The modern world is plagued by pollution, habitat destruction and political dithering on policy to solve the issue of man-made climate change. We are in a state of climate crisis. With a lot of clever marketing, we find businesses now taking the lead, to start implementing more sustainable and environmentally conscientious policies.
Various policies exist, and the list of ideas could be endless; for what anybody running a business or any kind of enterprise can do, to be more sustainable. Let’s look at some of the common ones, that not only have an impact on environmental demand; but also on business profitability.
Paperless Offices
Everyone associates paper usage with deforestation in rain forests. According to WWF(World Wildlife Fund), between 8-10% of logging is in violation of national laws. With global consumption due to triple from the current level of 2.2billion cubic metres (Gresham House, 2020). So on the face of it, a reduction in demand for paper used in administration of businesses, would be an effective way of locking away carbon, protecting habitats and reducing freak weather event such as flash-flooding or landslides. So, what problems does the “paperless office” cause? The problem is excess power usage from data centres, as more and more processes are taken online. Excess heat and power demand, have been quoted by many sources as offsetting any gains from in carbon-reduction. This is mainly due to the resources needed to produce renewable production infrastructure like wind turbines and solar panels. The main culprits being lithium and copper. Renewables are estimated to use between 3 and 15 times as much copper, and between 2 and 5 times as much lithium. Both of which have high environmental impact.
Fair Trade and Ethical products
The idea of fair trade is an extremely obvious one. People get what they want to buy, while Farmers and Producers get the money they need with no downward price pressure. In practice, this doesn’t really work. This is because it’s trying to address the non-price factors such as ethical concerns from consumers. The whole scheme, which charges Farmers in poorer countries, has become a marketing exercise for large Supermarkets. Some might say, “Well if they are marketing it, that creates brand power and more sales.” This isn’t the case unfortunately, because supermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores all operate on the “eye-level is buy-level” principle; a staple of visual merchandising. This basically means branded products with eye catching marketing, being put on the middle shelves, with fair trade products often being on the upper or lower shelves; where customers are less likely to pick up products from. When this is coupled with not only fair trade products being in competition with branded similar products, but also in competition with own branded value products sold cheaper than the fair trade goods.
Location, Location, Location
Location of a business and proximity play crucial roles in the success of a business. However, there are also pitfalls if trying balance cost of premises and staying to true to your mission statement involving environmental goals. Low cost sometimes means the place you have your heart set on, might be too far from where people live or too far from public transport links. This can be very bad for PR if your customers have to drive to see you, while you’re aim is to reduce carbon impact from the business. One business that takes this very seriously is IKEA. All their stores are usually outside city centres, and they often come with large multi-storey car parks, however all of their stores have public transport links, which they often pay great subsidy to. They also decarbonise in other ways across supply-chain. My point is, just because you want to save on the rent doesn’t always mean you rent the barn in a block of industrial units in the middle-of-nowhere. It’s worthwhile thinking about what you want to achieve, what location you want you business to be in/near to, and balancing those with what your budget is for those premises. Location also has an impact on the property taxes you pay as a business.
