Understanding Energy Usage

Every company out there creates waste on a daily basis, it's just a part of life and a part of getting the job done. But if you are trying to reduce your company's environmental footprint, you'll have to look at every aspect of your business and that very well could include what's going into your waste bins on a daily basis. If you want to try and lower the amount of waste your company is creating every day, here are some ideas for how to get started.

Take a Step Back and Figure Out Where Your Problems Lie

First things first, it can be helpful before moving forward with any solutions to go green to take a breath and identify where your biggest concerns currently lie. Is your company creating a lot of waste of a specific type? Doing a bit of a "trash audit" on your company will help you learn your current patterns of trash creation and then you can use this information to pivot towards a greener way of doing business.

Start Simple and Go Paperless

When you think of commercial waste management, you might think of a company creating waste through excess metals or other materials. But one of the top materials that contribute to waste in every office or other building in the country is paper. Your company likely goes through a large amount of paper when creating and sharing documents around the office or printing out customer invoices.

If you want to eliminate your paper waste, implement more paperless options for customers. Allow a customer to get their invoice over e-mail. For your workers, consider setting up a network where employees can pull all documents or templates down from the cloud to get the information they need without actually having to print out each and every one.

Can You Donate Instead or Throwing It Away?

Another idea would be to help those in need by giving away some of your old items that your company no longer has any use for instead of just throwing them into a dumpster. For example, old computers, printers, and server equipment could be donated to a local school for needy children. Old food in the company break room could be donated to a local shelter as long as it's not actually expired.

Contact a Waste Management Solutions Company

If you want to go green from top to bottom, you might want to bring in some outside help. A waste management firm could help you recycle more of your excess materials or come up with other unique waste management solutions to keep items out of the landfill.