Green business is good business! Not only is it cost effective for your company, it’s great for the environment. By cutting down on little things and promoting the use of other options, you can make a huge difference within your office and ultimately the world! So if you’re wondering how you could possibly take some steps to reduce your carbon footprint, take a look at these 3 easy ways to make it happen:

1. Reusable Drinking Containers
   On average, Americans use about 50 billion water bottles every year.
   Only 23% of these plastic water bottles are recycled, meaning 38 billion plastic water bottles are thrown into landfills or litter our Earth. Payscape encourages teammates to take advantage of community coffee mugs provided by the office versus the disposable paper cups. An in-office water filtration system and reusable water bottles are another great way to cut down on waste. Depending on the size of your office, there are some pretty inexpensive and easy ways to add a water filtration system. Click here for a few ideas.  Here’s a list of water filters you could recommend for your office and also some of the best reusable water bottles out there!
   
   Payscape's offices offer community coffee mugs to reduce paper waste
   
   
2. Implement a Recycling Program

About 80 to 90 percent of solid waste in the average workplace is actually recyclable, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Consider surveying employees to see what your office could cut down on. A survey can also help you come up with specific ways to cater to your office’s specific needs. Another quick recycling resolution: put sorted recycling bins in the central locations like break rooms, kitchen, and bathrooms. This can assist in making recycling convenient and easy. Also consider putting paper-only bins at employee’s desks in addition to traditional trash bins to keep paper recycling top of mind. See how Inc. suggests you should start your office recycling program.

3. Reduce Your Company’s Carbon Footprint 
Go green with software options that reduce use of paper, therefore reducing overall business cost and your carbon footprint. Plenty of inexpensive softwares options can completely replace traditional processes that involve lots of printing, filing, and mailing. Here are some of the more common types of softwares you can implement to help streamline your business and eliminate the guilt of paper waste: 

• Online payments & invoicing portal
• Advantage of emailed invoices and billing
• Say goodbye to cost of stamps and envelopes
• Clients pay invoices online making it more convenient for everyone involved
• Cloud-based registration software
• Completely eliminates registration paperwork so commonly involved in the registration process
• Creates and organizes a single database for all your contacts - no more filing cabinet overload
• Costs are reduced overall while creating less waste
• Paperless receipts + reduced energy bills
• Many tablet-based POS systems allow the option for email or text receipts, meaning you spend less on paper and printing equipment
• Mobile swipers are a great way to avoid paper receipts as well
• The low-power equipment provided with mobile swipers and tablet-based POS significantly reduces energy bills
  
  

Let Payscape’s suite of SaaS and cloud-based softwares reduce your company’s day-to-day costs. More importantly, relish in knowing you’re making a difference in the world by reducing waste. Learn more now:

Contributions to this article accredited to Milan Johnson, Avery Sorenson, and Erin Kadzis.