Environmental sustainability is having a moment. It’s hard to find an aisle at Home Depot or Target that isn’t packed with products that claim to have environmentally sound ingredients, energy-saving technology or more responsibility sourcing.
But beyond marketing, what’s the benefit to business owners of going green? Can a company improve its bottom line while helping to save the environment?
Money
The answer is yes. Better insulation, after all, translates into lower heating and cooling bills, and devices like energy-efficient lighting and low-flow toilets can slash utility expenditures.
Lighting
For many businesses, changing lighting is more complex than turning out the lights after work. Most offices are equipped with old-fashioned fluorescent lights, which are more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs but less energy-efficient than LEDs. Old fluorescents tend to flicker, and often produce a cold, unpleasant light. In addition, their bulbs can be expensive and difficult to replace.
Sunshine
Another way to cut electrical bills is by taking advantage of a free, limitless lighting resource that’s available to most businesses: the sun. In addition to lowering lighting costs, sunlight also improves the feel of an office and the morale of workers. Daylight gives employees a connection to the changing weather and the patterns of the day and reinforces their circadian rhythms.
