Why should my business be energy & resource efficient?

From a purely economic perspective, wasting less and being efficient with the utilities and materials you use will save your business money and improve your profit margins! 
It's not just energy and fuel that contribute to business running costs - minimising all materials and supplies you have to buy and then pay to dispose of as waste, will improve competitiveness as well as reducing your environmental impact.

You will also be able to advertise your green credentials to ever more environmentally-aware customers, to help you gain new business. See our Business Resource Efficiency fact sheet for how this could help your business. 

• Richmondshire District Council's a Business Waste Handbook has advice on how your business can save money through waste elimination, minimisation, re-using, recycling and disposal, including details of lots of useful contacts to help you with advice and funding on resource and energy efficiency issues.

• Investors in the Environment is a not for profit environmental accreditation scheme, designed to help the business sector save money and reduce their impact on the environment.

• The Carbon Trust website is mainly tailored to larger businesses but they do have an online tool to help calculate how much your organisation can save with Empower.

• CO₂Sense Yorkshire support businesses of all types to become greener through their Environment Voucher grants, but also offer active support if you're starting a business in the green sector e.g. involving renewable or low-carbon energy.

• The Energy Saving Trust - general information and advice on energy saving