Leveraging Your Eco-friendly Philosophy to Build a Powerful Brand Image
Brand image is the differentiation between you and your competitors. It makes you stand out from being a commodity to offering something that provides a stronger sense of value and market positioning. Branding is the reason behind brand loyalty and a ‘motive to buy’ for people to purchase your products or services from your business.
The green aspect of brand marketing continues to increase as people are increasingly becoming savvy, eco-friendly individuals who are actively seeking to play their part in preserving our planet. Companies that recognize the importance to ally themselves with green initiatives can provide an extra sense of value with customers compared to those who are known to put the planet in harm’s way solely for monetary gains.
Organisations can adopt initiatives to help the planet by practicing eco-friendly practices within their organisation that projects a powerful ‘green friendly’ brand image.
Encourage your company to conduct an environmental report to see how well your company is doing
Do you know if your company has ever conducted an eco-friendly report? Start off by identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats to your company’s eco-friendly values by conducting a report to see where your company can improve.
By initiating an environmentally friendly business, your impact on the environment and natural resources will be reduced. Below are a few ways how companies can take action to improve eco-friendliness within their business. Companies can seek to use natural resources within their organisation. Some ideas include:
Developing solar energy initiatives
Developing a solar energy initiative within their company and endorsing the idea to their employees. This includes the company installing and using solar panel energy for their internal power needs. Additionally, the company could offer a subsidy or bursary to employees who decide to invest in solar panels for their home.
Using rainwater
Companies can install rainwater tanks for to use with their internal water systems. This type of initiative works well for car washes who use large amounts of water for their services. Additionally, the rainwater can be incorporated into water systems for watering plants, toilets and cleaning operations.
Using products that are made from recycled material
The company can encourage their organisation to use products made from recycled material, such as recycled plastic, furniture made from recycled rubber or stationery made from wood or bamboo.
Leveraging communication technology to reduce travel
Reducing emissions by reducing the amount travel. Instead, make use of virtual conference software and communications such as Skype, Facetime and online conference facilities.
Incorporating more biodegradable products
Rather than purchasing products that aren’t eco-friendly, seek to work with suppliers who offer biodegradable products or make products out of recycled material. Companies that are seeking to adopt a ‘pledge to recycle’ can help to lead the way in reducing the amount of consumption waste that businesses will often contribute.
Encourage your employees to recycle
Give your employees the opportunity to recycle by providing recycle bins and to participate in recycling drives where they can donate equipment, clothing and more.
Environmentally friendly printing solutions
Find out if your printer provider shares similar eco-friendly initiatives such as manufacturing their cartridges from recycled materials. Also, see if they offer any initiatives by allowing customers to recycle their cartridges with them.
Some habits that your organisation can start getting your personnel to adopt include:
Having your employees avoid using materials unnecessarily
Reducing your paper needs by asking staff to print double-sided
Encouraging staff to reuse use scrap paper for notes
Recycle by shredding excess paper – you could recycle this commercially or invite staff to take it home for their compost or mulch heaps.
If your company hasn’t taken the step towards becoming an ‘environmentally preferred company’, now is the time to take action. Focus on making the products that you develop or that you are supplied with either recyclable or environmentally sound. Your company can make a difference now to create a better future for our planet.
