The 9 Commercial Benefits of Going Carbon Neutral

Blog - The 9 Commercial Benefits of Going Carbon Neutral

The  9  
Commercial Benefits
of Going
Carbon Neutral

Taking your business Carbon Neutral is a great thing to do, and you’ll make lots of friends and admirers by doing it. 

But if you want more for your business than gratitude and admiring glances, then you need to know you’ll achieve real-world commercial benefits as well.

A Carbon Neutral project will take a certain amount of time and money (though not as much of either as you might think).  And if you’re looking for a healthy ROI from every project you run, then this can’t be any different.  

So to help you make the case for taking YOUR business Carbon Neutral, here are 9 commercial benefits your business could achieve.

1. Convert more prospects
2. Increase repeat purchases
3. Reduce your costs
4. Create a loyal, happy workforce
5. Recruit better
6. Demonstrate your CSR
7. Mitigate Risk
8. Engage Stakeholders
9. Exploit the growth in sustainable procurement

1. Convert More Prospects and Generate Extra New Business
Differentiating yourself in a way that resonates with your prospects is a sure-fire way to increase your conversion rate. Going Carbon Neutral is exactly the kind of differentiation that makes a big difference in peoples’ minds, and when they want to use you, its so much easier to get them to make that leap.

This means you should put your Carbon Neutral status front-and-centre of your promotional activities, involving your customers and prospects in the process and creating a conversation around the topic

2. Increase Loyalty and Repeat Purchases
You know it’s more cost-effective to sell to an existing customer than to generate a new one, and communicating your new Carbon Neutral status to your current and previous customers will re-connect them with your brand and make it much more likely they’ll want to buy again.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling gym equipment to consumers, IT-services to conglomerates or stationery to local government, the person doing the purchasing is going to be influenced and you’ll receive a short-cut to their short-list. So long as the rest of your proposition stacks up then the repeat sales will surely follow.

3. Reduce your Costs
This is the other side of the coin, because you don’t only generate new income from achieving Carbon Neutral status, you also cut costs through fuel and emissions savings.

Any short-term changes you make in your initial projects will reap their own benefits of course, but you will also be looking at longer term fuel and travel savings, more sustainable materials, virtual meetings instead of face-to-face, and many other savings along the way.

What’s more, your staff are certain to want to get involved and the initiatives they generate will add even more to your business savings. Over time these savings alone will pay for your investments, regardless of the extra income you generate.

4. Loyal, Happy Staff
As we said above, staff will want to get involved because everyone wants to work for the good guys. Your people will be proud to work for a Carbon Neutral company and it’s even going to make a difference to the way they feel about themselves.  

And if you’ve got a proud, happy workforce they’ll work harder and produce more. They’ll be more loyal, they’ll become natural advocates for your business, and by living and breathing the benefits, they’ll all become an effective part of your sales efforts.

5. Recruit Better!
Do you want to work for a carbon Neutral company? Yes, and so do a lot of other people too!  

Promoting your status in recruitment ads will convince more people they want to work for you, increasing your selection pool and giving you better quality new-recruits. Better quality than your competitors for instance!

6. Demonstrate your Corporate Social Responsibility
Many businesses include Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives in their annual accounts. And often the company does nothing more to achieve them than re-print them again next year. It’s tired and it’s transparent and you’ll make no friends by deceiving everyone in this way.

But reaching Carbon Neutral status is a demonstrable achievement and will bring your CSR objectives to life.

7. Mitigate Risk
The dangers of global heating have never been more obvious, and governments across the world are only going to become more proscriptive with carbon taxes and regulations designed to fight the effects of rising emissions.

Making the move now to Carbon Neutrality puts you in a very strong position to exploit any new changes, future-proofing you against the costs and time constraints of the next set of regulations. You’ll not only mitigate any financial risks, you’ll also position yourselves as a trailblazer. Isn’t that where you want to be seen?

8. Engage Stakeholders
Whatever stakeholder groups you need to influence – whether they’re shareholders, potential investors, local community groups or anyone else – demonstrating your ‘green credentials’ will help to bring these groups on-board with your plans. And when stakeholder groups are on your side, decision making becomes a much easier process.

9. Exploit the Growth in Sustainable Procurement
Whether you’re selling to public bodies, schools, or private companies with CSR objectives, there is an unstoppable growth in ‘sustainable procurement’ policies. If you haven’t started seeing them yet, you will do very soon.

And if you want to win this business then you’ve got to show your sustainability. Going Carbon Neutral is perhaps the best and most obvious way of doing it.

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So as you can see, taking your business Carbon Neutral can bring multiple, significant benefits - like increasing your revenue, reducing your costs, simplifying your decision-making and future-proofing your whole business.

And it shouldn’t cost too much either. Yes, there are lots of ways of achieving Carbon Neutrality, and many companies offering solutions and accreditations.  But careful analysis and selection of your options will give you a cost-effective, income-generating answer.

Time to decide.

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