From Guest Blogger Brooke Chaplan: Industrial Efficiency–How the Future of Big Business is Becoming Green

Big businesses are often blamed for the state of environmental decline, and many have done much to change their ways. With some efforts by the government and inside incentives from companies themselves, changes have been made to help reduce pollution and improvements made to turn over a new, green leaf. Here are just a few ways that modern big businesses are going green today.

Green Energy

More and more companies are making the shift to “greener” energy sources like solar and wind power. By eliminating or reducing their dependency on fossil fuels, many have found they save money in their utilities expenses. This is not to mention the effect it has on sales. People love to buy from environmentally friendly businesses, so when a company can boast it is being run on eco-friendly power, a lot of buyers will take notice. This can lead to an increase in profit not just from cutting back in electricity spending, but in sales.

Recycling

Recycling is the most well-known way for anyone, individual or big business, to go green. For this reason, it has become even more popular with various businesses as a way to help the planet and turn a profit. Places like Main Street Fibers and other local sources offer electronic recycling for businesses to turn in printers, fax, and other machines to be reused.

Recycling is largely in the steel industry today as well. A vast majority of steel that is used for construction has been recycled. This not only helps the planet, but the steel manufacturers. It takes a lot of resources to make steel, and it involves paying miners to get the raw materials out of the ground. By using recycled steel, there is much less strain on the Earth and the wallets of the businesses that have to pay for the raw materials.

Going Digital

Everyone jokes they are “killing trees” when they print off a large stack of paper, but this is closer to the truth than many realize. The Amazon rainforest is quickly being destroyed, and the use of paper is one of the leading causes of this destruction. Thankfully, big businesses finally seem to be catching on. Many larger corporations have stopped sending paper memos entirely and shifted to sending out emails instead. There is even a growing trend where companies will no longer print off receipts, but just email them to the consumer to save paper!

It has taken a good deal of time, but it seems that big businesses are finally doing their part to give the Earth a helping hand. Through several different means, corporations are lessening their impact on the Earth, one step at a time.