Sustainable practices are at the forefront of business nowadays for a number of reasons. With the market very saturated, many potential customers will look beyond the services and goods you offer when it comes to working with you.
A big factor in choosing to work with a business is its sustainability practices. In a world impacted by climate change and global warming, customers like to know that the businesses they work with have the planet’s best interests in mind.
This is why more businesses than ever are taking steps to be as sustainable as possible, from initiating recycling initiatives to offering cycle-to-work schemes. One method of promoting sustainability to benefit your business and the planet is to work towards achieving energy independence.
Join Sol PV Group as we delve into the topic of energy independence, and how your business can achieve this.
What Is Energy Independence?
Energy independence refers to the act of a household, business, city, society or any other group becoming self-sufficient from other energy sources, instead producing and using energy independently. We are currently living through an energy crisis, with the Government putting plenty of focus on trying to achieve Net Zero within the next ten years or so.
Overall, the Government is aiming to do this by gaining energy from homegrown sources, instead of relying on fossil fuels and other energy sources imported from other countries. This would include all electricity, oil, gas, and transport fuels being sourced from the UK shores.
In terms of individual businesses, reaching energy independence can include producing your own energy, meaning you become less reliant on sources of energy that might not be the cleanest.
Benefits Of Sustainability In Business
There are plenty of reasons why sustainability should be put at the forefront in terms of the focus of your company. Here we dive into a few of them:
Protect Your Brand
Putting sustainability at the forefront can help to protect your brand from future scandals. Brands and businesses that follow unsustainable practices are more likely to be put under scrutiny, especially larger businesses that might make bigger contributions to the environment.
Not protecting your brand can lead to a public relations backlash, where you might lose customers and clients if they believe they can work with a business elsewhere that is more sustainable. Plus you might have to divert resources, both human and financial, to deal with the backlash, which can reduce productivity.
Accountability
Protecting your brand by focusing on sustainability can also hold you accountable. If you are making sustainability promises to customers, clients and investors, you are more likely to follow through with them as you have publicly pledged to them. Also, this comes with the added benefit of attracting customers and staff, as most people are more likely to work with a brand they believe has strong values.
How To Gain Energy Independence
Assess Your Outputs And Costs
The first step to move towards gaining energy independence is a thorough assessment of your outputs and costs. Being able to get a full picture of everything your business contributes in terms of energy and the environment will help you choose what steps you need to take to become more sustainable and energy independent.
This can include everything from the cost of energy, waste and water at your office, to looking at how sustainable resources like products, services and anything else arrive at your business. You might think a local fruit supplier is a great option, but how sustainable is their delivery model?
Once you’ve carried out a baseline energy review of your operations, this should help you to better understand the scale of your emissions and the areas that need the most improvement.
Make Your Product As Sustainable As Possible
While this might not be applicable to the product/service you offer, a key way to drive sustainability at your business is to make your product as sustainable as possible. There are plenty of ways to do this, from changing where you source products, to ensuring packaging is recyclable, renewable or biodegradable.
You should also think carefully about how you store and ship your products, such as ensuring your warehouse is fitted with renewable energy sources or ensuring you use reusable shipping boxes.
Remote Working & Sustainable Commuting
While not every business can support remote work, it can help make your business more sustainable if you can. Having set work-from-home days or fewer days in the office will instantly bring your energy usage down, meaning it will be easier to gain energy independence.
Encouraging employees to work at home will also reduce the impact on the environment from their commute. While this is not thought about as often, the environmental impact of your employee’s commutes is a big part of your carbon footprint, so reducing this as much as possible can be key to sustainability.
If you are set on your employees coming into the office, try to make their commute as environmentally friendly as possible. This could be by starting a cycle-to-work scheme or offering free electric charging on-site to encourage workers to use electric vehicles to get to work.
Solar Energy
As you might expect from a brand called Sol P V Group, we advocate using solar energy to gain energy independence at your business. With solar energy, you can truly transform your energy production, helping you meet your sustainability needs with little effort.
Solar energy is truly unlimited, and the more solar panels you have installed on your property the better, as you will be able to draw more solar energy into your systems. This is especially beneficial for businesses with large premises, as you can install numerous solar panels to maximise the amount of energy you will obtain.
While solar energy is primarily gathered during the day, you can store the energy you use in the day to be used when the sun goes in. If your business operates during the evenings/nights, you can use this power straight away, or you can even sell energy back to the grid for a profit.
Energy Efficiency Solutions with Sol PV Group
By working with Sol PV Group, you can future-proof your business with innovative solutions personalised for your exact requirements. You will make your operations more environmentally friendly, which can lead to reduced energy bills and allow your customers to partner with a sustainability-focused business.
With our commercial solar services, we can work with you to design a system based on your current and prospective usage needs, creating the perfect solution that aligns with your goals for the future. As well as the design and planning, we will install and maintain your system, ensuring you are making the most of your energy production throughout the years.
By combining solar panels with battery storage, you can utilise off-peak energy rates and store energy for times when the sun isn’t shining, thus no longer having to rely on the national grid and taking the first step towards energy independence. You can even make money by selling energy back!
As well as commercial solar, we can offer you EV charging, battery storage and maintenance packages to suit your needs. With these other services combined with solar panels, you’ll soon be able to take massive leaps towards energy independence and offer a full package when it comes to renewable solutions.
If you have any other questions or wish to book a consultation, get in touch with us today.
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