Sustainability is at the top of everyone's mind at the moment. With the significant growth in the renewable sector from consumers, governments and businesses are chasing opportunities to show their commitment to ongoing sustainability. As a small business owner it can be tough to compete with the size and ability of the big end of town so becoming more sustainable can be daunting.

Here are three simple ways you can make your business more sustainable so you can save money, attract more customers and reduce your businesses carbon footprint.

1. Change Your Lights

A great place for any business to start, the lights. Most older buildings, especially showrooms will use HID, Halogen or other types of high energy usage lights.

These types of lights draw a lot of energy. When you have them on all day, sometimes, all night the end result is big bills and a lot of electricity being consumed. Halogen lights are actually a heat source before they are a light source so they aren’t very efficient in large volumes. You can also add Downlights to make it more sustainable. More and more business owner choose Mondolux a commercial Lighting Supplier in Australia offering short lead times on quality commercial lighting solutions for retail & commercial application.

The solution is to switch to energy efficient LED lighting.

With the continued development of technology, LED’s are as efficient from an output perspective (even better sometimes), much cheaper to run, use much less power and last much longer.

On a pure savings basis, if you change 20 halogen downlights to LED downlights, it is estimated you will save up to $210 a year on energy costs.

Plus, there are even government based offers like the NSW Government's discounted energy efficient lighting rebate that helps offset the cost of switching to energy efficient lighting.

2. Install Solar

One of the greatest ways a small business can become more sustainable is to install their own rooftop solar system. Rooftop solar works by taking the sun's rays, converting them into electricity you can use within your business and in turn reducing your reliance and usage from the grid.

During the day when the sun is shining you can consume your cheap, clean solar power first. Then if you need more than your system is generating, you can buy the rest from the grid. In instances when your system is generating more than your business needs, it will be sent back to the grid for others to use.

The best part is, when you send your surplus energy back into the grid you get paid what is known as a feed in Tariff. A feed in tariff is a fee paid to you from your energy retailer for the power you send back in. It will appear as a credit on your next bill.

3. Switch To A Green Electricity Plan

A simple phone call to your electricity retailer and not only can you negotiate a better tariff, you can also ask them to switch you onto a green plan.

Green plans are electricity plans that guarantee that the energy you use will have been generated from sustainable, renewable energy sources or, they will buy RECs (renewable energy certificates) to offset the carbon emissions created from making the electricity.

This can be one of the quickest and easiest ways to reduce your carbon footprint and become more sustainable.

The best part is, you hold the power! Commercial energy plans are very lucrative to energy retailers so when you talk to them about your usage and switching plans remember it is in their best interest to keep you as a customer. Use that to your advantage.  

Making your business more sustainable can not only save you money and help you predict future bills it can also help you retain customers. Once you start to make the switch to renewable, sustainable practices make sure you promote your changes to your client base.

About Teho

Founded by brothers David and Jonathan Green in 2020, Teho is Australia’s first full-service renewable energy broker connecting both consumers and businesses with renewable energy solutions and financing options.

With backgrounds in renewable energy and finance, David and Jonathan created Teho after seeing a gap in the market for a one-stop renewable energy brokerage.

Teho works across solar, renewables, batteries, electric and hybrid cars, and has a focus on connecting customers with reliable and qualified industry partners.

By providing financing and payment options for both consumers and businesses, Teho makes the switch to renewables simple and seamless.

www.teho.com.au