6 Low- and No-Cost Ways to Take the Greener Step

The shift to environmental sustainability can happen in big and small ways, all of which are good for you and your business. You can make a significant impact on a local level, with your physical office, and in your employees’ and your own day-to-day lives. You can move up to incorporate sustainability throughout your operations and business model. Here, we offer a few ideas to get you moving along the path.

1. Start measuring your impact. You can’t change if you don’t know what you’re doing now. As with any business initiative, when it comes to greening your business, you need a starting point to figure out what your next steps will be and to assess any progress you make.

To find that starting point, you can begin with one of many online calculators, and can measure impact on an individual or company-wide basis. A few that may be helpful:

• United National Carbon Footprint Calculator
• Carbonfund.org Business Calculator
• Canadian National Railway Carbon Calculator: The transportation supply chain calculator will estimate carbon emissions for the entire transportation of a shipment, from vessel to rail to truck.

2. Develop a sustainability and environment policy. Develop an overarching policy that will guide your actions and set the tone inside and outside the company. Putting a policy in writing will help confirm and communicate your commitment.

3. Set goals. Decide on areas where you’d like to concentrate and set appropriate goals. Maybe you want to lower energy costs this season, reduce materials usage or lower transportation costs. Be realistic and specific, which may include developing key performance indicators or other measures of progress.

4. Define steps to meet your goals. Once you have your goals, and know where we want to go, it’s time to define the specific steps that will get you to each of those goals. If you’re looking to lower transportation costs, for example, you’ll find a wide range of actions you can implement. You might extend staff remote work, provide training for driving employees on modifications to lower fuel use, or even upgrade your own operating vehicles with more fuel-efficient ones. If you’re looking to lower energy costs, you might invest in a company-wide switch to LED bulbs, upgrade an HVAC system or install programmable thermostats.

5. Communicate what you’re doing. Keep yourself honest. Talk about what you’re doing on your website, in your newsletters and/or emails, in social media. Remember that your customers take cues – consciously or not – from you. What you do and how you do business will have an impact on them.

6. Switch from diesel to electric vehicles (EV). Dealers know that electrification of fleets is coming – fast. Take steps now to learn about project viability, EV charging and infrastructure, and customized pay-for-performance models, including EaaS, energy subscriptions and sharing arrangements with partner companies. Financing the transition to clean energy can become far less complicated, and far more affordable, with the right financing.

If your business is ready to step up and green up, these ideas can get you thinking and moving down that road. At Mitsubishi HC Capital Canada, we’re dedicated to improving the communities where we operate through a commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with an emphasis on clean energy and mobility. We work hard to partner with our customers as they develop and implement their own sustainability goals. When it’s time for your business to explore next steps, we’ll be ready to help.