Making your business more sustainable may seem like a daunting and costly endeavour. But it’s important to remember that even small changes can make a big difference in the end. New England Waste’s Malcolm Lancaster has a few practical ways to get started.
Create a sustainability taskforce
Depending on the size of your company, this may be 1 person or 10. Seek out the people within your business who truly care about environmental and climate issues and task them with implementing staggered changes – a strategy that is more manageable and easily embraced by the wider team a than ‘cold turkey” approach.
Connect with like minded organisations
Does your local council have a community initiatives you can be involved with?
Could you create a sustainability coalition with other local businesses?
Does your local TAFE or University have trials or research you could be a part of?
Separating at the source
Move to separating your waste at the source – a smarter and more cost efficient way to dispose of your garbage. Create separate bins in your workplace for General Waste (non recyclables and food waste)
Paper and Cardboard
Glass and Plastics
You’ll be surprised how quickly your staff jump on board with supporting your sustainability mission!
Forget single use plastics
– Gift your staff with a keep cup with their names on it and encourage them to use these for their morning coffee or tea run.
– Buy re-usable bottle and spray packs and refill. Amazing new companies like Blueland provide cleaning tablets that you simply add to water, negating the need for single use cleaning sprays.
– It sounds so basic but ensuring that lights and equipment are turned off when the last person leaves is a great way to go green quickly.
– Compost it! If your business or staff food prep uses fruit and veg, chances are a lot of fresh food scraps are going straight to the bin. Avoid this by creating a small compost and veggie garden at your business. Your staff will love contributing to this and using the fresh lettuce, cucumber or herbs in their lunches!
Be grant-wise!
Did you know there are a variety of grants that small through to large businesses can apply for to help with sustainability goals?
Stay on top of the latest offerings at:
Consider investing in a professional grant writer to help you put your best foot forward. Grant-writers are highly trained in understanding the language that should be used, criteria checking and validation and copy-writing skills, so it can pay off big time to enlist the help of a professional that specialises in sustainability and environmental issues.
Interested in more about climate change and sustainability? Here’s some great sources to bookmark!
Green Building Council Australia
Want to start with some small steps towards making your business more sustainable? General Manager and Owner Malcolm Lancaster is passionate about helping businesses realise their true potentials through cost effective waste management solutions that achieve sustainability goals. Contact him on mlancaster@newenglandwaste.com.au or 0429 323 696
Want more information? Call 0429 323 696 or
About New England Waste
New England Waste services the Armidale, Uralla, Glen Innes, Tenterfield, Guyra and areas and in between with an extensive range of skip bins, hook bins, septic services and port-a-loos. Family own and operated since 1979 by the Lancaster family, great service, expert solutions and great value are at the heart of New England Waste. See our range here:
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