Whether you are a new company or have been around for many years, a small company or a large corporation, you have a share of the market. Ideally, you don’t just want to keep that market share; you want it to grow. When it grows, your bottom line grows. In the past, market share was dictated by things such as the quality of your product and your service. While these things still matter, these days your bottom line is also affected by whether or not your company is sustainable.
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Yes, whether or not a company has gone green has a huge effect on their market share. On a global scale, consumers want to do business with companies that have proven themselves sustainable. In some regions of the world, this is people’s attempt to simply do their part. In others, it’s a move that must be made because climate change has directly affected their health and quality of life. Consider that 12.6 million deaths occur each year due to environmental health risks and environmental factors cause nearly 25% of the deaths in developing countries.
Not only this but becoming sustainable actually increases the financial performance of a company. Companies that are active in their efforts to plan for climate change have a return on investment (ROI) that is 18% higher than companies that don’t. This ROI is 67% higher than that of companies that aren’t transparent about their emissions. With all of this in mind, the question is how to become and stay green in today’s world.
So many green options to secure market share
There are many options for going green in today’s world. Companies can use any combination of these options, with a focus on what works best for them within their industry. Here are some examples of green strategy:
- making your office or facility energy efficient;
- using recyclable products throughout your organization;
- changing to green packaging;
- sourcing your raw materials ethically;
- choosing manufacturers that are making an effort to be sustainable and ethical.
These are all great options, but there is another one. It’s called carbon offsetting and it is one of the easiest ways there is to go green.
Carbon offsetting
There is no denying that companies are shipping many things over great distances these days. From collecting and shipping raw materials to manufacturing facilities to shipping finished products to stores and customers around the world, huge amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted around the clock. Ships are responsible for transporting 90% of world trade and they are responsible for generating 3% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. That might not seem like much, but with the globalization of consumerism, that number is only expected to grow.
These greenhouse gases are what are slowly destroying the atmosphere and causing climate change. It is vitally important for us to reduce the amount of gases our companies produce, but we also have another option. It’s called carbon offsetting and it is a way to neutralize your carbon footprint so you can rest assured your company isn’t making the climate change problem worse, even when you can’t cut your emissions down to zero. Carbon offsetting might sound complicated, but it’s actually very straightforward.
How carbon offset can support your market share
The first step to making use of the carbon offsetting strategy is to calculate your company’s total greenhouse gas emissions. This includes emissions from everything, such as the running of your factory and offices to the shipping of your raw materials and your finished products. Once you have your annual emissions calculated, you can purchase carbon offsets that will essentially remove the same amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as your company contributed to it.
For example, if you buy carbon offsets in the form of helping to finance research and create alternative energy sources, you are helping find ways to stop the emission of greenhouse gases. Another way, and one of the absolute best ways, to neutralize your company’s carbon footprint is to buy carbon offsets in the form of planting trees. You pay for a specific number of trees to be planted. This is the number of trees that are required to absorb from the atmosphere the amount of carbon dioxide that is equivalent to what your company emitted.
Trees can be planted anywhere. Forests, which will act as carbon sinks, are especially critical in urban centers. You can even get your employees out and participating in the tree planting, making it a great team-building exercise. And when you’re done, you will have a carbon offset certification you can use to get approval for an eco-label on your products. This, along with releasing an annual sustainability report, will show consumers you are making a serious effort to go green. This will not only stabilize your market share (or even increase it); it will also show investors you are worth their attention.
Doing business in today’s world is definitely more complex than it was even 20 years ago. Today, you have to provide more than just a great product and good customer service. You have to show consumers that you are operating your business in sustainable way, a way that will preserve the earth for future generations. Carbon offsetting is the easiest way to do that.
Not sure how to calculate your carbon emissions? Try our carbon footprint calculator right here to find out your impact!
