Tips and strategies to help save money, energy and the environment

By Alexi Boyd |

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.
Small Business Bookkeeping Tips
with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management Services
Date: 17 May 2016

Its all too easy to put the environment into the too hard basket but with the world planet health in desperate need of some TLC I thought it would be pertinent to look at ways we can all, as small businesses, support the planet and in some cases support our bottom line.

Its all about the choices we make as consumers. And as businesses we too consume the world’s resources each day. Whether it be through the disposable stationery, our use of carbon-producing dirty power or worse, the products we use in manufacturing which have harmful impacts on the air, water and quality of working environment for our employees.

So rather than putting it all in the too hard basket yet again we here at SBM are all about Practical Strategies; so here’s a list of ways you as a small business owner can make better decisions to help the environment:

  • Choose an environmentally friendly energy provider and request a certain percentage from clean energy.
    • Consider putting on solar panels on your home office
    • Switch to off peak water, smart reader (did you know the Hornsby Library has Smart Readers available to borrow so you can work out which appliances are sucking the most power?
    • Switch off your screens, speakers, printers when not in use
    • Set your monitor to the lowest brightness setting you’re comfortable with, opt for hibernate instead of sleep
    • Unplug
    • Limit the heating/cooling to just one room on extreme days
    • Wear slippers!!
    • Use reusable/recycled printer cartridges and buy them in bulk. They really don’t make any difference – and make sure your recycle your used ones
    • Have a little box under your desk for recycling
    • For a home based office don’t use a battery operated keyboard or mouse. They chew through batteries and are really unnecessary if you’re immobile when working
    • When buying new equipment consider how it works with your existing equipment rather than a stand alone. Also when you buy products visualise it on a tip pile.
    • There are now energy ratings on computer screens so have a look at these when you’re purchasing
    • Ewaste
  • Printing & Consumables
    • This is a big one; if you’re getting anything printed AVOID MATT CELLOWGLAZE

Did you know there are Grants and Assistance available for bigger businesses who reduce their energy usage

Source: http://yourenergysavings.gov.au/guides/home-based-businesses?items_per_page=All

(Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/fr4dd/)