Key Hacks to Make Your Business More Sustainable in 2022

Julie Starr • December 29, 2021



Running a successful modern business means successfully evolving to capture the essence of what the market and the consumer are seeking. You have to work out how to stay relevant as well as keep ahead of the competition right now. There are a lot of things that play a part in this process, and it is something that you should be looking to make the most of right now. 

One of the key things you can do when trying to run a modern company is to make sure you work on making the brand and business more sustainable. This comes with so many benefits, and there are a lot of great ways of being able to achieve this. Try to think about some of the best ways of being able to make your company better, and do what you can to boost sustainability as much as possible as a business owner. 

Let Your Employees Work Remotely

Letting your employees work remotely is an excellent way of making the company more sustainable and doing your bit for the environment. But, even more than that, it also has the added bonus of making sense as a measure against COVID, as well as helping the company in the event of another global lockdown. Working from home boosts efficiency, cuts down on carbon emissions, and increases the likelihood of more people being able to do their jobs more often. This is one of the key measures you should take if you are looking to try to make your company more sustainable in the process too. 

Go Paperless

So many businesses these days are taking the plunge and doing what they can to go paperless as much as possible. This is something that you need to try to make the most of moving forward right now, and there are a lot of things that you can do to help you improve upon this as much as possible. Going paperless is not only environmentally friendly but also highly efficient too. It’s a great way of being able to improve productivity and help the company become better organized as a result. There are so many great ideas you can use to help you improve your business, but going paperless is one of the most effective right now. 

Choose Your Partnerships Carefully

Choosing your partnerships very carefully is one of the best things that you can do to help your company thrive and grow, as well as to maintain sustainability as much as possible. There are a lot of things that play a part in this, and you need to try to make sure you focus on the best ways of being able to achieve this right now. Selecting companies that are ethical and sustainable to partner with is hugely important, and there are a lot of things that can play a part in this process. Try to make sure you come up with some of the best ways of being able to achieve this, and use it as a move that will make your brand more sustainable and successful in the process.

Buy Greener Products

One of the best things you can do to make for a more sustainable business is to make sure you buy greener products and services. Of course, it goes without saying that you will need to ensure you provide your customers with greener products, and this is something that plays a big role in this as much as possible. But, stocking up your business with essential products is a vital part of the day-to-day running of any successful brand. And, this is where, when it comes to things like low temp refrigeration , you can make a big change by going green as much as possible when it comes to improving your company. There are a lot of things that play a part in this, and it is important to come up with ideas that will help you make this better. 

Sustainable Packaging

Packaging can be one of the areas where so many businesses fall down in a bid to keep things as environmentally sound as possible. So, you need to try to come up with some of the best ways of being able to switch up your packaging so that it is more sustainable and eco-friendly. This is one of the best things you can do when it comes to improving your company and making things more eco-friendly in the process. There are plenty of things you can use to help you improve your company’s packaging as much as possible. 

Cut Down on Water Use

Using less water is a great way of being more environmentally friendly, so your company needs to look at some of the best ways of being able to cut down on its water use . Within the working environment, you can come up with some excellent ways of achieving this, such as fixing any taps or pipes that are dripping and getting low-flow toilets installed. These are just a few of the key ways of being able to make your company more sustainable and green in the future. This is something that you have to try to make the most of as much as you can. 

Set a Green Example

Setting a green example for your employees is a great place to begin when it comes to trying to make the company more sustainable. So, there are a lot of things that play a part in this, and it is important to ensure you do the best you can to come up with some of the best ways of achieving this, such as making recycling a key part of the company and trying to reduce your own carbon footprint.

There are a lot of things that you can do to help make your business more sustainable and embrace a greener way of doing things. These are some of the best hacks that you can use that will help you approach this in the best possible way. Try to take steps to help you improve and enhance your company, and make it the best it can possibly be right now. This is something that you can achieve through a more sustainable business. 

How Student-Led ‘Energy Audits’ Are Cutting School Costs (and Lighting the Way Forward)

