How You Can Promote Reuse In Your Business

Julie Starr • January 4, 2022



The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that America’s landfills are filled with a whopping 139.6 million tons of waste annually. Businesses are undoubtedly one of the most significant generators of this waste, so it is crucial for them to modify their purchasing and current processes to reduce waste volume. Reusing materials is one of the best ways your company can lower the amount of waste it contributes to landfills every year, making it more sustainable. Here are some ideas to promote reuse in your company.

  • Use envelopes and packaging again

It is vital to note that your average envelope begins as a tree or several trees. Additionally, transforming raw materials into envelopes demands top-notch equipment and renewable and non-renewable resources. Consequently, reducing your need for new envelopes through re-usage lessens the waste that ends up in landfills and the resources required to produce them. You can reuse envelopes sent to your company by detaching the glue that holds them together. Then, fold these envelopes in the opposite direction to obtain a clean area where you can write any relevant addresses.

You can also use masking tape to conceal envelopes’ original addresses and write new ones with a black marker. Furthermore, a reported 91% of all packaging waste ends up in landfills or the environment. Therefore, consider reusing your packaging waste to make your enterprise more sustainable. For this, you can use packaging like cardboard boxes, jiffy bags, and wooden pallets again, as long as they are durable. Similarly, you can keep old bubble wrap to reuse as packaging, so keep this in mind.

  • Use a VoIP system

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an excellent communication technology that enables you to make voice calls with a broadband internet connection instead of an analog phone line. This technology is also highly flexible, allowing you to readily integrate it into your present office hardware through software development. As such, your company can continue using its original telephones and connect them to its VoIP system, allowing a rapid change over from one system to another. On the other hand, traditional landline systems require regular upgrades because they lack features like video calls and screen sharing that modern businesses need. These upgrades are costly and often wasteful. Replacing a telephone system requires removing critical equipment and wiring, which eventually ends up in landfills where it will take several years to completely break down. Consequently, consider searching for the best VoIP phone system provider for your business to ensure that you can reuse your telephone system and avoid contributing to landfill waste. These IP phones are wire-free, and it takes just one phone call to your provider to upgrade your VoIP service.

  • Refill your toner and ink-jet cartridges

You have likely thrown away a printer cartridge more than once a month if you do a lot of printing daily in your business. However, numerous experts agree that doing this isn’t always the best option; you can save good money by getting your empty printer ink cartridge refilled instead of purchasing a new one. In many cases, you can save up to 70% of the price of a new cartridge if you choose to refill instead of buying new ones. Additionally, refilling your printer cartridge instead of putting it in the trash will help the environment. For starters, refilling diminishes the overall amount of garbage that ends up in landfills. Also, remember that many printer ink cartridges are made from non-biodegradable materials like plaster. It would take hundreds of years for even the smallest ink cartridges to disintegrate. Therefore, refilling your cartridges will reduce soil destruction as well as air, land, and water pollution.

  • Donate your old office furniture and used equipment

It isn’t uncommon to get rid of various old furniture and equipment around your office occasionally. However, you can donate these unwanted items to various non-profits, schools, and charitable organizations that reuse them instead of sending them to landfills. Donating your furniture also ensures that fewer raw materials are required to produce new ones, preventing unnecessary pollution. Furthermore, donating your office furniture and equipment ensures that these items can be used throughout their entire life cycle. Many consumers get rid of items that can still be used because they are no longer deemed aesthetically attractive. Therefore, donations ensure that things you don’t consider useful or pleasant don’t end up in landfills simply because you don’t fancy them anymore. Instead, you can make your waste items a gift for someone who needs them, promoting longer usage.

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