Green Business

Sustainable business, or green business, is enterprise that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies. In general, business is described as green if it matches the following four criteria: 

• It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions.

• It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replace demand for non green products and/or services. 

• It is greener than traditional competition. 

• It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations.

A sustainable business is any organization that participates in environmentally friendly or green activities to ensure that all processes, products, and manufacturing activities adequately address current environmental concerns while maintaining a profit. In other words, it is a business that “meets the needs of the present world without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” It is the process of assessing how to design products that will take advantage of the current environmental situation and how well a company’s products perform with renewable resources. In order to be considered a green business, a company must use practices which are viewed as sustainable and environmentally friendly. These practices might include the use of organic and natural products to build its factories, tighter protections against emissions, and environmentally responsible sourcing of supplies. For example, a green clothing business would seek out organic, fair-trade cotton to promote an environmentally friendly image, and it might have a factory with a living roof, or power gained from solar panels. Many green businesses are also concerned about human and animal exploitation, and they make an attempt to create cruelty free products and to pay their workers well in addition to providing them with benefits. 

Greening a business has many positive social effects. There are many ways to make an existing business more sustainable, or green. Among them are reducing energy and water use, reducing office waste and finding efficiencies in the manufacturing process.

• Social Benefits

Greening a business shows that the owners care about people and the environment. By reducing waste and pollution, a business shows that it is socially responsible.

• Boosts Employee Satisfaction

By reducing energy and water consumption or reducing waste in the manufacturing process, employers show employees that they have the triple-bottom line "Planet, People, Profit" in mind. 

• Long-Term Savings

Up-front costs associated with becoming more sustainable add about 3 percent to 4 percent to a project's budget, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. That's recouped by the energy efficiencies gained and lower energy costs over time, leading to substantial savings. 

• Reducing Waste

By reducing waste and finding efficiencies in the manufacturing process, companies can save big. Making a cleaner, greener product allows a company to invest those savings in social endeavors. 

• Public Expects It

Consumers are placing more pressure on companies to go green. Buyers are considering where the product comes from and its impact on society.

The goal of a green business is to keep its environmental footprint small, reducing waste and reusing materials as much as possible. Many use innovative building techniques for their facilities which are designed to promote energy efficiency, along with building materials which are environmentally friendly like panels fabricated from recycled materials. These companies also encourage their workers to think about the environment when they generate printed material and think about new products.