The Benefits of Making Your Business Energy Efficient

No matter how well your business is currently performing, the economy is a very competitive place. You need to be looking for every edge you can for your establishment, and making your company as energy efficient as possible is one of them. There are serious benefits to accomplishing this, and some of them might just surprise you with what they can do.

3 Benefits of an Energy-Efficient Business

When it comes to making your business more energy efficient, there are three general benefits that you can realistically expect:

1. Enjoy the Publicity: The number of consumers who choose businesses simply because they honor environmental concerns is already high and going up all the time. In fact, it’s almost a social standard that companies highlight what they’re doing to protect the planet. Be a part of the new paradigm or risk losing market share.
2. Save Money: When your business is more efficient in its energy usage, it uses less power than ever before. That means you spend less on your utility bills. Depending on the size of your facilities, even a marginal decrease in electricity use can result in serious savings and more profits.
3. Honor Employee Values: In a tight labor market, many professionals can choose what company they work for based on their values more so than just pay and benefits. As the workforce is increasingly populated by younger generations, environmental awareness is something professionals want to be a part of. Energy efficiency at a corporate level will attract prospects to your open positions and boost morale among your current staff.

Can You Pick Your Source?

When looking at how your business uses energy, you might also want to review it gets its energy. Did you know that you might be able to choose your power source and even lock in set business energy rates? If you work with a commercial energy broker, you might be able to negotiate a contract for set-rate power sourcing based on your company’s anticipated usage.

Not only that but you might be able to choose your particular power source. A commercial energy broker might be able to offer you electricity generated from fossil fuels or renewable sources. Even among fossil fuel sources, you might be able to choose natural gas over coal or petroleum.

How Do You Do It?

Recognizing a push both externally and internally for more environmental awareness is a good start, and knowing the benefits of making your business energy efficient has likely convinced you to start doing it better. However, where do you begin? Forbes has some good suggestions.

• Consider starting by expanding remote work protocols for anyone who might be able to do it. When employees are working somewhere else, your facilities aren’t using as much electricity. The option to work from home can be a big win for employee morale for positions where it can actually work out.

• In a similar vein, eliminate any spaces that aren’t being utilized. Any square footage in your offices, stores, or facilities that doesn’t get used still requires HVAC and lighting. Downsize or rent it out.

• Install solar-power charging stations. Whether it’s solar-powered phone chargers for employees to use or EV charging stations for company vehicles, you can harness the power of sunlight for power. Some days might be cloudy, but the sun is up there and free every day.

• Put everything on power-saver mode. From workstation monitors to copiers and printers, most modern technology has power-saving standby modes that they should be in when not in use. Even if you only shave 1% off your power bill, it can add up based on scale.

• Embrace LED technology. From screens to lightbulbs, LED technology uses substantially less power than earlier forms of the same devices. Dramatic energy savings are possible just by doing this alone.

Conclusion

Consumers are growing increasingly concerned about the state of the global environment, and they’re expecting businesses to do more about it with every passing year. However, making your company more energy efficient isn’t just a savvy marketing move. It helps you save money and aligns you better with the values of many prospective employees.

Read more: 6 Authentication Methods for Your Online Customers