Going green is one of the best things you can do for your small business. Not only does it give people a better impression of you when they come to use your services, it doesn\u2019t always have to cost your company a lot of money to become more energy efficient in some ways. You don\u2019t have to install solar panels to be green, fortunately, and here are some simple and easy ways to hop on the environmental protectors\u2019 train.<\/p>\n
Skip the bottles, and if you can\u2019t, recycle them.<\/strong> Only about 13{7e4ee7cd997d36f6dec43befd6b19c37edf0959bbf61766e988f901dd91e96d7} of plastic water bottles are recycled each year, and that\u2019s with the massive kick towards renewable resources. If you can, go with a water delivery service that just uses large, reusable bottles or, even better, buy a filter for the sink or to put in the fridge so there\u2019s always cool, fresh water available for you and your employees. Investing in reusable cups in the beginning may be a little more expensive than just buying the regular plastic ones you throw away, but in the long run it will save you money \u2013 and the environment. When you\u2019re considering things like conferences, use a few ice cold pitchers and some cups before using the plastic water bottles.<\/p>\n Get rid of printing and go paperless. <\/strong>There are a few things still where paper is required, but for the most part, all communication and correspondence can be done over e-mail or similar programs and services. There are even programs like Cloud that allow you to edit documents together in real time to avoid shifting the same paper around an office over and over again. Paper is no more permanent than electronic documents, so making that shift today \u2013 even just the beginnings of that shift \u2013 helps.<\/p>\n