Do you want to know how to become a carbon neutral business? The threat of climate change is becoming the most pressing issue facing humanity. It threatens not only our environment but also our economy and social fabric. Because of this, an increasing number of companies are searching for methods to reduce their carbon footprint.

A company's carbon footprint should be reduced as much as possible. It's not just the moral thing to do, but also the smart thing to do from a financial perspective. However, the journey to carbon neutrality may be challenging for businesses. How do you know which measures will have the greatest impact?

In this guide, we’ll discuss the steps businesses can take to become carbon-neutral and some of the benefits of doing so. 

What Does "Carbon Neutrality" Mean?

Carbon neutrality, or net zero emissions, is the state of being where a business has offset its greenhouse gas emissions by implementing measures to reduce its carbon footprint to zero.

There are many ways for businesses to become carbon neutral, including reducing energy consumption, investing in renewable energy sources, purchasing carbon offsets, and reducing waste.

For the earth to remain in a stable state, it must balance off the amount of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) released into the atmosphere with the amount of carbon dioxide (a carbon sink) absorbed by plants and other organisms.

This delicate equilibrium has been disrupted by human activities, leading to a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at a rate that exceeds the planet's capacity to naturally recycle and accumulate it.

Carbon capture and storage is the natural process through which the world stores carbon in carbon sinks, either biologically or geologically. Moreover, efforts to develop modern technological carbon sequestration to reach carbon neutrality are ongoing in the scientific community.

However, we have not reached the magnitude of technical progress required to attain carbon neutrality. The carbon sinks such as the Rainforest, soil and seas aren't able to absorb the metric tons of carbon that people are releasing into the atmosphere. That's why it's crucial for businesses to adopt a "carbon neutral" policy.

How to Become Carbon Neutral: A Step-By-Step Guide

1. Set Your Goals

When you've decided to become carbon neutral, the first step is to set concrete goals. The magnitude of your emissions reduction goal, the length of time you give yourself, and the amount of money you have at your disposal are the three most important aspects that will determine the success of your carbon neutrality commitment. To achieve your goal of zero carbon emissions, the decisions you make concerning these three factors will be decisive.

2. Measure Your Business's Carbon Emissions

Your business will need to measure its carbon emissions to determine how much it’s emitting. Carbon footprinting, carbon accounting, carbon measurement, emissions measurement, and carbon reporting, are all activities you can undertake to achieve this.

In simple terms, carbon footprinting identifies the emissions that your business creates – such as the amount of energy used to make products and how much energy the products use. Quantifying your carbon footprint is one of the first steps toward becoming carbon neutral.

3. Create a Reduction Plan

Once you’ve measured your emissions, you can now create a reduction plan to bring carbon emissions down to zero. The most effective way to reduce your carbon emissions is to make changes to your operations. This is called ‘operational efficiency. Think about how you can make your operations more efficient, whether that’s reducing energy use or waste production.

4. Reduce the Paper-Based Systems

Trees, chemicals, and water are all needed in high quantities for the papermaking process. The garbage and carbon emissions it generates are also rather harmful. Every year, businesses in the United States spend approximately $8 billion on paper management. On average, it costs a company $20 to file a document, $120 to track a missing file, and $220 to replicate a document that was missed.

By eliminating the need for paper documents, your organization can help preserve trees and the environment. SafetyIQ technology solutions can be helpful whether you want to digitize a specific procedure or become completely paperless in your business. 

SafetyIQ digitizes all paper-based documents entirely. Because of the elimination of manual procedures, businesses have benefited greatly from adopting SafetyIQ. Moreover, SafetyIQ also provides journey management, digitized risk assessment, and other safety solutions that can benefit your business.

With the help of SafetyIQ, you can take advantage of digital procedures that will lessen your company's dependency on paper, allowing you to save time and money.

Click here to request a free demo of SafetyIQ. 

How Going Paperless Can Benefit Your Business?

Paper documents need expensive and cumbersome storage. Going paperless allows you to save the expense of renting or buying filing cabinets, as well as renting or buying an off-site archive storage unit. 

There is less room for human mistakes in digital workflows, particularly when it comes to misplacing or losing data. Error-free work means less time spent fixing mistakes and reworking previous steps. 

When dealing with digital procedures, it's considerably less difficult to keep clients and consumers updated. You reduce time spent on sending and receiving papers, and there is no need to make copies.  

As opposed to paper records, digital files can be searched and viewed instantly. Staff members can quickly access any information they may need to address customers' inquiries over the phone without having to put other work on hold. Benefits from this include fewer calls needed to resolve a client's issue and even more work completed per hour because of improved workflow. 

Client portals are an effective result of when businesses go to a paperless model. Clients and other stakeholders can access documents online and at their convenience.

Final Thoughts

No matter what business you're in, you need to take steps to reduce your carbon footprint. To become carbon neutral, you’ll need to make sure that your business practices are in line with the reduction plan you’ve created. Becoming carbon neutral will not only have a positive impact on the environment, but it will also benefit your business.