of them as you wish, but if you want to focus on specific types, you’ll also be able to do so. When approaching a program like this, it’s usually best to offset month by month, as this helps you stay on top of your carbon footprint. Be sure to invest in as much carbon removal per tonne as your business has potentially contributed to the atmosphere in the last month. But before you go any further, there’s one thing you need to keep in mind here: Carbon offsetting is just one sustainable practice you can turn to, but it’s not the only one your business will ever need to use. Yes, it’s one of the most sustainable practices a heavy industry business can invest in. But that’s only true when it’s partnered with real-time carbon-lowering efficiencies within day-to-day operations. Repair, Rather Than Throw Away Repairing is the best option if a repair is possible. This should be the first step when evaluating old or broken-down equipment. If it can be salvaged, it should be. Otherwise, you’ll have to replace the equipment in question. Not only is that expensive, but it also means more waste to manage. And not all heavy industry tech can be recycled. Sometimes it’s potentially hazardous and needs to be disposed of carefully, and this could have harsh impacts on the surrounding environment. Repairing is your best bet, at least 80% of the time. You can get back up and running faster, and you don’t need to account for a large investment at short notice. And more equipment can be repaired than you might think. It’s not just small, singular parts that can be pulled out. Entire internal systems in even large vehicles, such as freighter ships, can be replaced by secondary parts. A marine logistics provider or deep-sea fishing operator would save a lot of money just by ordering a Cummins Rebuild Kit for one of their vessels. Deciding to put the ship out of commission and eventually scrapping it will contribute to the large-scale waste common in companies like this. Aiming to repair and limit environmental damage will get that same boat back onto the waters in seaworthy condition. Operate with Lower Emission Logistics Shipping your products to businesses and markets always generates a carbon footprint. Unless you’re operating only within the local area and you’re able to transport products back and forth on foot, this is an unavoidable issue. And seeing as you’re a heavy industry business, that’s not very likely. But some shipping options are better than others. Indeed, there are low-emission choices to be made, and you’ll want to look into these logistic partners only. You’ll likely find that air travel is a total no-go zone. Alternatives to this are long-haul road transportation or a traditional shipping company that operates via sea. Yes, even trucking your products over land generates a lot less carbon waste that can damage the environment than flying something! Staying Green as a Heavy Industry Player Working sustainably within the heavy industry is a career-long project. You’ll need to continually make moves to consider what could be streamlined into something greener and less consuming next. In the end, this can help your long-term costs decrease and stay low. Fewer risky investments, fewer fees from environmental bodies, and more productive time within your business. So, it’s not going to be easy, but it will be worth it