 |
 |
|
 Print Friendly
 Email to Friend
|
|
How To Green Up Your Small Business
|
|
|
Article 7: Pitfalls To Avoid In Your Green Evolution
Don’t abandon your initial efforts if you start doubting your small company can make a difference.
“If you think you want to be green and have this mentality down the road, why start down the road? Why not start right now?” says Reiner Moessner, owner and sole employee of Great Basin Shading in Reno, Nev., which sells custom-built shutters, screens and awnings.
Moessner’s business isn’t as green as he’d like it to be, but he hopes one day he can work in a space that generates energy from solar panels on the roof and that he can drive a car that runs on bio-diesel.
“As my company grows I will invest more into being environmental,” he says. “As I get bigger I’d like my efforts to be bigger as well.”
For now, he recycles his scrap metal and uses recycled paper in the office and for business cards. “At this point it’s not a matter of saving money for the business but being conscious and aware,” Moessner says. “You’re helping the situation, not hurting.”
Some additional tips:
- Look for recycled products, rather than products that say they are recyclable, which simply mean they can be recycled.
- Don’t expect all your investments to pay off in the short term, if ever. You may wait six to 10 years to start seeing savings from solar panels, for example. “There’s no question you can get a better rate of return elsewhere,” says Joel Makower, the Oakland, Calif.-based executive editor of GreenBiz.com.
- Be willing to make concessions, and don’t go overboard. Denver-based Caitlin Hedberg, director of sustainable enterprise at Micro Business Development, a non-profit that provides micro financing and business development service, has seen one businessman nearly get washed away in green.
“He wants to market [his printing business] as completely green and sustainable, and I think his commitment to that supersedes or overpowers his commitment to being in business,” she says. “No business is sustainable if it’s not economically and financially stable.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print Friendly
Email to Friend
|
|
|
 |
|
|
How To Green Up Your Small Business
|
 |
|
|
 |
| Select an online seminar from the Success Skills Archives:
|
|
|
 |
|
|
If you liked this topic, check out these related Success Skills Seminars:
|
|
