Global warming continues to be a problem without an immediate solution and its effect of drastic changes to the weather patterns triggers a worldwide call to do our part, even in small ways, in reducing the carbon emissions in our everyday life. This global campaign of protecting the environment is usually referred as to 'Go Green'.It is all about doing things that will be beneficial to the environment despite the advancement in technology. Becoming more common is the term of sustainable development wherein technology and nature can both grow side by side, rather than the opposite of what has been the practice in the last century where technology grew at the expense of the environment.
A personal way is going to the office in a car pool or utilizing public transport instead of driving a car individually. This way, less cars will be on the road equating to less fuels burned and less carbon monoxide production. Another way is by unsubscribing from the paper version on personal billing statements and subscribing instead on the online version of the billing statement.
Some small businesses are also doing their part of protecting the environment and started going green. If you own a small business and is not yet answered the call, you might want to try it for yourself.
One of the most common methods is by minimizing the unnecessary use of paper. With the advancement of communication technology like electronic mail, correspondences and memos, among others, can now be done electronically and avoid producing a hard copy. This way, not only does the energy in producing the paper reduced, but cutting more trees to convert to be paper is also avoided. If going paperless is not totally possible, recycling paper is the least that can be done where both sides of the paper are utilized.
Recycling other office materials is also one way to go green especially those that are made on non-biodegradable materials. It does lessen the use of energy to produce the material and avoids it to become garbage or pollutant, as well. If you cannot recycle the office supply or equipment anymore, you can at least segregate your waste materials so that it can be recycled by the proper entity.
Saving electricity and reducing its usage can greatly help the environment and make savings for the company at the same time. This can be done by powering off equipment and lights that are not being used. Using energy efficient equipment and lights, like compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), is also becoming a trend to save expenses and usage of electricity. If more businesses will do these things, it can have a big impact globally as proven by the sudden drop of energy usage during the several observances of the 'Earth Hour' in the past.
Using eco-friendly packaging materials is also one way to go green. Most non-biodegradable packaging materials like plastics and Styrofoam contains chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that also contributes to global warming when the composition of the materials have been broken down.
There are some that goes a bit further by using eco-friendly cleaning solutions. These may cost a bit more than the usual cleaning solutions but they still chose it to help the environment.
These are some of the things small businesses are doing to go green and be able to help the environment. Most of the things mentioned are even more beneficial to the companies in terms of the savings that they incur. Isn't it good to be able to save money while helping to save the environment at the same time?
Investing on energy-efficient equipment and appliances may seem to cost more at first, but as days, months and years go by, the more you will be able to save. The earlier you start to go green, the more savings you can have and the more you can help the environment.
