One of the best things about being a small business who wants to start being more environmentally responsible, is that you can get started NOW. Unlike bigger businesses, you don’t have the layers of management decision-making to navigate in order to get something just tabled for discussion. You can just start doing it now.

The best place to start is what “The Natural Step” calls the ‘low hanging fruit’ – that is the easy stuff! But don’t be fooled – even the seemingly easy stuff can still prove to be a challenge. This is because attaining many of these low hanging fruit involves changes in habit. And we all know how hard habits are to change!

To illustrate, lets look at some low hanging fruit around reducing paper waste:

• reduce the amount of material you print, such as emails, reports, letters, etc., by relying more on electronic communication and data storage;
• print only when you absolutely must, using both sides of the paper and in draft quality;
• reuse waste paper for memos, note paper or for printing on the other side.

Sounds fairly easy. But what can get in the way of getting these low hanging fruit? In my experience it’s ‘habit’.

For many of us we have grown up in the ‘disposable’ era – the post-depression land of plenty. When you have finished with something, just screw it up and chuck it in the bin, without even thinking about it. We have lots of other wasteful habits born of years of unconscious behaviour.

Reshaping these wasteful habits sometimes requires dramatic steps. So for those who struggle with implementing even these basic changes with their staff or themselves, the solution is ‘cold turkey’.

Remove all the rubbish bins from your office!

The next time you go to throw something out without thinking there will be no where to put it! It will break the pattern of the habit, forcing you to think and to take responsibility for the waste yourself.

It is the exact same technique that some City Councils employ in public parks. Next time you are at one take a look around. Chances are you will see that those parks with rubbish bins are piled high with plastic bags of dog pooh (my absolute pet hate – pun intended), takeaway packaging, cans and drink bottles, with the remainder strewn around the park grounds. Those without bins tend to be cleaner.

Change always brings challenges, even the most basic. But the key is to be ready for it and to have a plan in place.

Let the journey begin!

 

Posted on April 26th, 2008 by Wendy Riley-Biddle
Filed under: Environmental