If you’re an eco-friendly business, or just an organisation looking to boost its environmental impact, here are some eco-friendly business ideas to help. Covering eco ideas for your website and your marketing, as well as practical business steps, I hope you find this a helpful guide in reducing your impact on the planet.
Eco-Friendly Business Ideas For your website
Your website is vital for your business. Ensure you are optimising it for your audience as well as the planet.
Thorough Explanation of services & Products
If you’re an eco-friendly business or an organisation that just wants to be transparent in its offering, one thing you can do is ensure your goods and services are explained thoroughly. When you provide clear, concise and accurate information, you give users the tools to assess your products accurately. This includes transparently writing about the materials, manufacturing process and impact of the product/service. You can highlight your products’ eco credentials and ethical output by writing accurately with your honest representation. If you find that writing about your products in this manner highlights some gaps in their environmentally friendly design, then it can help you develop the products further. Being thorough in your product descriptions also ensures that only the right people buy your products, reducing waste and overconsumption.
Explain your ethos
Another way you can use copy to bolster your eco-friendly business is by explaining and expanding on your ethos. Many businesses write a mission statement on their about page but rarely provide evidence of its application throughout the website. When writing copy for your website pages, consider how you live up to your ethical ethos through your products, processes or packaging. This highlights to potential customers that you are dedicated to the environment, and it’s not a case of greenwashing.
Switch to green hosting
One fundamental way to improve the eco-friendliness of your website is to switch to a green hosting provider. Any website hosting company that can provide efficient servers powered by renewable energy will reduce your carbon footprint if you are currently with a supplier who uses fossil fuels for their server and cooling power. My website is currently hosted by EcoHosting, and I can highly recommend their website hosting packages for green and eco businesses.
Improve site speed
Improving the speed of your website is a fantastic way to reduce your site’s energy usage, and it is incredibly beneficial to SEO as well. Site speed is a ranking factor, so you should consider site speed for your marketing strategy in general. On the energy side, stripping back code, keeping it updated, reducing imagery loads etc. can all reduce the loading time of your web pages. This reduction in load means less energy is used, reducing bills and impact on the planet. A simple code change can significantly impact the CO2 released by your website. Danny Van Kooten, a Dutch programmer, provides an excellent example of sustainable web development. He modified his popular WordPress plugin to save 59,000 kilograms of CO2 output a year. This is roughly the equivalent of flying from New York to Amsterdam and back 85 times.
Eco-Friendly Business Ideas you can use for marketing your company
There are many ways you can improve your green credentials by utilising your marketing in a positive way. Every business must address climate change, so ensure your organisation does its part with these tips. Learn more about how to make your marketing more eco-friendly.
Ensure you don’t greenwash
Ethical consumers are a growing audience, and it’s as vital as ever that we encourage ethical and conscious consumption of goods and services. However, because of this interest in eco-friendly products, many businesses turn to greenwash practices to improve their sales. Greenwashed marketing is presenting a business, product or service in an eco-friendly light when they are, in fact, either not eco-friendly in any way, or worse, can damage the environment. These tactics are used to increase sales without committing to environmental policies.
Provide helpful tips for your conscious audience
As an organisation, you have the voice and the reach to educate and inform a far bigger audience than an individual. Use this power to give your customers and readers helpful tips and advice on eco-friendly practices and green issues. You can use your blog, social channels or email marketing to help people make informed and sensible eco-friendly choices. Not only does this provide your organisation with content marketing to showcase, but it can also help educate your audience about your company and offering. It’s a win-win situation for profit and the planet.
Promote causes
Similarly, you can use your increased reach to promote eco-friendly causes. Whether it’s from an educational standpoint, local campaigns, protests, donations or climate action groups, your organisation can contribute to tackling the climate crisis. It’s not just about helping your organisation but helping the world as a whole. If your business is genuinely eco-friendly, being actively involved in climate action must be part of your strategy. If you are just starting on an ethical business or marketing journey, I recommend my series of articles on the topic. Read What is Ethical Marketing?, Can marketing be ethical, and What is an ethical marketing strategy?
Practical Eco-friendly business tips
Applying eco-friendly business ideas in your marketing can only be successful if your business is environmentally friendly at its core. If not, you run the risk of greenwashing. There you need to consider the impact of your whole business on the planet. From there, you can use your excellent campaigns and processes to promote your business in an ethical marketing campaign. Each business will be different when developing a more environmentally friendly business, but these ideas apply to many.
Consider Shipping
One of the most significant contributors to the increased environmental impact on people’s shopping is how and when products are delivered. Next-day delivery, especially from abroad, has an incredibly detrimental impact on the environmental impact of a purchase. Goods are shipped without full loads and often use transport with high energy consumption rates, such as planes. By providing only standard shipping to your customers or advising them to only use next-day delivery when vital, you can ensure that transportation of goods is as efficient as it can be. Another option is to use vehicles or delivery services that have improved energy efficiency, either electric, hybrid or carbon neutral companies that compensate for their impact elsewhere. Little tweaks to your shipping process can ensure your eco-friendly goods continue to have a reduced impact on the environment when they leave your premises.
Buy In Bulk, Reuse Packaging and improve stationary
Another way to reduce transportation costs and impact is to buy in bulk. It ensures you have an adequate supply of the suppliers you need, whether for manufacturing or general use in your workplace. But, more importantly, you can limit trips to stores or delivery orders when you buy as much as you can afford, store and need. Another benefit to buying in bulk is it reduces the amount of packaging used. A large drum of coffee is usually more economical and has a smaller amount of packaging than 12 individual coffee jars. It may seem like a small thing, but it all adds up.
This swap to reduce packaging should also extend to any goods you ship out to customers. Find ways to reduce the amount of packaging you use, especially if you have to use plastic currently. Alternatively, look for more eco-friendly options such as cardboard, compostable packing peanuts or plant-based ‘plastics’. This should extend to your stationary as well. Reducing the environmental impact of everyday items used by staff is a great way to contribute to tackling the climate crisis. Swaps are a great way to do a tiny bit whenever you can. In my business and at home, I’ve switched to paper packaging tape, non-toxic glues and second-hand pens instead of buying new ones.
Carbon Neutral
As businesses and individuals we all have unavoidable impacts where there is no eco-friendly alternative. Maybe your energy provider is set, or you can’t upgrade your fleet of vehicles just yet. If this is the case, you can invest in companies that offset your carbon footprint. While not the solution to the world’s climate emergency, these companies provide a valuable tool for tackling the crisis. I am currently signed up to Ecologi, which uses business funds to invest in climate-positive projects, including carbon reduction and tree planting projects.
Eco-Friendly Business Marketing with Middleton Marketing
I hope I’ve inspired you with these eco-friendly business ideas. If you are looking for an ethical marketing consultant with an environmental focus, look no further. I can provide a transparent, reliable, research-driven strategy for your eco-friendly and ethical business. Get in touch today to find out my availability, and let’s see how we can grow your organisation organically together.