You read the news and understand the trends: energy sustainability is a priority across many sectors of our society.
You may have seriously—or perhaps only vaguely—considered what your small business could be doing to be friendlier towards the environment.
It may have also crossed your mind that going green could impact your bottom line. Unfortunately, it’s hard to determine if cost would ultimately go up or down with a green oriented workplace.
For 2010, the news for small businesses and energy sustainability initiatives is generally very good. Technology continues to advance the cause of energy efficiency, and for small businesses that plan strategically, there are many opportunities to tie technology updates, energy sustainability, and lower overall costs together.
Additionally, there are an increasing number of government grants, incentives, and rebates available to help businesses go green.
Here, in no particular order, are 5 of the top technology solutions with elements of energy sustainability for small businesses to consider. While these solutions help save energy, most of them also lower business overhead. Plan around these solutions to go green for both the wilderness and your wallet.
1. VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol is technology that aligns phone systems with the computer network—a connection known as unified communications. This allows you to access information and communicate via multiple channels with much greater flexibility than has been possible in the past. Implementing a VoIP platform is critical for the mobile workforce and saves on business travel costs by allowing communication and collaboration to take place from remote locations.
2. Virtualization: Virtualization technology allows server and PC environments to exist as data that is decoupled from hardware. From a green standpoint, this means that physical hardware can be consolidated into high capacity environments that use less energy.
3. Hosting: Related to virtualization, server hosting allows smaller businesses to forego ownership of server hardware altogether and have their environments exist—virtualized—in a data center. It is now possible for 10 to 20 separate small business servers to run on one physical machine where power, cooling, and maintenance are taken care of by a service provider. Also, check with local government and energy providers for possible tax rebates on hosting and virtualization solutions.
4. Mobility Solutions: Internet conductivity, VoIP phone systems, and remote access to servers all come into play with mobile workforce and telecommuting. Options for energy sustainability and cost reductions really begin to open up with mobility solutions. Business travel can be reduced or eliminated, employees can take on flexible work at home schedules, and office resource expenditures can be greatly reduced. With an increasing percentage of the workforce adept at using mobility tools and accustom to working with flexibility, this is a strategic initiative to take a long look at. In some cases the transformation to the workplace is considerable, but businesses that adjust can put green solutions into play that are also a competitive advantage.
5. Paperless Office: The paperless office is becoming a matter of evolution. With the vast majority of work and communication existing in a digital environment, there is often little reason to print things out. Get a good data backup solution in place so data is stored offsite, and only print when you must. Save the paper for green bills in your pocket.