Now that your business is in full swing, you notice that your activities generate a considerable amount of waste. While on a smaller scale, you may not have paid much attention to it, you can no longer ignore it. Additionally, you’ve noticed that your customers increasingly value environmentally conscious practices. But what exactly can you do to minimize your environmental footprint without breaking the bank? This final article of the Small Business 101 series will cover some basic measures you can implement today!

The importance of durability

The first thing to understand is that the most effective way to minimize waste is by not generating any at all. Although this may seem quite challenging at first, you can achieve this by offering high-quality products with an extended lifespan. Although our society is driven by capitalism, creating long-lasting products with durable materials will contribute to reducing waste over time. It is also possible to encourage your customers to reuse and recycle your products if they do not want them anymore, by raising awareness on social media, and other platforms. Despite how controversial it may sound, being eco-friendly is a trend… And it is hopefully here to stay! This positive trend towards ecology should be exploited to enhance your traction and popularity. Spending on environmentally conscious solutions should not be seen as a mere cost but rather as an investment for your business and the planet. You should promote those solutions. Certainly, there are undeniably great environmental impacts associated with creating sustainable products and lifestyles, but as a business owner, you should also aim to profit from those environmentally conscious decisions.

Eco-friendly management

As a small business owner, you need to manage your time and resources wisely.

One way to be more environmentally friendly is by minimizing the frequency of your shipping runs, referring to the number of times you visit the post office to dispatch your packages. While I understand you may want to send your orders to your customers as fast as possible, weigh the time you lose as well as the cost of gas associated with those frequent trips. Shipping once a week, for example, not only saves you time and money but is also better for the environment, while maintaining a reasonable processing time for your customers. If your business is going so well that you cannot visit the post office less often, that is quite amazing! You could start considering eco-friendly vehicles or perhaps look into using pick-up services. Some postal carriers offer pick-up options using green vehicles for their activities. This option could potentially save you time, though there are costs associated with this service.

Take a moment to reflect on your most time-consuming tasks and consider how you could adopt a “batch” processing approach to minimize the time spent. You should apply the same mentality to your most costly activities to try to optimize your spending. By strategically organizing your work in batches, you gain better control over your time and expenses, which contributes to a more productive and cost-effective business.

Environmentally conscious shipping

Shipping materials are undeniably necessary, but they can be wasteful. From the ink needed to print your shipping labels, to the paper, the poly mailers, the tape, and so on, those resources cost you a lot when they all end up in the trash, contributing to pollution. Additionally, compostable, and recyclable materials seem to be more expensive than ever, so what can you do?

I recommend using Minliving’s compostable reusable poly mailers. They can be purchased in very small quantities and come in different sizes, which is perfect for when you are starting your business. Their pricing is extremely competitive, being equal to or slightly higher than regular plastic mailers’ pricing. Paying a few cents extra for environmentally friendly packaging is a worthwhile investment for the environment. They also offer other products such as compostable plastic-like tape.

If you use cardboard boxes rather than poly-mailers, you should investigate purchasing recycled cardboard boxes and use water-activated paper tape.

Another thing I recommend is reusing the packaging you already have on hand from previous stock orders you may have placed. Reusing any sort of packaging is a good way to minimize waste.

If your business has good flow, I suggest investing in a thermal printer for shipping labels. Thermal printers use heat rather than ink, which is less costly, but it also creates less paper and tape waste. Using those labels also speeds up the printing process, as it only takes a few seconds to print each label and fix them directly to your package. It is a great solution to print batches of labels. I recommend the Munbyn brand. They carry a variety of printers, color labels, and other accessories at competitive pricing.

You’ve got this!

As your business grows, keep addressing the environmental concerns and embrace the eco-friendly trend. Focus on efficient management and batch processing to optimize costs and time. Finally, consider compostable and recyclable packaging options as a more sustainable fulfillment method.

As this series ends, I have faith that you now have all the basic knowledge necessary to thrive in the business world. Have confidence in yourself and go after that success!