If your company requires cloud-based solutions for HR and financial, health and wealth, or customer experience segments, you can get what you want and go green at the same time.
What follows is a look at a few ways that your business can save money by going green.
Cut Down on Paper
You business can save money and go green by eliminating, or at least reducing, paper use in the office. This can be accomplished by using cloud solutions and by scanning important documents so that they can be stored in the cloud. This will cut down on the amount of paper your company uses. In fact, the savings will eventually add up so that you recoup the cost of your cloud-based system. Here are some reasons why the cloud can help you go green:
- Fewer Machines Required: When you go to the cloud, you won't only be able to reduce the amount of paper you use, but also be able to reduce the hardware you have to buy, store, and maintain. Cloud computing relies on a remote server system that has a significant capacity, so you won’t have to dedicate a lot of space to equipment.
- Climate Control Not Required: If you have a lot of hardware onsite rather than rely on a cloud-based system, you'll have to install a climate-control system to ensure that the equipment doesn’t get too hot. The costs needed to maintain an optimal temperature would add up for your company over time and perhaps be cost-prohibitive. With a cloud-based system, however, you won't require a climate-control unit.
Check Water Meter
Water conservation is another way your business can go green. On this front, be sure to check your water meter on occasion. What you'll want to do is read the meter, spend the following two hours using no water, and then check the meter again. If there's a change, then you have a leak someplace that needs to be looked after either by yourself or a professional plumber.
Telecommuting
According to the 2017 State of Telecommuting Report, 3.9 million workers in the U.S. — translating to 2.9% of the total workforce in America — work from home no less than 50% of the time. This is up from 1.8 million U.S. workers in 2005. As well, telecommuting is a green way to work since it lessens the carbon footprint for telecommuting employees to the extent that it can result in annual savings of $11,000 for each telecommuting worker. Working with cloud-based systems will simply the process of telecommuting since your workers will be able to access software from wherever they have a reliable Internet connection.
Reduce Utility Expenses
If your workers are telecommuting part of the time, that will help to lower your utility costs. But there are yet other ways that you can pay less and go green, and one way is to switch your lights to LED bulbs from incandescent bulbs. Consider that LED light bulbs have a lifespan of between 20,000 hours and 50,000 hours, which means that they can last as many as five times as long as other types of light bulbs available.
Going green can save you money even as you enjoy the benefits of being a good corporate environmental steward. And the good thing is that it won’t take much to get started.
