How can brokers be more Green?

Over recent years, consumers have been leaning green and now the new generation of buyers are taking green thinking into every purchase they make, including who they want to buy a property from. Although your first thought may be green mortgages, there are a lot of other ways to prove you have a green business to help secure environmentally conscious buyers.

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What does it mean to be green?

In short, a green business is one that thoughtfully and actively holds itself accountable for its impact on the environment. Being green requires the company to review its processes, purchases and outputs through a lens of sustainability and overall environmental impact.

Many new buyers want to see how businesses conduct themselves and the effort that goes into reducing their footprint. You can showcase this in an environmental impact statement and back up your claims by undertaking some of the initiatives mentioned below.

Already feeling green and want to show off your eco-conscious credentials? You can apply for B-corporation certification.

B-corporations are companies that have proven themselves to have a clear positive impact on environmental, social or governance (ESG) issues. It’s a well respected certification that can immediately act as an identifier and proof point for ESG-conscious buyers. There is no minimum or maximum size of business that can apply and performing the impact assessment alone is free.

Small changes, big difference

Going green doesn’t have to happen all at once and it doesn’t mean revolutionising the way you do business. Even some of the smallest differences can have a big impact. To make your business more green, consider some of the following actions for your office:

• Recycle - Starting a recycling initiative at work is a great way to introduce green thinking and start making a difference right away. 
• Use eco-friendly products - These days, finding an environmentally friendly substitute for anything is getting easier and that’s especially true of cleaning supplies.
• Bring the green inside - Having live plants in the office doesn’t just spruce the place up - they also purify the air and generally improve well-being.
• Green team days - Encourage your team to participate in local outdoor clean-up initiatives like beach, park or river cleans. Make it a bonding experience and organise a whole team awayday to take care of the planet!
• Reduce paper waste - As we’ve been working from home for the majority of the past year, your business may have already started this without realising. Now it’s time to take a look at the places where paper is still being used and ask if there is another way.

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Since many of us are not back in the office full-time, there are activities that you can incorporate into home life as well. You can even encourage employee participation by creating challenges with prizes. In addition to tackling similar actions as you might at the office, here are some easy green wins for working from home:

• Commit to a plastic-free challenge - One of the biggest challenges contributing to climate change is the overwhelming amount of plastic that is disposed of each year. Much of that breaks down into smaller pieces, microplastics, that end up in our food. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimates we eat about a credit card’s worth of plastic each week.
• Consider eco-friendly grooming - There are a lot of options out there now to purchase plastic-free, all-natural, upcycled food waste grooming and beauty products that don’t cost the Earth and don’t contribute to climate change.
• Reduce food waste - Use food sharing apps like Olio or Too Good To Go to reduce food waste. Or, if most of your food waste is off cuts from cooking, explore the nutritious recipes trending for offal right now, save some pennies or give composting a go!
• Try meat-free Mondays - The meat industry heavily impacts climate change and skipping one serving of beef every Monday for a year saves the equivalent emissions to driving 348 miles in a car.
• Offset your carbon footprint - You can subscribe to carbon offsetting programs like Native Energy or Ecologi which fund activities that counteract carbon contributions and enable you to live carbon negative and climate positive.

Don’t forget, Earth Day is coming up on the 22nd of April! This is a great opportunity to kick off some of your green activities and share them with your audience. You can appeal to the generation of green-conscious buyers by creating a greener culture within your business, sharing your efforts or results and making a deliberate effort to be more sustainable.