Sustainability in Business: Practical Steps for a More Eco-Friendly Future

Written by Billy Dowdall, MID Digital Solutions

A row of cardboard buildings on a blue background growing leaves, with text that says “Steps for a more eco-friendly business”
Becoming a sustainable and environmentally friendly business is a much more accessible goal than it used to be. The overwhelming slew of products, services, schemes, and initiatives you can join is almost too many, there’s loads of different things you could consider.

We’re classed as a small to medium business, with roughly 100 employees spread out over 14 different locations. Just over 5 years ago we realised we needed to do something about our environmental impact on the future and we needed to do it now. The main goal we had when started was a moral obligation to do the right thing and improve our carbon output. We created out ESG plan (Environmental, Social, and Governance plan) and submitted it to our stakeholders for approval. A few years down the line of following and improving upon the plans we had made these are the 3 biggest impacts we’ve seen.

Employee moral went up! The Wellbeing team in our HR department conducted a study among our employees that showed a significant leap in employee satisfaction which hugely helps with our Investors In People Platinum certification. Climate change provokes a real emotional response in our people, and we’re proud to be doing right by them!
Our energy bills are cheaper. Across all our sites we’ve saved significantly on our energy & water bills. Little things like automatic lights, efficient air conditioning systems set to timers, and low-flow toilets add up and make a big difference. We can now pump that money back into the business.
It’s helped us grow and forge much better connections with other businesses in the North West. Sustainability is a hot-topic amongst every business in the UK and part of being B-Corp certified is aiming to clean up your downstream and only work with businesses that are committed to sustainability as well. Just by making the effort we’ve gathered fantastic leads that have turned into fully fledged business partnerships.
Employees now have the option to work from home, as less commuting to the office means we have less carbon output in our downstream. As a Telecommunications business, we’re lucky in that we already have that infrastructure set up and ready to go. Our staff have full access to our head-office computer systems wherever they are with 100% compliance for stuff like PPI, GDPR, and more.

If you’d like to learn more about how your business can work from anywhere, we’re experts in that! Give us a call or visit us at www.middigitalsolutions.com

Click here for 15 steps you can take inspiration from! They might not all be suitable for your business, but we hope they can be a jumping off point to start implementing some sustainable practices to your business today.