Companies across the UK are under increasing pressure to put ‘green’ at the top of their business agenda, but we believe that it’s important to do this while also increasing productivity and profitability.
Therefore, here are the 4 key things every business can do to make a positive impact on the environment and your bottom line.
New ways of working – Employee work practices have fundamentally changed over the last 5-10 years. Today, people work anywhere, at any time, on various devices. Such changes have provided many benefits to organisations and their employees, but with such a large geographic spread both nationally and globally, this has also come with its challenges. How can we empower our people to work collaboratively in real time, whilst reducing our need for travel and environmental impact? Key Digital have remedied this internally through the use of our unified communications system and collaborative technologies.
Rationalise your print fleet – There is no longer a need to buy and run individual printers, photocopiers, scanners and faxes– a multifunctional product (MFP) can do it all for you. By consolidating your office equipment with an MFP you’ll reduce electricity, toner, waste materials and, ultimately reduce your bottom line costs. Reduce paper waste – start printing on both sides. It’s simple but effective: set ‘duplex’ as your default preference for all your office printers and copiers. By printing on both sides of a sheet you’ll reduce paper usage by as much as 50%. Use paper from sustainable sources – consider either 100% recycled paper or paper that is certified by a recognised body, such as FSC or PEFC.
Move to the Cloud – Everyone knows a move to the cloud has many benefits, as well as the utility based billing and reduction in space needed in your office, cloud datacentres are specifically designed to be uber-efficient in terms of utilisation, with certifications in place to prove this.
Build your own data centre – If you are set on having your own data centre, why not build a pool next door and heat it using the excess heat generated, as per Swiss company GIB-Services AG.
These simple guidelines will help businesses of any scale to make the most of their resources. Even the smallest changes can make a positive impact on businesses and the environment alike. How have updates in IT impacted sustainable business practices in your business? Do you believe that your office is doing something innovative that we here at Key Digital could learn from? If so, get in touch to tell us about it.