All of a sudden, everybody is going green. Not green with envy but green with awareness of saving our planet. There has been a noticeable change in the lifestyles of many who have adopted the intangible and invisible shade of green in their lives. Corporations and small businesses have realized the magnanimity that our planet needs in order to expect an environment that is conducive for survival and derive maximum benefits from natural resources. Imbibing environment friendly measures that consume less energy and do not contribute to the rising level of pollution have become an integral part of the strategic management of all the businesses. It won’t be long until the “go green” theory finds a place in the future business management books and also a part of discussions held in the B-school classrooms. Speaking about involving green in businesses, here is a list of top ten ways to introduce environment friendliness in diverse businesses.

Internet Marketing

The most effective way to promote your business is by making it conspicuous on the Internet. The advent of Internet and social media marketing has revolutionized the basis of marketing, making it greener with absolutely no dependence on paper which consumes natural resources, flyers that require distribution, indirectly resulting in wastage of fuel, printers and fax machines which utilize massive amount of electricity. With social media marketing tools such as blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube, that are free and require just a username and a password to logon to, Internet marketing has become the greenest and the most convenient form of marketing.

Green Fashion

Although not on a large scale, the fashion industry has opened up avenues to embrace eco-friendliness in the way fashion is being created and promoted. The world of fashion definitely has a lot of potential to “go green” by recycling or reusing cloth or accessories, improvising the methods in which the clothes are designed, and replacing artificial chemicals, colors or dyes by organic equivalents. There are plenty of ways in which a fashion environment can be converged with a green environment.  *Hint-Hint* Vintage Clothing

Eco-friendly Gyms

The rising popularity of fitness and health consciousness has resulted in constructing gyms that not only provide various equipments that assist you to perform exercises effectively, but also provide a top-notch experience. The gyms are equipped with Jacuzzis, saunas, and centralized air conditioning systems which eat up a lot of energy. To make the gyms eco-friendly, the air conditioning system should be replaced by green cooling systems and gym equipments which require electricity to operate should derive power from solar energy. Gyms should also promote the benefits of organic food and natural health supplements.

GreenMart

Several stores nowadays have the “go green” theme. They offer discounts and money back offers to customers who follow recycling practices. It is a virtuous way to spread awareness about protecting our environment, as well as introducing eco-friendliness in the stores.

The initiative to encourage usage of bags that are made up of reusable cloth or recyclable plastic in these stores has been quite successful.

Green Bathroom

Yes, bathrooms can be made environment friendly too. Respecting the growing demand of saving water and electricity in the bathrooms, the interior decorators and plumbers need to consider various methods to incorporate eco-friendliness in the bathroom designs. Few examples include – energy-saving lighting and water heating systems, low-flow toilets , faucets, and shower heads with adjustable settings to control the release and flow of water.

No Plastic, Just Water

Finding out innovative ways to deliver water in public places is a green way to reduce the dependency of serving water in plastic bottles. Availability of water fountains and reusable containers to store water will make it possible to make the accessibility of water independent of plastic bottles.

Virtual Business Meetings and Offices

Using collaborative software tools that support conducting a live meeting or desktop sharing, facilitates teams that are spread out across the globe, to work together towards a common goal. The Internet and the various collaborative software tools have made it possible to completely remove the limitations that arise due to the geographical location of a person or a team. It has paved for ingeniously green options like “work from home” and “telecommute”. These options result in saving time, money, and natural resources like fuel required for commutation and paper required for sharing of information.

Recycle Furniture

This is an interesting option for the furniture industries or furniture stores to “go green”. The furniture stores should offer services to recycle an old piece of furniture by reusing it to construct a new piece, which is customized according to the client’s requirements. This initiative will not only optimize the use of natural resources that go into making furniture, but also truly save the forests.

Green Marketing Experts

With the advent of “go green” awareness in all the industries, the idea of hiring people who are green experts is thought-provoking. A good example of a green profile will be that of a Green Marketing Expert. A Green Marketing Expert will devise marketing strategies to promote the company products and services in an eco-friendly manner. He will help the companies to develop a marketing plan that will focus on green marketing techniques resulting in reduction of costs with optimal use of the available resources and contributing in greening of our planet. Another interesting green profile that can be thought of is Green Business Consultant who guides the company in imbibing various environment friendly methods to “go green”.

Green Spas and Salons

Spas and Salons can also be a part of the green revolution by using hair and skin products that are purely natural and organic. The management can come up with energy saving and water conservation techniques to fall into the eco-friendly bracket.

These were few innovative ideas to include “go green” techniques in various businesses. Actually speaking, it is possible to integrate environment friendly measures in day to day operations of any business, industry or a corporation. All the business entities should feel responsible towards going green. After all, protecting the environment is everybody’s business.