As a company, you want to be profitable and sustainable. While this isn’t always an easy balance to achieve, there are many ways to help your business grow. One way is by becoming more energy efficient. Besides making your operations more cost-effective, it can also help bring down your carbon footprint and reduce your environmental impact. Here, are some ways that you can procure energy in a sustainable way.
Become Energy Efficient
One of the most important ways to be sustainable as a business is to be energy efficient. The IEA states that business operations using high amounts of energy are the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, finding a supplier that offers energy efficiency solutions is an important part of being sustainable.
One of the most common ways to be more energy efficient is to make your energy demand more efficient. If your business is on the move, you can set up a stationary energy management system. For instance, you can set your energy demand to auto-shut off when your employees go home for the day or when they are in a meeting. This will save you money by letting you take your employees off the grid at a more efficient time.
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
One way to begin reducing your carbon footprint is by purchasing green energy. By purchasing green energy, you can help reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. On the other hand, you can also generate green energy through practices like solar energy and wind power. Both are powerful sources of energy that are utilized for a variety of purposes.
Keep Your Operations Green
One way to be sustainable is to operate your business in a way that reduces your environmental impact. For example, you can compost food scraps at your headquarters and office spaces. This will allow the biodegradable waste to be converted into compost that can be used to help fertilize your lawns.
Get the Right Supply of Energy
When it comes to procuring the energy you need, you want to make sure that you’re getting the right sources that provide sustainable energy. If you’re in a location with high electricity costs, then natural gas may be the better option. On the other hand, if your local renewable sources are cheaper, then you’ll be better off if you procure your energy from that source.
Sell Your Energy Production
When you’re working with a partner, you may be able to sell your energy production to them. For example, if you run a printing company, you can use your heat from your printing presses as an extra source of heat for your office. Or, if you own a restaurant, you can make use of the solar panels on your roof to produce additional energy.
Incentivize Your Employees
You can provide your employees with incentives for energy-saving behavior. Some ideas include providing awards, bonuses, health insurance reimbursements, or fuel rewards. These perks can help your employees save on their utility costs, offset the cost of their commuting, or even reduce their taxes by earning them from various incentives.
Use Company Assets
You can also encourage your employees to be energy efficient by using company assets for energy savings. This can include solar panels, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, thermal mass equipment, or battery storage for backup energy. You can have them place these systems in unoccupied areas. In this way, you can bring down the cost of energy and offset your carbon footprint.
Offer incentives for using more sustainable energy sources
Incentives are a great way to make sustainability more appealing to your employees and customers. This is because most people value financial incentives more than monetary penalties. Even better, the energy is distributed in a way that it benefits the company as well as the environment.
This is one of the many strategies you can use when looking to procure sustainable energy.
Protect the environment by implementing energy conservation practices
Are you aware of the impact that your operations have on the environment? Well, chances are you don’t know it. A lot of businesses know they are damaging the environment, but they have chosen to ignore the problem for the sake of profit. The only way to stop the harm is to start dealing with it.
Measure your progress and keep your employees interested
One of the biggest reasons companies invest in energy efficiency upgrades is because of environmental impact. It can also bring significant cost savings and improve your bottom line.
You can do this by measuring how much energy you are using, and perhaps even creating a similar energy efficiency scorecard for your employees. This will keep them involved and interested, and it will also create a sense of responsibility.
Ensure that you are buying energy from clean sources
Finding reliable energy sources is also a critical part of building a sustainable and environmentally friendly business. Some companies go to great lengths to make sure that they are buying and procuring energy from clean sources, like wind and solar power.
But this isn’t always an option.
Conclusion
While it may be tempting to pursue every viable option to become more energy efficient, it is important to keep your eye on the long term. You should always be in the driver’s seat when it comes to your company’s bottom line. Only you know what will keep your business thriving. By committing to smart practices like energy procurement, you can make it happen.
