Right now a lot of industries are discussing how hard it is to be a  business owner. And why not? This economic recession is hitting all businesses alike…. big box stores to mom and pop shops. There is only so much you can do when consumer spending and confidence are bottomed out. The obvious consequence here is that if spending is down, so are sales, and thus profits.

Can’t run a business without profit.

So, what do we do? Well, if Plato is correct:

Necessity, who is the mother of invention.

When a problem is presented, we will figure out a solution. So what is one thing businesses can do to help out their bottom lines? One way is to adopt environmentally friendly policies.

How can spending money on environmentally friendly policies increase your profit? The idea is that you are focusing on decreasing expenses and/or finding new sources of revenue. Their are a number of options that can be turned green: the facility, policies and procedures, the product or service, or the people themselves.

1) Reduce Energy Use

Most corporate offices leave their computers on 24/7. I know that I, in my workplace, lock down my computer but leave it on when I leave for the day. Why? Because it makes signing on easier when I get in the next day. Saves me 30 seconds!

By implementing a mandatory power cycle every night when the office is closed down, you could save as much as $100 per year per computer. If your facility is 24/7, like the place I work at, you could implement a policy that says employees must power down when they leave for the day. Whether it is forced or un-forced the savings are the same. The same could be said for peripherals like printers and fax machines (if not being used). My facility has over 50 computers.

What other areas could we look to as a way to cut energy use? My facility has three TV’s in a pretty small break room that are always on in case someone wants to watch them. Could we shut them off and just simply leave a remote for people to use? We have multiple fridges that are never at maximum capacity. Could we cut down the number of fridges and run them at a higher utilization rate?

The idea here is to think outside of the box. Energy is getting more expensive and you want to look at ways to reduce your usage. If you are a one facility operation, the cost savings may be minimal.. coming up to a few thousand per year. If you are a huge network of facilities, like with my company, you could wind up saving in the hundreds of thousands by adopting policies to reduce energy use.

2) Improve Lighting

Switching to energy saving bulbs could wind up saving hand over fist. Using natural lighting could obviously save a lot more. The energy efficient bulbs on the market often tout a 30% reduction in costs. If you find a way to use natural lighting effectively, you could wind up saving even more than 30%.

At my company, they recently did a lot of lighting changes. We have a lot of warehouses across the world. They have started to increase their emphasis on going green for the cost savings and the better consumer perception.

One change has been changing all of the overhead lights over the warehouse aisles to low energy bulbs. Not only did they use more efficient bulbs but they made them motion sensored. The warehouse is 24/7 but often times a large part of the warehouse does not get used for a few hours a day. All of the offices and bathrooms have also been outfitted with motion sensors. The only areas that haven’t? The lights above the production equipment have not because the possibility could exist where a mechanic would be under a machine and have the lights go out. So, for the most part, we have outlayed a decent chunk of money to make our lighting more green.

What else did we do? We installed a lot of skylights to allow for more natural light to come in to make the working environment well lit. This cuts down on the need for all of the lights we previously had AND it creates a safer working environment. Win-win, eh?

3) Duplexing Copies

In my office of five employees, we go through about 5-6 reams of paper EVERY day. Since I am on the supply chain side of the business we do have more printing than most other departments, though. Let’s say out of the other 50 managerial, supervisory, and sales staff, they go through about 15 reams per day. This is not too extraordinary, there is a LOT of printing.

Let’s assume that my company gets the reams at about $1.50 a pop. I know we buy from Staples but I have no idea what the bulk discount is. But really, that is a moot point. So all in all our whole facility uses 20 reams per day, approximately. We are open about 300 days per year. That is a total of 6,000 reams of paper. At $1.50 a ream we spend $9,000 on paper.

By duplexing our printing we could save $4,500 every year. Obviously the only reason we are saving this much is because of the sheer size of our operation. There are approximately 400 more locations across just the United States. We fall somewhere around the middle of the pack as far as size is concerned… so $4,500/year should be close to the middle. If this change was made company wide we could save $1.8 million dollars as a company for just the USA locations. WOW!

Obviously that number depends on the $1.50/ream number, being able to duplex ALL of our printing, and the fact that we are indeed “average printers.” But the point is not to get an exact number… this should be a thought exercise. Even if every location can only save $1,000/year (667 reams) by duplex printing and thinking twice before they hit print, the company as a whole could save $400,000 every year in the USA. I know they have a lot of capital expenditures they have been thinking about. Think before you print, every small step helps.

4) Healthy Indoor Air Quality

If you focus on using green building products, the air quality should be better. What’s this mean for the bottom line? Less sick days! And how much do sick days cost you? According to about.com:

According to CCH Incorporated, a company that produces electronic and print products for the tax, legal, securities, insurance, human resources, health care, and small business markets, unscheduled absenteeism can cost up to an average of $602 per employee, per year.

This cost does not include indirect costs such as overtime pay for other employees, hiring temps, missed deadlines, lost sales, sinking morale and lower productivity. Indirect costs can add up to 25 percent to the direct costs, according to Employee Benefit News and HR News.

It seems like creating a healthier environment for your employees could definitely cut costs, then. A facility with 100 employees could potentially cut the sick days down by 10%. That would save $60 per employee, or $6,000.

Once again, with my companies huge focus on going green they have started to study how well forklift propane and gas is exiting the building. They have started to install more exhaust fans to make the air quality more healthy.

What is YOUR Company Doing?

If you own a company, what are you doing to be more green and make more money?

If you work for a company, what are they doing? Do you know their logic? Do they realize they are saving money or are they doing it to be environmentally conscious and the cost savings is just a bonus?

It’s only a matter of time before all companies adopt a more green model… and not for any other reason than sustainability. A more sustainable organization is a more efficient, more profitable business.