Climate Solutions for Businesses and Organizations
Support local sustainability initiatives
As a local business or nonprofit you are an important part of your city, and you can have a big impact on local government when you choose to speak up. Effective climate solutions ensures you’ll have a healthy community to serve far into the future. Let your city council and the people you serve know that you want action, and that you’ll stand by them as they implement needed changes.
Help your employees be climate friendly
A big part of your carbon footprint is how your employees get to work. First ask yourself how often they need to be in-person to get their work done. As recent events have shown, many more people are able to telecommute than we originally realized.
When they do need to come to work, take steps to make it easy to get there carbon-free. Encourage the city to invest in electrified transit. Install a bike rack. If you have employees that want to bike in from a larger distance, install a shower. And locate your business in a walkable part of town. You’ll find that you’ll get more business through your front door that way too.
Learn where you rely on fossil fuels, and find substitutions
Fossil fuels have become completely woven into how we work and live. The good news is that a willingness to reduce or swap out reliance on fossil fuels for your business can result in long-term efficiency gains and financial savings. While the nature of your business or organization will determine what sorts of changes to make, here are some examples:
Swap out your building heat to use an electric heat pump instead of natural gas. You can find electric substitutions for any other gas-powered appliances you run.
If you operate vehicles, look for an electric version. The increased up-front cost of an electric vehicle is dropping year by year, and the long-term savings in fuel and maintenance costs are here to stay.
If you use a diesel generator for backup power, invest in solar and battery backup instead. You’ll get to take advantage of saving on energy costs all year long, instead of maintaining a piece of equipment you hope you’ll never have to use.
If you sell products that require refrigeration, look into using refrigerants that don’t have a greenhouse effect when they leak. Common refrigerants are many thousand times more potent as a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide, and there are viable alternatives already on the market.
Consider your supply chain, whether that’s products you sell or office supplies you use. The farther away things come from, the more gasoline or diesel is being used to get them to you.