smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, small and medium-sized businesses are always on the look out for opportunities to cut operating costs.

As a result of rising energy prices and global environmental concerns, green business practices are a hot topic today. If correctly implemented, these practices can lead to significant cost savings and increased profitability. As such, embracing environmental responsibility often makes smart business sense.

SmallBusiness.co.uk and Lena Pripp-Kovac, head of EMEA corporate responsibility at Dell, offer a number of simple operational changes that can not only ensure your business is more environmentally sound but also reduce costs:

• Power management software is becoming more widely available so look at how it can help your business. It can remotely switch PCs off and on and automatically saves any documents open on the screen. PCs can be set to come on in the mornings, ready for when employees get into the office.

• Set printers to print double-sided and do the same for photocopiers; this reduces the amount of paper used and the amount that you have to buy.

• Consider mobile or remote working methods, which allow employees to work from home and sit at different desks when in the office – known as ‘hot desking’. This can cut down the amount of office space and furniture required and the energy used.

• The overall energy costs for a typical data centre are currently less than ten per cent of the overall IT budget. However, this could easily reach 20 to 30 per cent within the next few years. Invest in server consolidation and virtualisation technologies that are not only more energy efficient but also make better use of existing hardware.

• Recycling or donating end-of-life computer equipment is another avenue for businesses looking to be environmentally smart. There are a number of services available to businesses that offer safe and environmentally acceptable IT disposal solutions.

Click here for more information from Dell on recycling.

It is important that businesses of all sizes examine their operating procedures and implement appropriate environmental measures, some of which are very easy and cost-effective. By selecting the methods that suit their specific requirements, companies across all sectors can reduce their impact on the environment, as well as potentially decreasing operating costs.

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