How Can Companies Best Support the Environment?

It’s Earth Day week. Many companies are hosting one-time events to support environmental sustainability, a great thing to do. But what can companies do long term to help ensure that our children’s grandchildren have a habitable planet on which to thrive? What works best? Should companies focus on swapping out plastic straws for paper ones, using energy-efficient lightbulbs or encouraging employees to continue working from home, for example?

Thankfully, an esteemed group of experts have combed through the enormity of available data and identified the most effective ways to stem catastrophic climate change. Project Drawdown, as this effort is called, finds that the following business-friendly actions are among the 20 most effective ways to support the environment:

1. Switch to wind or solar power. Energy production is the biggest culprit in climate change. Switching to sustainable power is, therefore, a high-impact action. It’s also typically a matter of clicking a box with your energy provider. Plus, you likely won’t have to pay more, or at least not much more. Energy from renewable energy now costs about the same as energy from coal and other non-renewable sources.
   
2. Switch to LED (light emitting diodes) lighting. It turns out that 15% or global energy use is for lighting. Thus, exchanging your old incandescent or fluorescent lightbulbs for LED bulbs makes a big difference. Although your upfront costs might be higher, LED’s last longer so your total costs might not be.
   
3. Plant trees on degraded land. If you are going to make donations or organize volunteer events, consider supporting organizations that restore degraded lands. Creating new forests out of barren earth gives the environment a nice boost.

Want other ideas for high-impact environmental sustainability? Project Drawdown has many more, including industry-specific solutions.