Why bother with a green business?

There are lots of reasons for your business to go green.  And I am talking about going green not simply paying to pollute.  Let’s look at a few:

• - The moral standpoint is increasingly important but you also need justify it financially.  We know that pressure will increase on business to go green and it is fast becoming a legal responsibility.
• - Cost savings are there – again not your biggest benefit and neither is merely satisfying regulators
• - The big benefit is the relationship you have with your clients and prospects. People are looking for value and if you provide good value, plus an equal price and you can demonstrate your environmental credentials, who do you think people buy from?

When we move on from implementing your green management system to proving it with ISO 14001 certification the biggest benefit is the same one – recognition and trust.

Other benefits of ISO 14001 certification are:

• – Market access both by improving your profile and because certification is a requirement for some markets
  - You reduce your risk and liability and a flow on effect can be reducing your insurance premiums
  - It really improves your employee’s ownership of their job and their effectiveness plus having assigned responsibility makes it very clear that there is a process that a particular person is responsible for so things don’t get overlooked and missed.
  It gives less variation or “stuff ups” in the way things get done

• It is much easier to recover from losing a key person from your business

The second major benefit after relationships and credibility is that your system and the auditing process drives ongoing improvement

There is more information about certification in one of the articles below if you listen to a teleconference with an auditor

I can’t recommend doing ISO 14001 highly enough, and not because it is the major service I offer my clients and I see so many of them growing, gaining awards, resolving legal issues and generally benefiting from their certification but also because I have been certified to ISO 9001 now for over 4 years and I added ISO 14001 last year and I find it really helpful to my business.  I’ve been a big fan of ISO systems since around 1990 when I implemented ISO 9001 into a family owned computer business and found that I regained control over my life because I cut out the chaos and we managed the business instead of letting it happen.

My next ISO 14001 coached course is starting this month.  I am enrolling people this week ready to start next week and you will find enormous benefits from being part of this group.  I only take a limited number so please don’t miss out.   Because the courses are online, you will save a lot of time and find it surprisingly simple to achieve in a four to six month period.

And yes, if you already have ISO 9001, I can include you in the Module 1 group, then help you integrate your environmental plan into your existing ISO 9001 and keep it simple for you.

If you really want to go green with ISO 14001 but cash flow is a problem, I do offer the ISO 14001 Do-It-Yourself option and you can get some one on one coaching blocks if you want it.

The real message is just to get started on ISO 14001 now. Go green and build in environmental sustainability even if you choose not to become certified immediately.  You give yourself so much more credibility and you find that the continual improvement really kicks in to help your business.  Don’t waste any more time just book into ISO 14001 now and I yes I do provide an easy monthly payment plan as well.

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Sustainable Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.