A myriad of businesses are going green, and it doesn’t look like this trend is dying down anytime soon. Just in 2016, “Over 400 investors representing $24 trillion in assets have pledged to seek out and scale up low-carbon and carbon-resilient investments.” Why have businesses been so gung-ho about going green? In the modern world going green carries around positive social capital, so much so that consumers are even beginning to expect it from conglomerate sized companies. Plus, going green is good for a company’s bottom line. According to a 2017 Ceres survey, “In 2016, 190 of the Fortune 500 companies together saved close to $3.7bn through their collective renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives.”
While these finding seem great for everyone involved, there is a piece of the puzzle missing: mid to small size companies. These sized companies tend to have to squeeze every dollar they can, so while going green seems like a nice idea many business owners believe its just not feasible. However, going green is good for any sized company’s bottom line. Increasing energy efficiency can save big on utility costs. According to K2 Enterprises,"a conservative estimate is that a targeted document management effort can return as much as $20.00-$40.00 for every dollar invested." Even just changing out light bulbs to environmentally friendly alternatives can cut down lighting energy costs by 75% according to the Network for Business Sustainability. Plus finding innovative ways to reuse material companies already have means less money spent on purchasing new stock. All these ways puts money right back into the pocket of businesses, while improving their image.
