4 Eco-Friendly Apps That Help Businesses Be Sustainable

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With everything that’s going on in the world today, businesses are expected to do more than just produce, market, and sell their products and services. They are also called on to do these things sustainably. Fortunately, responsible business is becoming the norm. It’s not just a couple of businesses here and there running their own sustainability programs; more and more businesses are seeing the benefits of integrating sustainable practices into their culture. What’s even better, advancements in technology have made doing sustainable business easier regardless of whether you’re a small business owner or working for a large firm.

What Does Doing Business Sustainably Mean?

Sustainability means doing all the processes necessary for your business to run and be successful without negatively impacting the environment, your community, and society as a whole. Businesses with effective sustainability strategies take it up a notch by not just reducing their negative impact on the environment and society but trying to make a positive impact in these areas of concern.

Why Must Businesses Work Towards Sustainability?

It’s the Responsible Thing to Do

There’s a long list of reasons why businesses must do their best to be sustainable. The most important reason is perhaps the most ethical one: because taking care of the environment and our society is everyone’s responsibility. And when companies that have more resources and a wider reach than individuals pitch in, then they can help make sustainability that much more achievable.

A Cost-Efficient Way to Do Business

Adopting sustainability also has the potential to save businesses a couple of dollars or so. Sustainable practices such as using energy-efficient lighting or adopting a hybrid or fully-remote setup can be cost-efficient for companies. They can maintain the quality of their output at a fraction of the usual operational costs and with fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

Consumers are More Conscious

From a business standpoint, consumers nowadays are much more discerning and socially-conscious. It’s not just about having the product with the lowest price. Consumers do their research about where a product comes from and if that company’s values align with theirs. If a business does more damage to the environment and society than it does good, then they will most likely lose their target consumers’ interest and support.

Four Eco-Friendly Apps for Businesses

1.Slack

Slack is more than just an app for chats. It’s marketed as a collaboration software that makes working with a distributed workforce easier and more efficient. Slack can be used on one’s desktop or smartphone, making maintaining truly open communication channels that much easier. With this app, you can adopt a hybrid or fully-remote work set-up, allowing your team to reduce their trips to the office. This can help minimize the company’s overall carbon footprint. Plus, it allows you to diversify your workforce since you’re not limited to geographical locations. This means you can get the best talent for the job from anywhere in the world.

2.Google Workspace

Google Workspace includes useful tools that allow both synchronous and asynchronous communication. The apps within the suite, like Docs, Sheets, and Slides, can help teams collaborate on a file without having to convene in the office. With Google Workspace, you can minimize the need for face-to-face meetings and reduce paper waste since your documents are safe and secure in the cloud.

3.Capture

CII tools are used by ships and the maritime industry as a whole to compute for their Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII). This knowledge can prove useful for the industry since they are targeting a reduction of their greenhouse emissions by as much as 70%. While CII tools are mostly for the maritime industry, other businesses can encourage their teams to use the Capture app.

Capture is a carbon footprint tracker that allows users to measure and potentially reduce their carbon footprint. Businesses can encourage their employees to download the app and even provide incentives for those who contribute to achieving the organization’s sustainability targets. With Capture, businesses can empower their employees to make the right climate-friendly lifestyle changes while adopting such eco-friendly changes at the organizational level as well.

4.Lyft

If there are situations wherein trips to the office are unavoidable, then businesses can encourage their workforce to carpool or take shared rides. Doing so allows businesses to reduce operational expenses while limiting their carbon footprint. Of course, it takes more effort to plan carpools that will actually allow employees to save on gas and reduce emissions. This is where the business's sustainability lead should step in. They can help with clustering and streamlined trips. For employees who don’t have their own vehicles (or just don’t prefer to drive), companies can provide subsidies for taking shared Lyft rides or even partner with the app to create a Lyft Business profile, which can make business-related travel easier to monitor and manage.

If you’re serious about sustainability, then you may want to consider using one or more of these apps. Adopting sustainability practices at the organizational level can create a positive domino effect. Businesses like yours can equip your employees with the right tools and information and empower them to make more sustainable and climate-friendly changes in their homes as well.

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