Easy, inexpensive ways to green your business

By Charlotte Jensen

Over at Vosges Haut-Chocolat in Chicago, exotic and delectable truffles are packed in elegant purple boxes made from 100 percent recycled paperboard. White sun shades hang from office windows to reduce air-conditioning bills in the summer. Printer cartridges always get refilled— not thrown out—and junk mail finds another life as paper for printers or packing material once shredded. Employees are offered incentives for riding bikes to work, and organic ingredients are used whenever possible. And in the next year or two, the company will achieve its biggest environmental goal yet: opening a LEED platinum manufacturing facility that will be 100 percent off the grid and generate almost no waste.

To be sure, running a green business is a top priority for chocolatier and founder Katrina Markoff—but it wasn’t always that way. Though she launched in 1998, it wasn’t until about two years ago that she decided it was time to extend the commitment she had to environmental issues in her personal life to her business. “I just kind of slapped myself in the face,” says Markoff, 34, who projects sales of $20 million this year. “I was like, I can’t be a hypocrite anymore. I have to apply the same principles to my business.”

Many entrepreneurs today are thinking the same thing but are held back by cost and other concerns. “There are a lot of preconceived notions with businesses,” says Rebecca Kinnestrand, senior associate with Cascadia Consulting Group Inc., an environmental management firm in Seattle. “When I walk into businesses, they think that green costs money. On the contrary, going green often does not cost money. Even if it does have a little bit of capital outlay, it has a very quick payback.” And, she adds, it’s incredibly easy to get started.

Reduce your carbon footprint. Buying environmentally friendly company cars is a start, but you should also encourage employees to carpool, take the bus (you can provide free passes), ride their bikes or even telecommute one day a week. “It really makes a difference for those people not to be on the road that day,” says Kinnestrand. In terms of lighting, install motion sensors, dimmers and timers so lights turn off when not in use.

Purchase earth-friendly office supplies. Some examples include used furniture; mugs instead of Styrofoam cups in the break room; Energy Star appliances; paper, folders and other office supplies made from recycled materials; nontoxic cleaning supplies; and “green” packaging for your products. Instead of water bottles, install a water filter in the office.

Take a serious look at your paper consumption. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, paper and pulp is the third largest consumer of energy. So don’t just recycle paper, buy recycled paper—and use less of it. Print only when necessary, widen the margins of your documents and use both sides when printing.

Green your tech. Unplug BlackBerries, cell phones and other gadgets when they’re done charging, turn off monitors when you and your employees leave for the day, and recycle old PCs properly. When buying new ones, choose energy-efficient products.

Experts agree that before long, the expectation will be that all businesses are green businesses. “It will just simply be the way that business is done,” says Kinnestrand. “There is just no way that a business can remain on the track of the oldschool thinking.”

Charlotte Jensen, a journalist in Orange County, California, specializes in business topics.