Unless you hadn’t noticed, there is a housing boom, and the construction industry is thriving as a result. New housing developments in many countries, including the USA and UK, are placing demands on the entire construction industry supply chain. As if keeping up with demand wasn’t enough of a task, it is heartening to see the Construction Leadership Council’s efforts to champion the CO2nstruct Zero initiative spurring many big names in the building and construction industry making strides towards becoming more eco-friendly not just in their production and materials but in the way they do business too.
Going for green
Hanson’s objective to produce carbon-neutral concrete might seem like a lofty ambition, but so did Elon Musk’s ambition of opening up space tourism – and he has now achieved a goal that is literally out of this world. Savvy businesses, however, like astute business people such as Elon Musk and Richard Branson, know that ambitions don’t turn into reality without action, and the small steps we take en route to our destinations are what make the difference. While Olympians are currently competing for coveted gold medals, businesses are striving for a different gold green. Making conscious efforts to decarbonise your business, be more ethical and eco friendly in the way you do business, not just in what you produce and sell, has a capital value. It is no longer a nice to have; it’s a must-do if your business wants to prosper over the next decade or more.
Green is the new gold
Businesses that declare their intentions to become more carbon-neutral want to buy from businesses with similar intentions. Like it or not, your business is in a supply chain that will exert is pressure on your organisation to do more to demonstrate its eco-credentials. While the most significant changes a business can make are undoubtedly in the goods it produces and the machinery it uses to produce them, every business can attend to some common elements of commerce. One of those is billing. It is a significant touchpoint with your market. While you may be selling recycled products, if you still send your invoices out on paper, you are diluting your company’s efforts to achieve meaningful progress towards becoming net carbon zero.
Paperless processes
No one is saying that email is 100% eco friendly. Computers, servers and all the technology that supports it have a carbon cost, but objective studies show that eInvoicing is considerably more low carbon than postal billing. Furthermore, there are grades of eInvoicing, from emailed PDF attachments to EDI, that are progressively more planet-friendly. We have illustrated this in an infographic showing the carbon cost of paper invoicing versus various methods of eInvoicing. Please take a read and bear in mind that while science strives to make products with less ecological impact, there are already things we can all do today to move our businesses forward on the path to a net-zero carbon future.
