Going after the eco-£ shouldn’t be the only defining factor of green commerce. Sell iPads to us to conserve resources, recycle Kindles and smartphones to set your green conscience at peace. But what about daily business practice? We deal with lots of delightful clients from the small business arena, and along with things like the best brewing time for tea, how to beat the local one-way system traffic and which celebrities we’d like to see thrown into a volcano, we habitually discuss how to make our businesses more eco-friendly.

Creating a green profile is step one. Rather than bumbling through trying to assess things like waste management and energy efficiency every day, set realistic goals after a full assessment. Things like dripping taps can waste more than 10,000 litres of water annually, proper insulation can cut heating bills by 30% – take the time to go over everything. A green mission statement should cover why you’re going green, the benefits, potential outcomes, the bigger picture, the little things and their effect (e.g. the dripping tap), and finally some reachable goals.

Waste management might seem like a small deal – all packaging and junk mail – but putting effective recycling and resource conservation protocols in place should be an essential part of the green profile. For example, make sure laptops and old iPads go to a reputable refurbishing company (that’s us!)

Go paper-free. It’s one of the simplest and easiest things any business can do. Minimise printing, recycle necessary paper usage and avoid the cardinal sin of paper waste – printing emails and memos! We went paper-free in M4M HQ in 2010 and are happy to report the world did not end because we stopped printing every email enquiry!