I am a small business. My company has one woefully underpaid employee (me) and an optimistically named 'office' in close proximity to the kitchen and, more importantly, the kettle. I work from home, on a home pc, doing what I love most-selling anime and Japanese toys online.
There's a reason behind the preamble. Afterall, this article is about green businesses isn't it? How much damage could a home-based small business do? The answer, unfortunately, is quite alot.
For starters, there's my computer. If you've seen the UK Television adverts you'll know that recycling one glass bottle can save enough energy to power a computer for 20 minutes. Wonderful, great! Except my PC is on all the time, 3 bottles an hour, 72 bottles a day, 26280 bottles a year plus 72 more if it's a leap year. That's alot of recycled bottles.
Although a PC and it's printers, scanners and other peripherals usually use less mains electricity, they do cost the planet more. Leaving PC's, printers and scanners on standby uses almost as much electricity as having them switched on. The printer needs ink, ink cartridges cost energy and resources to produce, even the recycled ones. If you have a printer you're going to need something to print on and more often than not that something will be paper. Paper costs trees (which naturally clean carbon out of the atmosphere), energy (for chopping down and pulping the trees, and processing and wrapping the pulp) and fuel (for delivering them to stores).
But there's more-I'm at home, I need tea. I said I'm near the kitchen so the kettle is almost constantly being boiled. And, as I'm working during these tea-breaks I often forget about having a drink, as I'll have gotten wrapped up in whatever stock negotiation, customer care phonecall or shipping disaster has suddenly dropped into my lap. Next time I'm in the kitchen I re-boil the kettle, feeling slightly guilty for wasting water, electricity and the chance of a good brew. I do the same when I reheat the tea that I left to get cold while I worked (don't go 'urgh', everybody does it!).
I could go on forever, but I'll just give one last example-heating. I hate being cold, so living in the North of England isn't the best idea. I love the place though, so seeing as I won't be leaving I keep the heating on whether it's the gas fire or the combi-boiler, the main central heating system. This pumps out carbon, uses energy and wastes water all day. The amount of pollution one small business can create is incredible, but there are ways you can lessen the impact on the environment and it doesn't have to cost more, done well it can even cost you less.
The points below are some things I have done, and found useful:
*Changed my kettle for an 'Eco-Kettle'.They look good and can save you money in the long-run by costing less water and electricity than a 'normal' kettle.
*Used the heating only when I had to. It's amazing how a cardigan, sweater/jumper or shawl can do-keeping in your natural bodyheat to warm you up, and making you feel comfortable to boot.
*Switched off my PC. It may mean waiting for it to boot up, then opening a few programs and switching the internet back on, but it really doesn't take that much time, it saves energy and money and the house is so much quieter without the whirring of fans!
*Bought recycled ink cartridges. Or you could refill your old ones! I buy recycled cartridges at ?19.99 rather than ?29.99 (the cost of new ones). I save ?10 a time, I help the environment and I can't see the difference in the quality of the printouts. If you're not as butterfingered as I am, a refill pack costs ?19.99 and can fill your cartridges 1, 2 or 3 times depending on the make of cartridge.
*All of my packaging is a minimum of 75% recycled, and my paper is 100% recycled. I buy in bulk from the Exotic Paper Trading Company and the prices are similar to those on the high-street or at wholesale. In some cases they're even cheaper, and how can anyone pass up the novelty of paper made from recycled newspaper, bank notes and elephant dung?
*On a final note,if you really want to help the environment by carbon-offsetting, but are worried about the costs involved, there are free schemes and initiatives that are always looking for volunteers. BCTV's Green Gym is one of my favourites. It's great fun, good exercise and works on improving things for local communities. They have projects, classes and workshops for people of all ages, fitness levels and can cater for most disabilities too. Most organisations doing projects like these are always looking for volunteers and helpers, so to them, your time really is precious.
And that's it! Hopefully, you'll find these simple steps will save you money, save the environment and also have the added bonus of impressing your customers with your ethical business.
Joanne Yelland runs an online anime store called BOBii-TV http://www.bobii-tv.com. She also runs a Second Life branch of the store as Cyra Petion. She is also Admin for the store's free forums http://p071.ezboard.com/bbobiitvschannel and wants to build a real online community for fans of anime, manga, toys and anything otaku!
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