You may not know this about me, but I used to own an online clothing apparel. I decided to close it down to focus on University, but I learned a lot from the experience. Maybe one day I will relaunch it but there would be a lot to consider and so many things I would do differently. I’ve put together a list with suggestions of changes you can make towards having an eco-friendly small business.
Buy materials in bulk
Orders can obviously fluctuate week to week, so this may impact on the materials or products you need to buy. Buying in bulk can result in less wastage and it can also help lower your carbon footprint.
Eco-friendly packaging
Finding the appropriate packaging for your products is important, for example you may be looking for custom printed boxes UK. There are packaging businesses such as Lil Packaging who offer eco-friendly solutions. If you sell cards or prints, these need to be packaged in board backed packaging to protect the products. High quality packaging will also help to avoid customer complaints and good packaging will give a good first impression of your brand, before the customer has even opened the package.
Delivery
Delivery dates/times should ideally be arranged so it can all be done in one go. If you drive to the post office to send out your orders, you can limit it to just one journey in the car. If you are based within walking distance, a more eco-friendly option would be to go by foot.
Our choices matter
Running your own small business means that you are the decision maker and you call the shots. Those decisions you make can benefit others, as the world needs more people in charge of businesses who care about where their materials or products come from, how they are made, the environmental impact from things such as packaging, etc. By making small changes e.g. to your packaging, such as phasing out single-use plastics in your packaging, you can make your small business more eco-friendly.
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