Going green is on the minds of lots of people these days and most of us are trying to put eco friendly practices into place in our homes, but are businesses going green too?
It stands to reason that businesses have a big impact on the environment what with the paper and electricity they use but that’s not the only reason it’s important. You see if businesses go green then that has influence over their employees and even their customers to lead a greener lifestyle and the more people that go green the better it is for the planet!
One would think that in this day of corporate greed and bottom lines that companies wouldn’t be concerned with lowering their carbon footprint, but the truth is that they actually are! In fact, going green can be good for business since a lot of people will patronize a green establishment simply because of its earth friendly practices.
You might be surprised to find that there are some businesses going green that are actually pretty big.
For example, Bank of America has an internal recycling program and has reduced paper use by over 30% (and with company that size – that’s a lot of paper!) Not only that but they give their employees $3000 if they buy a hybrid car.
McDonalds is actually turning greener these days too. Where they weren’t known for their animal friendly practices, they now work closely with PETA to ensure that they are creating more environment friendly practices.
Starbucks is another of the businesses going green that might seem small but because of the size of their customer base can have a big impact. Their recycled coffee cup sleeves saves almost 80,000 trees a year and they also partner with environmental agencies to make sure their impact on communities is positive.
There’s actually a lot of really big businesses that are adopting more eco friendly practices and as time goes on I think customers will demand it so it will definitely be an increasing trend.
But its not just big businesses going green, small businesses are getting in on it too. In fact, smaller businesses are probably more likely to adopt green practices as they are closer to the customer and tend to be run by people (as opposed to boards) who really do care.
