When it comes to running a motor trade there are many hurdles to overcome but being environmentally friendly might not be high up on your list of priorities. However there is a demand from the public for businesses to be more responsible. If you can achieve this, it gives you a slight competitive advantage as you can promote this element of your business to help attract new customers and it is even better when they are coming from the competition!
The first thing you need to do when creating this system is to create a policy and share it with your employees. The policy needs to state what you want to achieve as a business and what your employees are committed too, whether it is recycling paperwork or switching the lights off, it needs to be stated so everyone is aware.
You then need to identify what your impacts are on the environment as a business in order to help you make a positive change. Once you have highlighted your main areas for concern then you can rank them in terms of importance. You should do this through deciding how often the impact occurs and how great the impact is. Based on this you can decide what needs to be changed first in order to reduce your impact on the environment instantly. You should also set your motor trade a time frame for completing the changes.
After you have ranked the changes that need to be made you need to decide on how you are going to change them. You can do this by removing the cause completely, substitute the cause for something that will have less of an impact, implement protective measures or implement procedures and policies within your businesses that will ensure that the impact doesn’t occur. Whilst doing this you need to ensure that you are still acting within legislation and laws which can be found from the Motor Trade Association among other sources.
Once the changes have been made you need to measure the changes in your impact and do so continuously. Not only will this show you how successful you have been with your policy but it will also highlight other areas where you can make a changes.
Overall someone needs to take charge for ensuring that your motor trade business is operating in an environmentally friendly way and continue to push reducing carbon emissions. Not only will this save you some pennies which can be spent on the necessities such as motor trade insurance and staff wages but you will also be making the planet a greener place to live!
