Amid all the hoopla about climate change and lowering your carbon footprint, you might have found yourself wondering about the benefits of developing eco-friendly business practices within your organization. The fact is, there are many reasons why you might want to grow a greener business. 

3 Benefits of Growing a Greener Business

Environmental Benefits 

The United Nations University (UNC) reported that by 2021 the annual e-waste accumulation would reach over 57 million tons worldwide. Gone are the days when IT manufacturers or third party support companies offer hardware repair for customers. As technology continues to advance at such a rapid pace, it’s more cost-effective and far more efficient to upgrade to the latest products on the market. Continually upgrading hardware by businesses and consumers alike has lead to the immense global e-waste problem we have today.

Six thousand computers become obsolete each day in California alone. Regrettably, 90% of this e-waste ends up in a landfill at a substantial environmental cost. Thankfully, e-waste recycling has become a top priority. Companies that adopt corporate social responsibility programs give their customers more reasons to be loyal. Customers respond favorably to environmentally friendly brands, especially those that can assist them with their own e-waste recycling needs. By recycling old devices, we can all do our part and help flatten the curve of the e-waste epidemic.

greener business

Lower Operating Costs & Increased Profitability

Finding opportunities to reduce your company’s resource consumption has a direct and positive impact on your bottom line. By migrating to the cloud, more and more companies are finding they can achieve more while using less equipment in their data center or onsite. No longer do they need to pay for costly expenses such as annual maintenance agreements. There is also no longer a need to budget for additional servers, networking equipment, and similar IT purchases since the ‘cloud’ allows you to grow at scale.

Meeting Legal Obligations 

Businesses in most industries have a legal responsibility for the disposal of their products, ensuring compliance through proper recycling to avoiding penalties, fines, or worse. Most businesses are subject to regulatory compliance requirements. These are a series of directives the federal government established that summarize specific rules and regulations that companies must abide by. These compliances provide privacy protection for both the organization and consumers. 

When deciding which e-waste recycling facility to work with, be sure they understand the gravity of violating any of these compliance requirements. Ask the facility to provide specific details regarding how they remove data from your hard drives or any other media devices so that your company will remain compliant. 

A few of the relevant regulatory compliance laws include:

Dodd-Frank Act
A federal law that places strict regulations on lenders and banks to protect consumers and prevent another all-out economic recession.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
The Act cracks down on corporate fraud. SOX called for an oversight committee to oversee accounting practices in the industry. Additionally, SOX banned giving loans to company executives and protected the jobs of whistleblowers.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS)
This is the information security standard for organizations that handle credit cards from the principal creditors, both for consumers and businesses.

Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
A federal law that emphasizes the importance of information security for both the economic and national security interests of the United States of America.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
A statue implemented by the state of California, which enhances the privacy rights and consumer protection for residents of the state.

Working with the proper e-waste facility ensures three main things in your quest for a greener business. First, you remain compliant and are disposing of your old computer systems appropriately. Second, you’ll be protecting both customer and employee’s confidential information. Lastly, by recycling your e-waste, you will be doing your part to protect our environment, which will benefit further generations for years to come.

Updated on April 27th, 2020 (Orginally published February 23, 2017)