Businesses across the world are experiencing significant headwinds, with inflation rising worldwide and the cost of essentials such as food and fuel rising too. To cope many businesses are looking to ways in which they can cut costs in order to offer a better deal to consumers, who are tightening up their belts and spending a little less than they were before the pandemic. In this article, we’ll look at another differentiator that could help you set yourself apart from your competitors: your green credentials. Here’s how you can maximize them in order to show off your environmental efforts to consumers.
Audit
The first thing to do if you’re looking to claim that you’re operating a significantly green company than your competitors is to check how you’re doing on this key metric. Complete an audit on your firm, including every area of your business, to see where you’re making efforts to save on energy and cut down your carbon emissions. This is something that you can track over time, going back every six months to see how you’re improving.
The key information you’re trying to glean from this activity is data that shows how well you’re doing on your green credentials. If you can say that you’ve reduced your emissions by 50% since 2020, that’ll make consumers stand up and take notice, encouraging more people who are concerned about the environment to support your efforts.
Emissions
There are several ways in which you can cut emissions. You can try to bring them down in your own firm or facility, and that might mean switching to renewable energy technology where possible or simply reducing the amount of energy you need to burn in order to function as a business, You could also ask your staff to start monitoring their emissions at their specific area of the company, reporting back to you each month on their efforts to reduce emissions.
But you can also go a significant step further. By talking to your suppliers and other business partners, you can work out how their emissions are affecting your own green credentials. This is what’s called “Scope 3” emissions monitoring, and you can use it to end relationships with firms that are polluting heavily and start new ones with greener firms. The benefits of measuring emissions in this way include being able to tell consumers that you’re working hard to bring other businesses to your standards of environmental effort.
Independent Investigation
Some consumers will be skeptical of the claims made by “green companies”. That cynicism might be well-founded, after all, many companies tend to claim that they’re green without much evidence to back it up. To make your claims more convincing, you can ask an independent body to come into your business and rate your green credentials for you. You could also ask them to offer advice on how you could further reduce your emissions.
By getting independent verification of your green credentials, you’ll be able to use this review to show off your efforts to consumers. Make sure that you’re putting this front and center of your green claims, as it’ll convince more shoppers that you’re serious about cutting your carbon footprint and delivering a truly green alternative to your competitors.
Competitor Landscape
If you’re able to, it might be worth also considering comparing yourself directly against your competitors. This is simple for some firms such as those that operate in the clothing business. It’s public knowledge that some firms choose to have their clothing manufacturer overseas, where working conditions are poorer and shipping emissions contribute to their carbon footprint. You can cite these cases when you’re making the case that you’re a green alternative.
If you don’t have ready access to the data on your competitors, it’ll be because they aren’t willing to share it. That will be a clue as to their lack of environmental credentials, and it’ll mean that they’re not going public with their emissions-cutting. You can use this glaring omission to show your consumers that you’re the company that’s honest about your carbon emissions.
Staff
Finally, don’t forget that many of your workers will be more motivated to work for a company that is trying its hardest to have the most minor possible impact on the environment. Young workers are especially keen to work for a firm that doesn’t pollute as much as alternative companies, and they’ll be happy to tell their friends, as well as your customers, about your efforts.
There you have it: some ways in which you can show that you’re making green efforts where your competitors are not, securing you a competitive advantage.
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