Benefits of going green

One way to approach this is to use sustainably sourced products for your service contracts.

The versatility and effectiveness of these products can lead to greater efficiency, while a smaller product range can significantly reduce chemical costs per site.

It’s important to not only provide your clients with a range of tested eco-friendly products and services, but also to ease them through the transition process.

Going green is becoming an increasingly attractive concept. It does not mean higher costs and does not mean less efficiency. Going green is now an effective business strategy.

For example, a company might be concerned about the impact it was having on the environment with a project that required substituting all of the cleaning products used on all its sites, to that of an eco-friendly alternative. This can be a logistical nightmare.

It would involve convincing individual sites of the merits of the product range they were now expected to use, as well as the re-training of their staff in its use, plus the necessary COSSH Awareness and Risk Management.

However, the benefits are many. This action has the potential to bring a dramatic reduction in the company’s overall carbon footprint by hundreds of tons, a reduction in product usage including risk exposure, and substantial savings on costs.

Companies should first look to increase their positive impact on the environment as this will inevitably reduce their negative impact.

There is a better way and it is no-longer a leap of faith but a positive business opportunity.

Justin Richeford  is Director at Mara Services