Greening Your Small Business

The idea of making a business green is not without controversy. Some argue that the concerns over global warming are exaggerated and that efforts to change behavior to reduce human impact on the Earth's environment are unnecessary. Debate rages in the scientific community, as well, over the idea that humans are causing environmental degradation and that something needs to be done to reduce the damage.

Whether it is belief in these warnings or just recognition of a business opportunity, companies in the U.S. and elsewhere have begun to embrace the green movement with increasing fervor.

If significant improvements are to be made, logic suggests that those causing the most harm should be primarily targeted. Governments need to change policies, pollution-belching factories need to be modified, big businesses need to implement environmental-friendly practices, and individuals need to change behaviors.

On the list of prime causes of global environmental deterioration, small and home-based businesses would presumably rank somewhere near the bottom. Small and home-based businesses just aren't typically involved in the sorts of activities that have been primarily blamed for the environmental problems, although, of course, all humans contribute in their own small way. The question thus becomes, for small and home-based businesses owners, why should I go green? What's in it for me?

In answering that question, let's first dismiss the altruistic answer: because it's the right thing to do. No small business owner should ever be expected to adopt policies, green or otherwise, that provide a cost without any (or very little) benefit. The psychic pleasure that you might feel from doing your small part to save the planet will be little compensation if the changes you adopt and the resulting expenses that you incur cause your business to fail.

Small businesses, therefore, will be convinced to go green only if those changes make financial sense. As the larger business community's embrace of the green movement would suggest, going green can make financial sense. The purpose of this discussion is to help you figure out to what extent adopting green measures makes financial sense for your business.

Many different options exist. Some small business owners will embrace the full range of choices, while others will pick and choose only a few of the options. To continue the discussion and to begin your own green analysis, select one of the following:

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