By Julie Starr • July 14, 2025
What happens when students stop waiting for adults to fix things and start conducting their own energy audits? Money gets saved. The lights get switched off. Data gets analyzed. And a quiet revolution in sustainability begins—inside schools that once overlooked their own inefficiencies. Across the globe, student-led energy audits are proving that change doesn't always need to come from a policy shift or a major capital budget. Sometimes, it begins with a clipboard, a spreadsheet, and a group of curious minds asking: Why are the hallway lights on at noon when sunlight floods the building? The Energy Detectives These audits aren’t science fair projects. They’re rigorous investigations, often done in collaboration with facilities staff, local environmental nonprofits, or even engineering mentors. Students go from classroom to classroom measuring electricity usage, checking for phantom loads , and identifying where heat is escaping in winter or air conditioning is leaking in summer. One high school in Ontario saved over $12,000 a year after its Grade 11 physics students ran an energy audit and suggested simple changes—LED upgrades, motion sensors in bathrooms, and smarter heating schedules. They didn’t just propose ideas. They pitched them with spreadsheets, thermal images, and payback timelines. It worked. Learning That Pays Off—Literally Unlike textbook learning, these audits blend real-world math, environmental science, economics, and persuasive communication. Students aren’t just learning about sustainability. They’re doing it. And the savings add up. From dimming overlit hallways to reprogramming HVAC systems that run all weekend for empty buildings, students are surfacing blind spots that administrators often overlook. In some districts, their findings are influencing energy policy. Elsewhere, the audits have inspired school boards to hire sustainability coordinators—often alumni of the student programs themselves. There’s something poetic about a school funding new books or laptops from money saved by students who found out the vending machines didn’t need to be plugged in 24/7. Why This Matters More Than Ever With education budgets tightening and utility costs rising, every dollar saved is a dollar that can go back into classrooms. And here’s where it gets interesting from a family finance perspective, too. If you’re a parent setting aside money for post-secondary savings, every bit of school efficiency helps. Fewer energy costs might mean more programming, better STEM facilities, or even bursaries. That raises a broader point: when families save for their children’s future, they often look into RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plans). And many wonder—is a RESP deduction available on my taxes? While contributions themselves aren’t deductible, the gains grow tax-free, and students often pay little to no tax when they withdraw the funds during school. A Movement Worth Replicating These audits aren’t just an exercise in environmentalism. They’re leadership labs. Students learn how to spot inefficiencies, speak up in board meetings, and make a business case for change. They don’t just flip switches—they shift mindsets. And they carry these habits into adulthood. The result? A generation growing up not only with climate anxiety, but also with tools to tackle it.

Smart Sensors, Smarter Supply Chains: Enhancing Traceability in Food & Beverage

By Julie Starr • June 20, 2025
In today’s competitive food and beverage (F&B) landscape, traceability is no longer a compliance checkbox—it’s a differentiator. The ability to track every step of a product’s journey, from origin to shelf, is vital for regulatory accuracy and to ensure brand integrity, supply chain agility, and consumer trust. Add smart sensors to the mix: the quiet, tireless observers revolutionizing supply chain intelligence. Traceability Has a Data Problem Despite digitization across many F&B operations, most traceability systems still rely on fragmented or manual data inputs. Batch numbers, barcodes, and handwritten logs often stand between a supplier and clarity when things go wrong. This approach struggles with latency and scale. When contamination or delays occur, root cause analysis is slow, costly, and damaging. Smart sensors shift this paradigm by embedding real-time, contextual intelligence into every stage of the supply chain . Whether monitoring humidity in transit or recording fill-level precision in bottling plants, they remove the guesswork by turning physical conditions into structured, time-stamped data. From Passive Monitoring to Active Optimization Sensors used to be reactive tools, alerting operators to anomalies. But smart sensors now play a proactive role in process control. They measure, and they interpret. For example, temperature sensors embedded in cold chain logistics can dynamically adjust cooling systems or flag threshold breaches before spoilage occurs. These advancements reduce waste and loss at a systemic level. In a production facility, smart sensors integrated with PLCs can enforce recipe compliance, verify clean-in-place processes, and detect micro-stoppages in real-time. This enables operations to pivot faster and isolate inefficiencies before they cascade downstream. Trust is Built on Transparency Consumers are paying more attention to what they eat and drink. They’re looking beyond labels, expecting visibility into how ingredients are sourced, processed, and handled. Smart sensors make this level of transparency achievable —without burdening manufacturers with excessive manual oversight. By capturing metadata throughout production and distribution, these sensors create a digital footprint that’s tamper-resistant and instantly accessible. When this data is integrated with a central platform, brands can respond confidently to audits, recalls, and quality assurance challenges with a level of precision that would be impossible through legacy systems. Intelligence Without Infrastructure Overhaul One common misconception is that adding smart sensors requires a top-down reinvention of supply chain infrastructure. In reality, companies can deploy edge sensors in a modular, scalable way. Many modern solutions offer plug-and-play functionality, allowing for fast integration with existing machinery and MES systems. This is where suppliers like alps-machine.com are reshaping expectations. Rather than pushing proprietary ecosystems, they design sensor-ready equipment with interoperability in mind. This future-proofs investment and keeps businesses nimble in the face of regulatory or market shifts. Designing for Data Longevity Sensors are only as powerful as the context they capture. A smart implementation ensures the data collected can be standardized, stored securely, and accessed meaningfully across departments. This means moving beyond local dashboards toward centralized, queryable datasets that inform everything from supplier contracts to marketing claims. As AI and predictive analytics become more accessible, these data-rich environments will unlock new capabilities—such as predicting demand spikes based on real-time freshness indicators or adjusting production schedules dynamically based on in-transit sensor feedback. Final Thoughts: Smarter Isn’t Optional Traceability isn’t solved by more paperwork—it’s solved by embedded intelligence. Smart sensors don’t just help businesses know what happened; they help prevent the wrong things from happening at all. For companies in the food and beverage sector, adopting smart sensors is less about chasing innovation and more about enabling resilience, speed, and confidence in every decision.