August Post

What can I do to be more eco-responsible in my business?’’  Is a question you might have asked yourself in the last year or so, another question is: What is being eco-responsible?

These 2 questions are just 2 and ‘’Yes’’ there are 100s of other questions that can come to your mind. Some are very easily answered, others are very complicated. Considering that I like to keep things simple, we will look at these 2 for this article.

First and foremost, the way I see it, being eco-responsible is a mindset followed by a series of small steps that helps improve our environment.

Once you have the mindset of wanting to preserve and nurture the environment there is a multitude of options and actions that are open to you. There is no right or wrong answer and there is always a zing and a zang to every option. What count is the intent followed by concrete actions.

Just this morning while walk down the street I said to myself: ‘’ Imagine if people would take their mask and put them in the garbage can instead of throwing them where ever they are.’’ Just this action would greatly improve our surrounding. Bear in mind, every single action, no matter how small it seems makes a huge difference.

So as a Business, what can you do? Decide do you want to make a difference, and then see what you would like to do and implement them in your daily activities.

They next step is to encourage your team to do the same. This often makes a snowball effect that goes home with them and is implemented in their daily living.

Another business practice is to take into account the ecological features of the product before making a decision.  So before buying, just do the exercise to see if the items you will purchase or sell will fit under one of the following categories:

RECYCLABLE: Is a product that can be transformed or used inside a production cycle

RECYCLED: Is a product that was transformed or was made from products that were disposed of.

BIODEGRADABLE: This is a product that will natural decompose in the environment. The most recognized standard is OECD Standard 301D. This standard required that at least 60% of the residues left by the product will decompose naturally within 28 days.

COMPOSTABLE: Product that is able of breaking down naturally in a compost envirionment and causes no harm to the environment and leaes no visible or toxic residue.

Once you start paying attention on the answer to these questions prior to actually ordering. You are opening you mind even you end up buying or selling a product that doesn’t have these features.

Taking to business partners, I discovered that this simple exercise changed between 3-5% of their selling and purchasing decisions.  You might say that 3-5 % isn’t much, think again what impact would be made that if every business would do this exercise.  Just take a minute and think about it.