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Why Going Green Can Be Profitable (part 2 of 3)

As a tribute to Earth Day, which is this Friday, April 22nd, we decided to share some of the things we’ve done at Fruition Interactive that’s not only good for the environment, but profitable.

In part one, we discussed the benefits of switching to a Cloud Computing solution to reduce your carbon footprint and costs. Well, here’s one more thing you can do to help your business go green while boosting your bottom line.

Go Remote

One could argue the greenest improvement in the workplace has been the evolution of telecommuting, which is now possible thanks to technologies like cloud computing, online collaboration tools and apps like Skype.

Working from home not only reduces traffic and pollution, it reduces costs. Best of all, it increases employee productivity.

Think about it.

Do you constantly work late and on your weekends? Sure, everyone does it once and awhile, but perhaps the reason is you’re not getting enough done at work. The culprit: office interruptions. When do you get the most work done? If you’re like most people it’s when nobody else is around.

At Fruition, our office is powered exclusively by wind, solar and low-impact hydro electrical energy, provided by Bullfrog Green Energy. However, we also give employees the choice to work remotely.

Our phone system runs on Voice over IP (VoIP). We manage projects using Assembla.com. We make presentations using Yugma.com, a web conferencing tool. We get proposals approved using an elegant online e-signature service called Echosign.com. We even invoice clients by email and give them the option to pay using PayPal.com.

Not only does working remotely using these tools have considerable green benefits, it makes our employees happier. They save money, can work on their own terms and produce good results.

However, employees aren’t the only one’s reaping the rewards. According to Sun Microsystems, their telecommuting program not only saved $387 million in IT and office space costs, it also reduced annual CO2 emissions by about 28-thousand-pounds.

That’s just good business.

Stay tuned for part 3 tomorrow.

About the Author

Mitch Fanning is VP of Fruition Interactive. He’s spent 11 years working with businesses of all sizes, from global brands to Canada’s fastest growing web start-ups ranked in the PROFIT 100.

Why Going Green Can Be Profitable (and a tribute to Earth Day)

Being an interactive marketing agency, we rarely get the opportunity to write about how we run our business and why, but it’s something we take very seriously.

So as a tribute to Earth Day, which is only 3 days away (Friday, April 22nd) over the next few days I’m going to share some of the things we’ve done at Fruition Interactive that’s not only good for the environment, but profitable.

That’s right.

Going green is no longer viewed as a tree-hugging PR exercise, but rather as a way to run your business in a more cost-effective, über productive, responsible manner.

For small business, that means lower startup costs. For established companies, it could mean increasing profits when gaining market share has become difficult.

Eliminate and Recycle

It is vain to do with more what can be done with less. – William of Occam (1300-350), originator of “Occam’s Razor”

When going green, the options are endless. For the purpose of this blog post, I’m only going to focus on how businesses can use new technology to eliminate and recycle in order to achieve harmony with Mother Nature and profitability.

With this in mind, here is the first of three things you can do to help your business go green while boosting your bottom line.

Move to the Cloud

Cloud computing has been around for a while. However, in my humble opinion, it’s quickly gaining momentum and for good reason.

There’s a large body of research which concludes Cloud Computing can decrease energy costs when compared to onsite computer systems.

At Fruition Interactive, we use cloud computing to reduce energy consumed by our in-office computer systems. Along with reducing our carbon footprint, we save money. We’re also able to sleep at night knowing our data is secure.

For the do-it-yourself crowd, Google Apps for Business and Dropbox are good places to start your investigation. For established organizations requiring a more robust virtualized desktop solution with full support, consider companies like ThinDesk.

Either way, to reduce your carbon footprint and overhead, switching to a Cloud solution is a good start.

Stay tuned for part 2 of 3 tomorrow.

About the Author

Mitch Fanning is VP of Fruition Interactive. He’s spent 11 years working with businesses of all sizes, from global brands to Canada’s fastest growing web start-ups ranked in the PROFIT 100.

Disclosure: ThinDesk is a client of Fruition Interactive Inc.

Photo credit: Earth Day Canada (EDC)

Why Going Green Can Be Profitable (part 2 of 3)

Go Remote

Why Going Green Can Be Profitable (and a tribute to Earth Day)

Eliminate and Recycle

Move to the Cloud

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