Create a plan and share it with your team. Your 'Go Green Plan' will include major actions like changing the way you communicate and minor actions like turning off the lights. Overheads are a major cost element that affects your P & L. Printers, photocopiers, equipment maintenance plans, ink, toner, paper, and filing space all cost money. Staff costs to print, file and retrieve records also cost money. You cannot just do away with them all but here are some things you can do:

• In 2015, in a Forrester Research survey, 46% of those polled said they would be moving to a private cloud system this year. The Business Review USA, in a recent article, emphasized the value of moving away from traditional admin to better use of cloud technology. Using 'the cloud' is becoming a business leadership issue.
• After the major changes the pandemic has caused, we've learned to adapt to living our lives through a screen, but this can actually be a great benefit to your business.
• Private clouds managed by a third-party technology service provider are secure, flexible, can be expanded easily, and deliver some economies of scale. All of your team members can access corporate documents from anywhere, using any smart device, whether they are in the office, working from home, or sitting in front of a client or a prospective client. The result is that efficiencies of operation go up because all information is readily available (and secure), your business image gets a polish, and traditional administration costs go down. You buy less paper, less ink, and toner, you need less filing space, and you all shred fewer duplicate and redundant copies.
• Services like Skype and GoToMeeting can reduce (not eliminate) travel costs and the need to meet people face-to-face. Personal contact will always be an essential part of winning and keeping clients, but a lot of work can be done remotely. By reducing travel time you lower costs, reduce carbon footprint, and increase productivity. Instead of driving or sitting on public transport, you can spend that time 'meeting' more clients or doing other productive work. You can more than offset the costs of joining these services by saving on travel and vehicle servicing.

Now let's look at some of the minor parts of going green. Some are obvious - turn off lights and other equipment when they're not being used. But here are others for you to consider:

• Replace incandescent bulbs with CFI's and LED. Over the life of a LED, the annual cost is about $4.25 compared with $17.60 for incandescent over the same period (according to Earth Easy Solutions.)
• Install aerators in your faucets - you use less water, so it saves money and preserves water but it stays at the same pressure.
• When you need to replace office furniture, use eBay to find nearly-new or bankrupt stock items. They look just as good but cost less.
• Open windows to let in cool air instead of always using the A/C.
• When you do buy paper, get post-consumer waste (marked PCW) as it uses 45% less energy to produce and fewer trees get cut down. And ask everyone to use both sides of the sheet. You can also set office printers to 'double-sided'.
• Get an energy survey done to see if improved draft exclusion or insulation will cut costs. In some states, you can get free inspections as well as help with the costs of making energy-efficiency improvements.

So there are some ways you can go green, protect the environment, and improve your bottom line. You also show yourself as an innovator. This brings us to the last point - share your experience. Your clients, and prospective clients, have the same desire to lower costs, and many also want to protect the environment. You can use your blog posts, community events, newsletters, and organization meetings (like Chamber of Commerce, Toastmasters, etc.) to share your experience and offer advice. Your clients buy from you - and stay with you - because of your insurance plans, your premiums, your service, and because they value you in other ways. Protecting the environment is an excellent example of one of those 'other ways'.