Reducing your business’ waste in an excellent way to demonstrate your commitment to environmental responsibility and cut down on unnecessary costs. One recent study of 80,000 private companies and a further 20,000 listed companies even found that employees at firms with strong focusses on ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) were more likely to be satisfied than those without these initiates.
That’s why reducing business waste should be right at the top of our New Year’s Resolutions as business owners. So let’s dive right into 6 top tips on how you can go about reducing your business’ waste:
- Take a Kaizen/Just-in-Time approach to stock management.
As a small business, it’s important to be realistic about what you need and what you don’t need.
One of the advantages of being a small business is that, in theory, you should be much more agile than your bigger, slower counterparts because you don’t need to hold on to as much stock in order to meet your customer demand.
With quicker shipping times than ever before and next-day delivery becoming the norm rather than the exception, just buy what you need now and let the market guide how often you replenish your stock.
This reactive approach to stock replenishment may appear counterintuitive but, in a world where consumer tastes are evolving faster than ever before, when it comes to stock management, the luxury of being overprepared may not be an entirely sustainable one.
- Stop Buying Paper
I know this one seems a little… ‘out there’ and if you’re a handmade greetings card business please skip this section. But…
A recent study estimated that SMEs could save up to £33,000 a year by going paperless! This figure is likely to only increase, with reports that the Producer Price Index for Paper & Paperboard had experienced annualised growth of +5.9% over the last 5 years (between 2018 and 2023).
Source: https://www.ibisworld.com/uk/bed/producer-price-index-for-paper-paperboard/44045/
The reasons to go paperless have been evident for a while now, with more and more people feeling comfortable using email and password protected shared drives to communicate.
However, the pandemic appears to have only escalated this trend and produced an even more compelling reason to just take the big leap and go completely paperless.
- Invest in a fridge/freezer
Did you know that according to a report published by Waste Managed in 2023, the UK wastes approximately £14 billion worth of food each year? It might be ambitious to calculate how much of that staggering bill your business needs to foot, but it certainly should give you food for thought.
By investing in a little fridge/freezer, you could be helping to get that hefty figure down. Allowing employees to keep food fresh a little longer might encourage them to bring in food and drinks from home. This could also lead to fewer single-use plastics going into your bins and a healthier workforce overall.
- Use energy efficient bulbs and computers
As UK energy bills have skyrocketed over the past year or so, especially with the crisis in Ukraine, it’s become even more critical for small businesses to manage their energy costs.
Whether this means investing in LED lights or ensuring that every new laptop you buy is as energy efficient as possible – every little genuinely helps.
I don’t, however, encourage you to throw away any of your old laptops, as this will only increase the amount of avoidable waste your office may produce, rather gradually phase them out with each new employee/broken laptop.
It’s also worth noting that laptops can be recycled, and most manufacturers are happy to give you a small amount of money back for any laptop you return that they can repurpose.
P.s – Make sure that all data is cleared from your laptops’ hard drives before returning them!
- Hire a reputable waste management professional
As much as we can try to reduce it, many types of businesses waste are unavoidable, but the last thing anyone wants is to find this waste fly-tipped behind commercial premises or floating in nearby rivers!
Therefore, I’d recommend finding a reputable waste management company you can trust to be transparent about how they get rid of your waste. Waste removal company HIPPO for instance, ensures that more than 95% of the waste they take to waste transfer stations is recycled and diverted from landfill.
6. Repurpose, Donate or Sell Old Furniture
When we business premises relocate, downsize or simply fancy a refresh – this usually results in desks, office chairs and other furniture being thrown out. We do it at home too, with a recent study conducted by waste removal company HIPPO revealing that a quarter of UK adults replace a piece of their furniture at least once a year.
670,000 tonnes of furniture waste is discarded in the UK each year, and the worst part is that so much of this is in good, perfectly usable condition (or could be with a little TLC). Instead of taking furniture to the tip or chucking smaller items in the general waste bin, consider giving it in a new life. Whether that be selling it on Facebook Marketplace, donating it to a local charity shop that accepts donations. Booking a reputable Office Clearance company is another great idea, leaving them to do all the heavy lifting while you get on with what’s important.
That’s a wrap!
So there you have it! 6 simple ways you and your business can reduce waste and support a better, greener, furture.
