Small businesses say customers love their green credentials
Polar IceTech, a dry ice cleaning specialist based in Midleton, Co Cork, believes that ‘going green’ is vital for modern companies who want to improve their profile, save costs and protect the environment.
The Green for Micro programme is an initiative from the Local Enterprise Offices, with support from Enterprise Ireland, being rolled out nationwide to help prepare small businesses for the low carbon, more resource-efficient economy of the future.
This is a FREE programme, available to companies with up to ten employees. There are many benefits developing a ‘greener’ policy can have on your business, including:
- Increased cost savings
- Improved resource efficiency (for example: using less energy, water and materials)
- Reduced environmental footprint and greenhouse gas emissions
- Opportunities for higher and added value on products and services
- Increased access to customers, improved corporate image
- Increased resilience to climate change impacts.
Polar IceTech, a dry ice cleaning specialist based in Midleton, Co Cork, says that being more sustainable is invaluable in business.
Keenly aware of the need to be sustainable in business, Polar IceTech uses eco-friendly solid CO2 to clean high-value moisture and abrasive sensitive equipment for many industries around the country.
Damien McDonnell, managing director of Polar IceTech, said: “We continually review and assess our own processes and look at how we conduct our business internally and also while we are on our customers’ sites. This can range from reducing printing need by using both sides of a document, to reusing PPE when safe to do so and ultimately, educing the amount of waste we create as a business."
Mr McDonnell said that ‘going green’ is vital for modern companies who want to improve their profile, save costs, and protect the environment.
We spoke with CEO Justine Looney of Cork Flower Studio, on Douglas Street, Cork, about the small changes she made to her business, that benefitted it both environmentally and financially.
Cork Flower Studio is a flower and takeaway coffee shop that has been serving the public since 2007. In the last number of years, she has been trying to make her business greener and more sustainable.
“Over the last number of years we’ve taken part in a number of Local Enterprise Office schemes, we’ve always been up to date on what they’re doing because they’ve always been really helpful in the past,” she said.
For Cork Flower Studio, Local Enterprise Office Cork City has helped Justine by providing bigger insight and perspective into her business practices.
“We’ve signed up to the Green for Micro initiative to get more advice on the bigger steps. We’ve taken the smaller steps ourselves on the things we felt we could achieve. Now we just need advice on, for example, employing someone new to cover certain aspects on making our business greener,” said Justine.
The steps Justine has taken towards a greener trading future have been small but impactful. “The first main thing was deciding to eliminate all the single-use packing from the business. The flower industry is quite a plastic heavy, now we supply our flowers in a glass vase and people have the option to return the vase for it to be reused again.”
The Douglas Street florists and café also charge €1 for a to-go coffee cup, if their customers bring it back they get their euro back or else they keep the cup. Each one has a life span of up to four years.
Justine is now also in the process of installing solar panels and using cargo bikes for city center deliveries to promote the idea of keeping cars out of the city.
“Each step leads to something else, by doing it step by step, it’s a much more enjoyable process. If you do it in a small way that’s sustainable for a small business and makes it easier to move onto the next step and to actually have an impact,” she said.
Justine will be assigned a mentor to give her advice on the further steps she can take to make for a greener business. “The whole idea of going green seems a little bit daunting but you don’t have to be a really big business to make those changes. It’s not just about being good to the environment, it’s about being more efficient as a business and reducing costs as well.”
Justine reflected and said: “Two or three years ago if you asked us would we be installing solar panels we’d probably say that it’s a big cost and maybe we wouldn’t be able to afford it, but now we can see the impact from the things we have done and the return on things we have done so far, we’re much more inclined to go for bigger things like that.
"A Local Enterprise Office mentor will hopefully be able to give us a picture of how we can go about it and what the best way of doing it is and the best way of handling it financially.”
Sustainability has become one of the most important things about Justine’s business.
“We’ve realised customers are looking for a greener option, everyone is so aware of the climate emergency, not just for business but for individuals. We really found that offering what the customer wants our business has increased in the last 18 months.”
For Justine having someone who has more expertise in the area is paramount. “We’re not environmental experts, we’re learning as we go, so getting that fresh pair of eyes from Local Enterprise Office who has financial expertise too would be really helpful.
"Based on past experience I would definitely recommend LEO. You’ve nothing to lose from it. We’re very hopeful that we’ll have a lot to gain from it,” Justine concluded.
Padraic McElwee, Chair of the network of Local Enterprise Offices, can empathise with Justine on how going green might seem daunting at first. “This program aims to demystify the green agenda and put it into practical terms, what practical steps small businesses can take. We’re beginning to see, especially during covid, that consumers have a heightened awareness themselves and they’re now asking questions to businesses ‘what is your sustainable criteria’, making it a marketing tool now as well,” said Padraic.
The aim of the Green for Micro program is to assess what savings small businesses can make by adopting good green principles now that their consumers have a higher expectation of sustainability, but also going green is what the multinational market is looking for in sub-suppliers and there are opportunities in that sector for small businesses.
“Small businesses need to understand the language and the action they have to take.”
Today, there is more focus on sustainability than ever before, driven largely by public opinion and sentiment. “We all see it every day, we hear about all these big global transitions. But sometimes we don’t relate that to what we’re doing day-to-day. And that is what we’re trying to do with this initiative; to raise awareness and get small businesses to see the benefits. Ultimately it will save them costs but the big part first is to educate the small businesses.”
According to Padraig LEO needs more models like Justine’s Flowers to get other micro-businesses to open their eyes and look at the opportunities that adopting green credentials produce.
“A lot of small businesses see it as a cost imposition, whereas we would argue it’s cost-saving. It’s free, you’ve nothing to lose. You have so many distractions when you’re a small business and we’re giving you the support to asses an element of your business that could have huge benefits for you.”
The programme is open to all small businesses with up to 10 employees and they can apply for it through www.localenterprise.ie/green and that there is a deadline of the 30th June for applications.
