How to Identify Opportunities to Make Your New Business Eco-Friendly

If you’re thinking about launching your own business, you might be wondering just how much of an impact your new venture will have on the planet. Can business and the environment get along? The answer is yes! While it’s hard to become a sustainable business, the upfront costs and the extra work involved in going green are well worth the payoff. You’ll feel great about what you’re doing for the planet, and your customers will too!

But how do you go about making your business eco-friendly? In order to create a truly sustainable business, you need to find and implement sustainable possibilities throughout the lifetime of your business. You’ll need a keen understanding of your business processes and their impact on the environment so you can make a commitment to regular improvements. In this article, we explore everything you need to know about building sustainability into your business plan.

Understand What Makes Sustainability Challenging

Why is it so hard to build a sustainable business? According to PBS.org, there’s a lot of vagueness about what sustainability means. Many practices that focus on reducing carbon emissions, for example, introduce issues with the unsustainable manufacturing of renewable energy products like solar panels. At the same time, it’s hard to determine the value that individual sustainability practices bring to a business. Not all sustainable solutions are easy to measure and track. Fortunately, almost any eco-friendly initiatives you implement in your business are bound to build goodwill with your eco-conscious customers. Keep these considerations in mind as you strategize your own eco-friendly business plans.

Use Sustainability to Increase Profits

Improving sustainability isn’t just good for the planet, it’s good for business as well. Think of it like this. Building sustainability into your business model is a great way to differentiate your product from your competitors. You’re giving eco-conscious consumers a product that perfectly aligns with their values. This, in turn, is a great way to boost profits! Sustainability further helps businesses become more profitable by reducing costs and increasing efficiency. By using renewable energy, for example, you can reduce the amount of money you spend on utilities. Here are some other ways sustainability can help you save money:

• You’ll use less paper at your business. Make it a priority early on to use digital files over paper ones. If you already have paper documents (like business bank account information), it’s easy to digitize all of your existing paper files if you scan a document with a mobile scanner app that uploads them as PDFs.

• Repurposing materials will mean less money spent on new supplies.

• Switching to low-energy light bulbs will reduce your utility costs.

• You will be able to take tax credits for making efforts toward sustainability.

Put Excess Profits Toward Social Issues

Using sustainability purely as a strategy to increase profits won’t look very good in the eyes of your customers. While increased revenue may be one of your main motivators, be sure to put people and the planet first! Ensure your company is socially responsible by striving toward a positive impact on society and the environment. One way to do this is to put your extra profits toward a cause that aligns with your business brand. Submittable.com suggests polling your customers to find out what initiatives they would like you to support. Ask questions like:

• What environmental and social issues matter most to your customers?

• What do your customers already know about your eco-friendly initiatives?

• When customers think about your brand, what comes to mind?

Communicate Your Eco-Friendly Initiatives to Consumers

Communicating what you’re doing for the environment is an important part of going eco-friendly. 

Use your marketing to highlight the benefits your sustainability practices bring to the planet and society. For example, you may want to focus on how using recyclable packaging materials reduces the amount of waste that winds up in landfills or how using renewable energy reduces the amount of fossil fuels released into the air. Use hard facts and stats to communicate these benefits so you can avoid accusations of greenwashing. Because consumers are quick to call out brands for making unsubstantiated claims, make sure you can back up everything you say with accurate data.

Market Your Business with Social Media

Social media is an excellent avenue for marketing your eco-friendly business. For example, posting paid ads on Facebook specifically targeting people who care about environmental issues can help you reach new audience groups. You can find tools that make it easy to create Facebook ads for free in a matter of minutes.

Don’t Let Anything Hold You Back

If you’re feeling hesitant about starting your own green business, you’re not alone. Launching an eco-friendly business is a big responsibility! What if you make a wrong decision somewhere along the way? The truth is that every entrepreneur faces this feeling of self-doubt at one point or another. The best way to move past fear is to just do it! Plan out your business as much as you can, be prepared with the right research, and jump right in. Be ready to face obstacles and drawbacks — everyone does. But don’t let setbacks stop you from moving forward. If you could use some additional inspiration, try these tips to conquer your startup fears:

• Determine a specific passion to focus your business on.

• Set short-term goals that you’re confident you can meet.

• Define what kind of business owner you intend to be.

If you want to start your own eco-friendly business, don’t let anything stop you! Do your market research, find out what your customers want, determine what sustainability means to you, and get creative marketing your green efforts on social media. You have what it takes to build a powerful brand that makes a real difference!