Question: What can I do to understand how my business and I are wasting
resources and what can I do about waste reduction?
Waste Reduction Fundamentals
One good
place to start with any waste reduction plan is to understand your Carbon
Footprint. This
Carbon Footprint Calculator will give you an estimate of how much of the
global resources you are using relative to what is actually sustainable in
the long term. This benchmark estimate gives you a starting point and
a goal and is a key part of a waste reduction process such as the following.
Waste
reduction process:
Here are
a number of steps that you can take for waste reduction and energy reduction
that all lead to cost reduction.
-
Establish how you are using resources by doing an inventory.
-
Estimate the amount of each resources used and the monetary value.
-
Tap
into the resources of your utility providers and governmental resources
for advice and financial support.
-
Use
problem solving methods and other tools
to identify ways to reduce resource consumption.
-
Evaluate each prospective change in terms of the environmental and
economic impacts.
-
Make
your choices based on the appropriate criteria for the environment and
your economic situation.
-
Implement the changes and monitor progress
Waste
and energy reduction are excellent approaches to cost reduction because they
not only help you directly but they also help the environment.
