[ECO]How to Create a More Productive Business While Helping the Environment

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How to Create a More Productive Business While Helping the Environment

The simple act of making your business operations more efficient and productive will indirectly make it more eco-friendly. When you work towards an efficient business, you will be picking up on areas of improvement for your business. Typically, these are direct ways to make it more eco-friendly. However, when other areas of your business are reviewed for efficiency, you can make it more sustainable. 

Many companies will look to make changes that make them greener, for example, changing their source of energy, implementing automated lights so they are only on when needed, going paperless, etc. While these are all excellent for the environment, many businesses neglect to consider how the inefficiencies of their internal operations can also be causing the business to be less eco-friendly. 

For example, when you use multiple systems to do a task, you can streamline it into one so hardware is not working *******, for longer and unnecessarily. Tasks can be automated so they take one-tenth of the time to be completed. Reducing the number of emails sent per day per employee. These may seem like small things, but they are very big. 

Not only can improving productivity and efficiency in your business save you a lot of valuable time and energy, but they will also help you contribute to a better environment. This will be explained in more detail in this blog, with actionable steps that you can take to improve the efficiency of your business. Read on to learn more. 

Go paperless

This is one of the best and biggest things that a business can do to make it more efficient, productive, and environmentally friendly. It ticks all the right boxes and comes with many benefits. Going paperless means uploading all of your paper files into a system online, and using that moving forward to reduce your paper consumption and waste. This helps in a variety of ways, including helping your business to better organize your documents and locate them. It will also mean you can utilize online communication methods such as email, to save the energy consumed when posting items. Not only are you using paper, but a lot of other aspects are involved along the chain too, like the consumption of the drivers, sorting offices, delivery, etc. 

This saves a lot of time and resources. You can also keep them more secure, streamline operations, save costs on paper and storage, remain compliant, and more. All of these benefits mean that your employees can be more productive as it will be quicker and easier to locate files and store them. 

Automate tasks

Automating tasks is an excellent strategy for your business. Not only can it help with the environment and productivity, but can also free up valuable skills, save time, and reduce costs within your business. Automation can be used in many ways. For example, it can complete repetitive and mundane tasks at a much faster rate with fewer errors. This can free up employee time to be more productive and use their time more efficiently. 

Automation can also be used in businesses that use machines. Automation involves technology that can measure emissions accurately, find ways to keep the machines working efficiently, and start and stop machines automatically so they run for less time and use less energy and more. This will help with improving the carbon footprint of the company over time. 

Automation can also be used with things like electricity and lights. You can set lights to be automated so that they are only turned on when they are being used. This adds up to a lot of savings over a year and positively contributes to the environment. 

Streamline communications

Did you know that

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? This may not seem like a lot on the surface, but if you have thousands of workers who are all sending multiple emails per day, this adds up. This also does not include the electricity that it takes to run the technology the email is being written and sent on, the storage of emails at data centers, and more. The data centers that store emails run 24/7 and use a significant amount of energy. As more technology is utilized and the population grows, this is only increasing. 

Did you know that storing emails can also be inefficient? Not only does this inefficiency impact the productivity of your employees, for example, by not being able to locate things quickly, organize their communications, and having to sort them at a later date when their inbox is too full to receive anything. But it also consumes a lot of energy to store them. For example,

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the storage of approximately 3500 emails uses electricity that produces the same amount of CO2 as driving a car a kilometer. Now imagine if everyone in your large corporation was storing thousands of their emails. And all the other individuals and corporations all around the world. It all starts to add up. 

With this in mind, it is important to consider how your business can streamline communications and make your work more efficient at the same time. For example, some businesses will hold in-person meetings for those in the office, where issues can be addressed, projects can be approved and signed off, and questions can be asked and answered. This allows everyone to collaborate in person while reducing the need for paper notes and emails. For things like client communications, consider how the number of emails can be reduced or what energy-efficient systems you can utilize. Back-and-forth emails are not going to be very productive for your employees, nor will they satisfy clients if there is not a quick resolution. 

Reduce working days or hours 

Employees work more productively and efficiently when they have reduced work hours or days. Some companies around the world reduce Friday hours or take them away completely. While others offer shorter working days. This has been shown to increase morale, as well as increase the quality and output of work. With this in mind, it can be extremely beneficial to your business and also save you a lot of costs from wasted time in the workplace from unproductive work. It can also be a great way to save on the environment. When you are in the office for fewer hours, and using your machines, technology, and systems for fewer hours per week, you are reducing the energy and strain on the environment. This will add up to huge savings and big positive impacts year on year. 

Organize your team 

Team organization is key to efficient working. When your team knows their role, their responsibilities, their tasks for the day, and what they need to achieve the business goals, they will be more motivated to work and move tasks forward more efficiently. Make sure you don’t overload your employees or confuse their roles. You should set out clear activities for each employee and the teams they are working in. This may be communicated via an email broadcast or a Monday morning meeting whereby staff gets the opportunity to ask questions. You can utilize technology such as shift management software, to help you organize your teams and the work they should be completing. You can learn more about

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Training your team 

Equipping your team with the skills and knowledge to do their job, will make them work more efficiently and productively. Take an interest in your employees, and learn about their preferred methods of communication, their strengths, their weaknesses, and their interests. Learn about how they want to progress in the company. When they have your support, the work will be more efficient and of a higher quality. It will also enable you to teach them how to do their job better. You can utilize this opportunity to train your staff in eco-friendly practices around the workplace. When they know efficient practices, they will be able to carry them out. This will get your whole business working towards more efficient business and eco-friendly practices. 

Establish realistic goals

Increasing efficiency in business for growth and sustainability needs to be actioned every day by everyone in the business. The best way to do this is to review your current practices, and what is working and what is not. Use this information to make smart and informed decisions about your business.

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and the teams within, and ensure this is communicated across your entire business with actionable steps. This will get everyone on the same page. Review your goals regularly to ensure you are on track and can adapt where necessary. Your business will be a lot more efficient and sustainable when you can be flexible and strive towards your goals.

An efficient business means a sustainable one. Make sure you follow these top tips to help your business in the right direction! 

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